Last night I washed a pair of underwear and hung it on the chair outside to dry. There is laundry on this ship, but they charge by the piece. Each piece of underwear costs $1.50 to have washed. I tried to post to my blog, but the internet was too far away.
I woke up kind of early. I wanted to go to tai chi on deck 6, led by the doctor. But having had a hard time falling asleep, I went back to bed. There is no top sheet on the bed, just a comforter. It is too hot, but the AC is too cold without it. We stayed in bed until Cecily called for breakfast. But we weren't ready, so she and Alfred went by themselves. Then we got up to get ready. But the internet was back up so I tried to publish my blog post. Chis was helping me au naturel. Michele knocked on the door, so he hid in the bathroom while I opened the door and convinced her to come back in 5 minutes. But five minutes later, he was taking a shower. So she came in and hid on the balcony until after he was dressed. The two of them went to get coffee. I washed up and got dressed. They came back, having had coffee and croissants. I was faced with going to breakfast by myself. :( But then Michele agreed to come along.
On the way, we passed the tailor shop and I introduced Michele. We got to talking and were still there when Cecily and Alfred came back from breakfast. Then Michele and I went to the diningroom. I filled a plate from the buffet. As she and I were talking, the subject of quilts came up. The lady across the table said she was a quilter too. So we talked quilts. She showed me pictures of quilts she had made on her phone. I didn't have my phone, so I gave her my name so she could check my Pinterest page. Then she and her husband left.
Soon Michele and I went back to our room. Chris was reading. He had the tablet on the internet. I tried to get Blogger up. While waiting, I introduced Michele to the game 2048. I warned her that it was addicting. I should have warned myself that I might not get my tablet back. When I finally got through to Blogger, I posted for last night and started today's post.
There was a presentation on the Yantze river followed by a lesson in Chinese. But we missed them both because we (Michele and I ) were engrossed in playing 2048. We only paused it when lunch was being served. We went to the diningroom to find our companions waiting. There were menus but I decided just to eat from the salad bar. The Maitre D' came by as he usually does, to point out the gluten free items on the menu. It was another long meal due to the telling of stories, mostly ours to Ann and Shirley who are now accepted as family for the cruise. After lunch, Michele followed me back to the room to play 2048 again.
But soon it was time for the Mahjong lesson. The waiters were setting up the tables and tiles in the observation deck. We all went but Chris. And even he put in a short appearance. We had to sit with others of our group. Four people could play at a time at each table. James, our guide, explained how to mix up the tiles, then set them in rows in a square, roll dice to determine which tiles to take. It seemed an elaborate way to make sure no one could control which tiles they got. From there, it was a lot like playing Rummy: looking for three of a kind or three in a row; picking up from the new pile or the discard pile, etc. When I got to play, I won twice. It was interesting but it was good that some people had played before and could remind us of all the rules about setting up each new game.
We got back to our room and played 2048 again. When it was almost 5, I grabbed my purse and we went downstairs to get passes. We walked down to the first deck and exited through another ship to the dock. I guess we were double-parked. We walked up to the top of the dyke, and down the other side. We boarded buses and were driven to another parking lot. We disembarked and walked along the city moat.
Eventually we saw a statue and took pictures. Michele admitted that she had forgotten to put on shoes and was wearing the hotel slippers. Our guides had a discussion with someone, and then we walked down to the bridge and across the moat to the old city wall. We rode glorified golf carts to the gate that led inside the city. From there, we climbed up steps to the top. Chris and I went inside the building and continued up to the second floor. It might have been a temple, but it was full of trinkets for sale. I wandered around and took pictures. Then we went all the way down and got on the carts and rode back along the moat. At some point we got off and walked across to another statue. Then we went looking for the bus, but we did not find it. Eventually the buses found us and took us back to the dock. By then it was raining, so a man was handing out plastic rain coats in Korean packaging. We were greeted at the entrance to the ship with raspberry tea. We went to our room to change for dinner. Then we went to the dining room. I was glad we had walked in town, because I hadn't been sure I could eat another meal. For the first course, I had a spinach salad. For the main course I got cashew shrimp. The family recounted many stories for the benefit of Ann and Shirley.
We could hear the ship get underway as it headed to the next destination, the three gorges. At 9 we retired briefly to brush our teeth. Then we met in the observation lounge for a show put on by some of the staff, mostly the restaurant and housecleaning. It seemed a little makeshift, but the costumes were pretty. At one point the MC asked for two volunteers to wear the costumes. Chris and another man raised their hands. They were told to go backstage. When they came out, they were wearing rooster outfits. It was so funny (or embarrassing, I thought Michele was going to die.) Each costume had eggs buried in the tail and so the men were instructed to shake their tails to get as many eggs out as possible. Of course the chicken dance song was played. The crowd roared with laughter. The MC thanked the men, and they returned to their seats – minus the costumes. Then there was one more dance number and the show was over. I excused myself and went out. I saw Cassie and Dyveen sitting in the tea room. The three of us went to the tailor counter. Dyveen allowed me to pick scraps out of the bin while we chatted. Cassie asked questions about Protestants vs. Catholics. I answered as best I could and wished Chris were there. In a few minutes, he showed up. We chatted for a while longer and then bid them goodnight. We went to our room. I emptied the scraps from my purse. Chris took the comforter from its cover for me (because it was too hot). I finished typing up my blog, hoping to post it tonight, if the internet allowed it.
* I forgot to take pics of mahjong so I grabbed one from the internet. *
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