A Stack of Money

Both of my email buddies agree that when they arrived in Shanghai, they were greeted by an administrator bearing a "stack of money," both US and Chinese currency. We asked how much money we should bring with us and how much needed to be converted to yuan before we get there. The other point of agreement is that women with curly hair (me) have considerable trouble getting a good haircut in Shanghai. Wendy says that the female staff members have long hair pulled up because of the humidity, so I will continue my growing-out process and see what I need to do with my bangs when I get there. I can cut my own bangs (though many hairdressers have disagreed), so maybe I'll be okay if I pack my Fiskars scissors and a few hair doo-dads. I watched a video on dealing with frizzy hair, but it all seemed designed to leave my hair completely straight, which isn't really the way I'd like to go.

We also priced suitcases and got some sticker shock. Korean Air will allow us checked bags of a size of 62 inches (length + width + height), so we looked at some nice big bags at Big Lots, the cheapest of which was $50.00, and we need three! It was just a bit more than we had planned, so we came home and researched some rolling duffels online. We also bought a DSLR camera, which will arrive tomorrow and is supposed to use the lenses we already have from our Minolta 35 mm SLR, so there's some more money heading out the door. We got a quote on laying flagstone in our backyard, something which needs to happen before we leave, but the estimate of $3,000 is just a bit more than we can manage, so we're going to have to schedule some time for a little DIY project. Too bad that stack of money can't show up a little sooner...