Visas are sooo annoying

Well yesterday we went to get my visa renewed because all of next week is a holiday and everything is closed. We got there and the lady told us that we needed to bring our registration from the police department. Well we hadn't registered with the police department so we had to go back by where we live and have Jake's friend bring us our housing contract. After about 45min. we had the housing permit and went back to the office to extend my visa. Well the lady took my passport and said well we will get it back to you Oct. 7th (since they are closed all of next week). So Jake and I were planning on flying to Beijing for the week, but now we can't because I don't have any photo identification. Let me back up we were actually going to go to Hong Kong but I didn't have a multiple entry visa, so then we decided to go to Beijing. So now I don't know what we are going to do next week. We might take the 13 hour...yes I said 13 hour train ride to Beijing because you don't need your passport. And once again how does this stuff always happened to Jake and I when traveling?

Nanjing Zoo

On Monday, Jake had school off so we decided to go to the Nanjing Zoo. It was quite the experience. It makes me appreciate American zoos a lot more. People there throw all sorts of food, trash, etc in the animals cages. We got to see pandas, monkeys, ligers....yes I saw a real liger, elephants, giraffes, foxes, lions, tigers. The pandas were pretty uneventful. It was really hot so I don't blame them for just laying there. The monkeys were the craziest of all. Jake and I decided that they were probably at some point or another test/research monkeys. There was this monkey bar contraption that had the 2 ladders that they could climb up on each side, but the part that connects the 2 ladders had broken off. So the monkeys would climb up to the top and sit, then one of the other monkeys would race over and run up the ladder. That would scare the one that was sitting on top of the ladder so he would make a leap over to the other ladder. However he wouldn't quite make it, so he would SLAM into the ladder and fall down. But he wouldn't learn his lesson that time, it happened about 4-5 times while we were there. Crazy! Again I put captions on the pictures, so if you want to read them scroll the mouse over them. Enjoy what zoos in China are like.

How we dry our clothes

Well Jake and I are pretty lucky that we have a washing machine, so I'm not complaining. So I know some of you are wondering how we dry our clothes. Well in our bedroom, behind a lace curtain is this:

Off to the side is a lever that you can raise or lower the poles (not really sure of the purpose). I actually don't mind hanging up the laundry, our washing machine is so small that it isn't really a lot to hang up (this picture is 2 loads)

PS I know you are jealous mom:)