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We visited the Suzhou Silk Factory and I learned how silk is made. First the workers collect and feed leaves to a bunch of silk spinning caterpillars (see pictures 1 and 2 below). Then they wait for the caterpillars to spin a cocoon in a bamboo rack. Once the caterpillar’s cocoons have been completed they give the completed cocoons to another worker. This worker first soaks the cocoon in water and then opens it up and takes the butterfly larva out of the cocoon. Then the worker takes the silk cocoon and stretches it over a bamboo piece that has been bent over into the shape of a bridge. The worker keeps draping more and more stretched cocoons over the bamboo piece, as many as she can fit. Then she takes all of the stretched cocoon silk pieces to the next group of people and they hang it out to dry. Once the silk has dried 5 people grab a side of the silk piece and stretch it out and then drape it over a bed sized board to create a silk blanket that the factory sells to stores, and then the stores sell the silk blankets to custumers.

Thomas here - the other day we went to Suzhou Gardens. It was a very hot day. Lots of people there wanted to take photos with me and my brother Lucas. The coolest thing we did was go through these big rock caves. It was pretty cool. There was also a big pagoda my family and a few of my moms students rested in for about 10 minutes. Near the end of the trip we got to a bonzi garden with little trees that looked like full grown trees. We also found a shop where some of the students got some photos of the garden and a refreshment shop where me and my brother got a coke each. When we finally got out of the garden and into a taxi cab the cool air conditioning felt like heaven.

Here’s a collection of scenes from various neighborhoods in Shanghai that I enjoyed, and I hope you do too….

We did it! This morning, even before we had breakfast, we adventured to Bosco and Skeeter’s home, a task we’ve been planning since we arrived in Shanghai. Bosco and Skeeter are two big German Shepherd dogs who live in a pen on the roof of a building that we can see from our hotel room window.

We began our perilous mission by going to a store that is in the same building. We went in and found some stairs leading to the rooftop. We got to the roof and as far as a closed gate and then the owner of Bosco and Skeeter saw us, came over and smiled at us and (we think) asked what we were doing. We handed him a note our Chinese babysitter wrote for us that said: ‘Hi, we’re spending 2 weeks in that hotel right there and our room looks out at your building. We have a dog like your two dogs and we fell in love with them, and we came to see if we could meet them and take some pictures’. He read our note and let us in. Bosco and Skeeter were a bit scared at first. Bosco stayed inside most of the time but Skeeter stayed out in the pen where we could see him.

We got so many great cute pictures of both of them. I think it was the best day of our trip!

Thomas here again - the other day we went to Dino beach water-park. It was pretty cool. We went on the wave pool which happens to be the second largest wave pool in the world. The waves were like real ocean waves. One girl who was in an inner tube going over a huge wave got flipped over and her head crashed into mine. I felt like I was having a concussion.

We also went on the big inner-tube water slide, but it wasn’t very long ride. They also had this little pool that had floating rubber lily pads and you had to cross the pool by walking across them while holding onto a rope. It was kind of hard to cross because they kept tipping over. There was also this big Tiki tower with a barrel at the top that would fill up with a whole bunch of water and then dump on you if you’re under it.