Interesting day with several communication challenges:

1 – I am here in Hangzhou, China. Not many folks here speak English. I inquired of the housekeeper how long laundry takes. I wasn’t sure I wanted the service. She didn’t understand, so she left the room. 3 minutes later, someone called, who spoke a tiny bit of English. Told me there was a laundry bag in the room. I said I would call tomorrow if I wanted laundry picked up. 2 minutes later, another girl came to the room who did not speak English. She started picking up my clothes and putting them in a bag. I told her, “No, I don’t want laundry picked up today.” She called her manager, who spoke some English, and I told him that I didn’t want laundry picked up. I handed her the phone and the manager talked with her. THen, she picked up all my dirty clothes and shoved them in a bag and left. I don’t know what happened, but I have a feeling it is going to cost me close to $20.

2 – I needed an iron to press my shirts. Went to the front desk. Guy spoke no English. So I put my shirt on the table and started pressing it. He said, “Go to room”, so I went to the room. In about 5 minutes, an iron and ironing board arrived. Yay!

3 – All of the US Delegates went to West Lake by bus. Many of these are CIOs of major US universities and high ups in US tech companies. We all hopped off of the bus and went different directions with no specified time to return or where to return. Of course, 3 of the delegates were late back to the bus (I was one of them)

1 did though learn to communicate tonight with a street vendor. I haggled with her over jewelry through a calculator!! I ended up getting a pearl necklace and 3 bracelets for $15.