Charleston formerly Charles Town

Dear Friend,

I have no idea how I am going to function in Europe, so don't worry about the plane ticket thing... yet. I have to feed myself for nine months and learn stuff; I'm up the Thames without a teaspoon as it were.

Your cultural insights into Chinese culture are very anthropological and I will be sure to keep them in mind. Also, I kind of want to visit China so I think you should go back sometime, with me, and hopefully Zhao will be there also. We should work on this plan.

Charleston is absolutely beautiful. I love it. It was not as warm as Savannah, rather it was not as humid and the breezes off the water were very pleasant. It was much cleaner also, and as I am OCD that is a major plus. It had a quaint charm and was filled with a rich history that I loved learning more about. What did we do now. Sadly my mind forgets things. I know we took a city tour. The other people on the bus with us were deeply involved with motorcycles. The spend any free moments in between important historical commentary informing us about their various bikes, how expensive they are, how you have to make sure to keep recites so that you can get the proper amount of insurance because otherwise the insurance dealers will just not believe how much you pay7 for things and you can't get the proper amount of insurance. Also how much a new Harley will cost. Mind you, that neither my mother, nor I, nor our driver, who is a former navy submarine dive master type person, were interested in what they were saying and had to sit there and try took look like we cared so they wouldn't kill us but not that interested so that they continues talking; a dangerous dilemma if ever you face it. What do I remember about this tour historically speaking- where fort Sumner is, the role that the south played in the revolutionary war, why homes in charleston have front porches, who had a lot of money 150 years ago, where rainbow row is, where to get green shrimp and grits on St. Patrick's day, you know, important stuff. We went for dinner one night a restaurant a few blocks from our hotel and there I had shrimp and grits per your order. It was very good, oh, apparently there is bacon grease in it and when people move to the south you tell them to save their bacon grease, this is what our tour guide told us and what our biker friends confirmed as being very important.

Another day we drove out of town and went to Drayton Hall which is like three hundred years old. It is 11000 sq ft and has two bed rooms and now bath rooms. It was not burnt by Sherman during the recent unpleasantness- aka the civil war- because the owners claimed that it was a polio hospital. However the family no longer owns the house, but they do have the right to come and measure their children on a door frame where there ancestors have recorded their family members heights for like 10 generations. Pretty cool if you ask me.

We were there for the fourth of july so we wandered out of our hotel around nine and made our way over to the waterfront to watch the illuminations. Interestingly enough it was a member of the Drayton family that suggested that we use fireworks aka circa 1777 illumations to celebrate our independence; the other suggestion involved going to church and sitting around and being quite- awkward. There were a bazillion people where we first wanted to watch them, around 500 hundred sitting on the customs house's steeps, so we walked further down past girls pushing hot dog carts to a park. This was also packed but we negotiated our war forward and got a fairly good view. There was a family that had a young daughter and son in front of me and the father kept lifting up the children in shifts so the could see better.

The other night we went to a restaurant about five blocks from our hotel again, but a different restaurant, this one was nearer the water. It was really really overpriced. I got like a scallops apatizer that had three scallops and it was 12 dollars and a salad that was very very small and that was 10 more dollars. If I can remember the name I will tell you so you don't eat there because it was beyond being not worth it, i wanted my money back darn the.

I wanted to go riding at this other plantation but we didn't end up having time, but I did see the horses. They were very sweaty. I went shopping for like an hour the day we left. I didn't buy anything though. I wandered all about the city which was fun for me in spite of the heat as I think you only really get to know a city when you leave the comfort of an air-conditioned bus and explore it on foot where you are subject to the fickleness of the weather and harassment of strangers on the street.

I hope you are very well, spending your money wisely, being polite to your elders and shirking off the advances of strange men. As always, Eleanor.