side note: water bottles

Hey everyone,

Joan, thanks so much for the info updates, it's great to be getting a better idea of how things will be once we arrive, at least in the Beijing home. I'm glad you got there safely and hope you're having a super time so far :)

I just scanned through all the most recent post, and one thing that jumped out at me was the bit about the Nalgene bottles... this is actually just a side note and not essential but thought I'd pass along the fact that I recently stopped using my Nalgene because of the same plastic residue issue. I am no science whiz (ha, at ALL) so i can't go into detail about why Nalgenes aren't great for you in the long run, but I do know that Mountain Equipment Co-Op, a Canadian (North American maybe?) took all their Nalgenes off the shelves and introduced aluminum water bottles for safer long-term use.

so, that's all. hope I didn't bore you off your seats!

Something a little more relavant is that I finally got my renewed passport and was able to apply for my visa yesterday. I went through a very good travel agency here in Chinatown. Has everyone else been successful as of yet? I hope they don't run in to too many problems and that I'm able to get my visa for the 68 days I requested - from June 23rd to August 28th.
bye for now!