One Week Anniversary

April 27, 2007 Friday

We have been in our apartment a week. We pretty much have our way of life here in order. I always have to be careful that I use the bottle water to brush my teeth and the boiled water for washing dishes. Turning on the tap is such a habit.

Here is a picture of the “dryer”. You can see that the poles are pretty high. I’m getting good at balancing the hangers on the lifting pole.

I walked by the elementary school that is on campus. Some of the kids were playing on one of the yards. (It looks like there are other yards and some basketball courts and tennis courts attached too.) I’m going to try to get an invitation to visit the Kindergarten school and the elementary school when the Golden Week vacation is over. I might not understand the language, but I can recognize what they are teaching and how they are doing it.

Went back to Carrefour (my new favorite place – I know where everything is.) There was a tug of war contest outside. Several teams waiting to compete, much screaming and laughter.

I was looking at the available movies and noticed that they had two types DVD and VCD. Does anyone know the difference? I was thinking of buying some.

(4 flights)

Tonight’s dinner companions are another boy & girl team, but they aren’t a couple, Yujiao Chen and Liaoyuan Huo. The restaurant that they choose was not as elegant as the other 2 we have been to. Its name was San He which I know means 3 rivers. It was quite close to the campus but because of the construction would be dangerous to walk to at night.

There are open man holes every few yards and there are no warning barricades.

At this restaurant we did not have our own room, so it was more difficult to talk to them. We also didn’t take a picture. At the next table was a group of young men who got very drunk, smoked and yelled. On the other side of us, was a group of deaf people who signed, so were much more quiet although deaf people can also make a lot of noise. I noticed that they were text messaging on their cell phones. I hadn’t really thought about what a fabulous thing that would be for a deaf person.

We did have delicious food though. Spare ribs wrapped in leaves, vegetable tofu stir-fry, braised celery with shallots, west lake soup, (one of Chuck’s particular favorites) deep fried duck, deep fried dumplings, beef with hot green peppers which were not spicy enough for the young lady who is from Hunan. The menu had pictures so we could go there again.

Both of these students were seniors. They have already been accepted to grad school in the USA. She is going to Columbia and he is going to Texas A&M. Chuck told him that Texas was famous for spare ribs and so something would be familiar there. Chuck also emailed a friend at Texas A&M to tell him about this kid.

(4 flights) (8 total, I took it easy today)