Okay so let me start by saying it was between this and Snoopy. I’m so not a floral fan at all, I can recount more than one heated argument on that topic for proof. I ascribe to the belief that there are plenty of appropriate themes for a girl’s room which exclude even the outline of a petal.

Yes Mom, I'm aware there is a floral print on my bed.

The other night Julie, Tina and I went out for dinner and a stroll through the night market. Julie still had a long list of household necessities to purchase and I’m always up for an evening stroll. We decided to double bargain for a spare set of sheets to make laundry in the winter less of a hassle. As hanging sheets in a freezing drying room takes a week to see results.

Anyway we found some decent sheet sets and started looking through the patterns. I’m not a bargainer so really I just wanted the quickest easiest purchase. We needed large which meant I was looking through the wrong pile when I had agreed there were a few I could settle on. So of the Large sets this was the only one I could stomach sleeping on without feeling like a 3 year old. Why in the world do they make snoopy sets for queen beds? Most were just hideous flora prints, I would have taken the snoopy over those any day.

I have to admit I do actually like this one. The large jewel toned flowers have a more contemporary feel rather than backwoods country. It at least provides a nice pattern to the exceptionally bland bedroom. I really need to figure out something to do with the walls.

I had been dreading today to be perfectly honest. Every time I went between apartments I’d load myself up like a pack mule and take the essentials.  I wish I could have settled at that but Kelly was more then ready to have my stuff gone.  

It is absolutely amazing how much junk one can accumulate in one year even when you are expressly trying not to. Originally my packing goal was to do a trail-run for my return trip to the States but as I had already lugged various essentials over to the new place and I didn’t have extra boxes for the rest, so I nixed the idea and must admit I’m glad it worked out that way. I got the surprise of my life when my clothes alone filled a single suitcase. My other large suitcase was filled with JUNK seriously I was throwing in all my random junk that had no home. 

I started packing Thursday night as Wendy and Peter were kind enough to offer to help move everything with their car Friday afternoon.  By the end of the night I’d amassed a sizable hill near the front door. I’d resolved two trips were most likely necessary. Really I couldn’t believe how many things I’d accumulated.  

Wendy and Peter showed up at two as promised and the argument began. Wendy and Peter do above and beyond on a continual bases for which I am eternally grateful. But before we started moving anything I made Wendy promise me two things: 1) at the end of the day I got to fill up the gas tank 2) dinner was on me. Wendy did her usual protest and I pulled my usual I’m not listening, my way or the highway routine. Finally she said she’d agree to one. I knew full well what she meant but that didn’t prevent me from twisting the statement in my favor later.  Blaming mistranslation makes getting your way so much easier. 

And that's only the half of it. I know SICK.

I don’t know how he did it but Peter is my hero. Somehow he got my mountain of belongings ingeniously packed in their China version of a Kia. I felt awful that Wendy elected to sit in the half a seat left in the back while I scored the front but Wendy just won’t budge on some things.  So that which looked like an arduous afternoon of packing wasn’t so bad after all.  

The ride door to door between  apartments is shockingly short. It’s just the walk to the buses and the inevitable wait that turns a fifteen minute drive into a 45 minute adventure. 

At the end a raincheck was made for dinner due to time constraints and yet another disagreement erupted over the gas reembursment. But as usual I won out with mistranslation on my side. 

At the new apartment we got everything unloaded and happily sat under the AC.  I also managed to pawn off those horrible buckwheat pillows on Peter. One man’s nightmare is another’s treasure. I’m still disappointed their is no goodwill stores I can donate to here, I hate throwing out perfectly usable items. 

So I guess that’s it. From here on out the old apartment shall be referred to as Kelly’s place.   

The Central Walk or affectionatly Pee Alley

Once you pass the small shopping lane you reach the tree lined walk to the back buildings. It has affectionately been nicknamed Pee Alley on the left in the picture is a Kindergarten through out the morning and evenings families gather to play and converse. As usual none of the toddlers wear diapers and puddles magically appear along the sides.  

As I return from work each evening I find myself dodging through games or awkwardly smiling through stares. Yesterday was no different. As I caught the eye of a young girl I smiled politely. As soon as I had passed her I heard her announce rather loudly to her mother, “Look, look Mom an American!” Once she assumed I was out of ear shot she said hello. I couldn’t help it, so I turned around and waved only to see her dive into her mother’s skirt. 

In China if you are a foreigner you must be American. Sorry guys. 

Building 5 third from the end

I’ve moved back up a floor. I’m now 301. It is a nice floor to be on in all honesty, safe as it is past the break in floors – one and two and not too much of a climb. I enjoy the third floor as it is high enough that you get a workout going and coming but not too high that you feel you must workout every time you come and go. 

Living room from the door

Living Room - from office

The office - excepting the dust I love to sit in the window

The office is spacious which unfortunately means its prone to getting cluttered. At the moment I’m storing the new French Teacher’s large bags while she is touring Southern China. 

I love the window seat an look forward to a good storm to sit and watch. I also have many plans for the walls in this room. 

More storage space than I know what to do with

Bedroom the window opens into the drying room

 A con to this apartment is the atrocious bed. The air mattress I use for company is in the wings if I can’t adjust to this new level of firm. The mattress is about an inch thick and I’m convinced it’s just plywood with a material cover. I’ve yet to bring over the foam egg create I inherited from Dantzelle. 

The bathroom - The shower placement is great, only half the bathroom gets drenched!

Small Kitchen - Perfect for me

Another step down in washing

Inhale deep and you drift into a barn

Well the caption says it all. Katie and Thomas were presented with these His and Hers buckwheat pillows as a farewell gift. Unfortunately for me they said farewell to them when they left. Only in China is it acceptable to bring the barn smell into your bedroom. I refuse to bring those close to my bed but I can’t bring myself to throw them out either. 

I leave them on the couch and then grumble anytime I catch a whiff of them. I just need to find another home for them. 

Well this is the new place! It’s nice being in a small apartment that can be deep cleaned in a morning. Oh and I forgot to mention the wonderful AC that cools the house down great. Now if only it was a good heat life would be perfect. I guess I will just have to keep dreaming on that one.

If there is one thing you can count on in China it’s roadblocks and lately, in the literal sense. Upon returning from my trip south construction on Qingnian Road had been completed but in its stead repaving of the roads on campus have begun, but only those accessing my apartment of course.

With the roads torn up, of course the essentials, Internet, accessability and water have all been disrupted.

Katie and Thomas gave me the keys to their apartment when they left and Nan told me I could move in when ever it was convenient. So I did the only thing I could to keep my sanity, I began the move to their apartment. At first I was only going for the Internet and a shower with water pressure above spitting. Then things just got complicated as I had to go to work and I hated carrying two bags as I never knew where I was going to spend the night.

I’ve tried to make the move but without the ability to get a car within two blocks of my apartment I’m just not in the mood to drag my big suitcases through the mud. So for now I live between and lament when I’ve forgotten something.

Although its been surprisingly shocking how little I’ve been able to live on at Katie and Thomas’ house. I almost regret bringing all the stuff I did to China. Yes, I still call this apartment Katie and Thomas’, it will be that for a while longer too.

Okay after two successful phone calls its time to blog about.

It all began way back at the beginning of the semester when I confided in James this semester would be different. This semester I would make an honest effort to learn Chinese. I had two goals set to accomplish by the end of the semester

1. Be able to introduce myself.

2. Order my own water for the apartment.

Although I can say I have accomplished both it is not exactly with the ease or fluency with which I had hoped.

But I have now ordered my own water successfully twice. I will for the sake of honesty admit I still have to read from the email James sent me but hey I’m still the one that makes the call at the end of the day right. So for now I will bask in the glory of the little achievements which hopefully someday, and someday soon will add up to larger ones.

Here’s my script

ni4 hao3, wo3 shi4 qing1 nian2 jiao4 shi1 gong1 yu4 202 fang2 jian1 de1 mei3 guo2 lao3 shi1, wo3 xiang3 yao4 yi1 tong3 shui3, xiexie.

你好，我是青年教师公寓202房间的美国老师，我想要一桶水，谢谢

We are continuing to have toilet issues here although they have changed. The latest issue consists of a high pitch whine that follows every flush. The whine starts about 1 min after flushing and lasts for at least 3.5 min no exaggeration. I swear everyone in the building is informed when we use the restroom, it doesn’t exactly allow for discrete visits at night either!

Well the other day I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was half dressed and decided it was going to be fixed then and there! So I opened the tank and started tinkering. I soon discovered if I pushed the pump thingy to the side far enough the whining stopped. Did I bother to figure out if that was a wise move? Of course not, the whining stopped that was all I cared about.

If I had had chewing gum you better bet that would have been part of the solution.

Solution found but how to make the solution stick, I went to the office and rummaged through my arts and crafts drawer. I returned to the bathroom with a ball of yarn, packing tape and safety scissors.

I’m so proud of my fix-it skills! Now lets just pray it holds and doesn’t make the problem worse seeing as I know I’m pulling something that probablly shouldn’t be pulled but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So for now that annoying whining is gone and I can once again pee discreetly.

I’ve never been a die hard sports fan, so in all honesty when I made the decision to wake up at 2:30 this morning to catch the US vs UK game I was a little shocked.

I don’t know what it is about living outside your native country but your national pride gets kicked into overdrive and your team spirit is ignited. So I decided to drag myself out of bed watch the game and then grab a few more hours of shut eye before heading to work this morning at 7:30. Sad truth is even though I was watching to support the US I was stunned when we actually tied the game. I learned my lesson in Argentina never to boast about your sports team, you can’t show your face in school for a week when you lose. Yes I’m still bitter Argentina beat the USA in the Gold medal match for Basketball in Athens. Yeah I seriously feigned sick for two days I was so mortified. This time I talked down the USA team and admitted we would most likely be creamed by England. But our boys did us proud and pulled off a tie. Go TEAM!

Overall, so worth it and I’m pumped to see the Germany vs Australia game tonight at 2:30. The best part of soccer is that its universal, the fact that announcers are all Chinese makes no differnce. Also I can grade papers while watching and wait for crowd reaction to look up. As Katie put it, soccer players are the world’s greatest sports actors and replay only makes it 10 times as much fun. The slow motion shots and replays from half a dozen angles allows for the only game you can watch 3 times while live!

Well I’m off to get a quick nap in so I can get up tonight.

Our ever growing shoe collection

I decided last year that shoes where no longer welcome in my house. I’m convinced it is not a cultural curtsy but a hygienic necessity here! I would gladly lick the bottom of my shoes in America before I’d wipe the bottom of my shoe here against my jeans. For a country so concerned about health I’m appalled at the lack of hygiene. I started leaving my shoes against the wall for easy access and polite reminder to guests.

During the winter we had all our shoes out. Kelly counted once and there was something like 30 pairs. I never anticipated a downside, well, until this evening that is.

I needed to go to the office on the first floor so I quickly slipped on a pair of slippers. They are fuzzy on the inside so I didn’t think much of the tickle on my toes. I just wiggled them around a bit and finished my copying. When I got back to my apartment I just couldn’t seem to satisfy the tickle so I reached down take off the slipper when a millipede crawled out.

Not exactly the company I like to keep in my shoes!

Kelly you better thank me because it took everything out of me not to scream and wake you up. I don’t consider myself squeamish around bugs per say but when I say the pinchers on that thing and that fact it had been crawling all over my toes for the last 20min, well I thought my reaction showed quite a lot of self control! I did grab the stapler like any sane girl.

The stapler was even PINK!

I can’t find the camera cord so I’ll add pictures in the morning. Now if I could just stop imageing bugs crawling all over my feet I could go to bed. I just might have to start wearing socks 24/7. I hate wearing socks but I think I’ve found something I hate worse!

The funniest part of the whole situation was right before Kelly went to bed I complained that bug season was starting. We’ve had an extremely cool spring, and the bugs have only just begun coming out. So I can officially say bug season is HERE!

Does that look like a 5:30am sky to you?

As I’ve complained before about the insanity of being in such a huge country with a single timezone,  nothing could have prepared me for the spring here. When I came in the fall the days were getting shorter and the nights longer. Now that I’m at the opposite end of seasons the days are getting longer and the nights shorter.

 I woke up this morning to bright lights. When I rolled over I expected to see 7:30 on my clock, having over slept. No luck, it was 5:30 still another hour before I could even start hitting the snooze button.

 The only logical solution is to tackily black out the windows.  But if this 5:30 wake up call continues I see no other alternative.

Nothing makes you feel more unprepared then a crisis. Well maybe there is, a crisis with five children sitting around your table.

Now before you panic please remember I tend to exaggerate, no need to jump on skype and see home I’m doing. I’m fine.

Last night I was in the middle of tutoring when the lights went out. It was the only time I was grateful my parents have continually remained at my apartment during the lessons. I teach the children in the large hall with no outside facing widows. When the lights went off our area was pitch black. The parents entered and helped calm the excited children. Here’s another universal, turn of the lights and Children go crazy. They can find a thousand things to do in under two min, then proceed to do all of them in under five.

Utilities here work on prepaid cards. When the utility is used up you swipe another card at the appropriate utility station in your apartment or building. I’ve had only one power out so far but it was during the day and James had it sorted within min. But as I looked around campus there wasn’t a light to be seen. So it was obviously not due to a late electric bill.

Thank heaven for fathers who insist daughters take essential items such as flashlights.

Luckily Kelly and I both had flashlights. I worked the class out with the parents and was able to send all the children home early. I don’t even want to think how I would have had to keep their attention for another hour in the dark. Soon they were gone and the boredom set in.

NO lights, NO TV, NO Internet, but worst yet, NO computer. My computer has become my life here. What was I to do? Kelly and I decided to take a walk. Night walks are always fun and there was a bright moon out.

As soon as we opened the door the storm started. We stayed in the door way for a few min enjoying the fresh storm. I love the way that storms smell. Unfortunately in China, that wonderful smell is at times interrupted with a whiff of China which your nose often feels it will never recover from.

The wind was incredible, the rain started pouring in a matter of seconds.

The large earthquake in Western China had not phased me until this night. I’ve been truly blessed in my life never to be in any natural disaster or any disaster for that matter. It wasn’t until this evening that I got a little shaken. It wasn’t the power out as much as the vulnerability. I soon realized we were out of drinking water but hadn’t yet call in a new bottle. With the power out we had no methods for which to boil water. Without power I also had no ability to contact my family. My cell was only getting interrupted signals which was making calling out extremely frustrating if near impossible.

This evening I have come to truly appreciate my parents and their preparedness. So, mom don’t convert my bedroom yet I just might be bunking at home for the rest of my life.