Tonight is Election Night in the US. The Presidential Elections are all the news here in China. Well, I have other things to worry about tonight. For starters we got our hot water working again!!!! WOOHOO hot showers all around tonight; it felt so good to get my hair soaking wet and put the Cleansing Conditioner in it. I have missed shaving my legs because wearing tights with leg hair is anything but fun :-). I taught my classes today and told them all that next week there will be no class as we are going to Hong Kong. I learned a little history today too. Hong Kong is part of China, but because Britain ruled the place for so long there is an agreement with them on keeping Hong Kong separate but a part of China. Anyway, I got a picture with a student Serena and I also got a picture of Albert Einstein the statue in a park near the university. Chuck text ed from the bus on the way home, he is able to check his email so that is what he is doing. Tonight after giving his students their mid-term test, he went and found some earmuffs that are shaped like bunny’s I think. They are coming home to me so is a new sock hat for him since Nate is wearing the one that he had.
Today we went and got visa pictures taken, Nate will go back this afternoon and pick them up. We are getting ready for our Visa run to Hong Kong next week. Nate and I are at home and Chuck is getting ready to head out the door to teach. I need to write a lesson plan for tomorrow’s classes and then upload that to our website. Today is day 11 without hot water. Our water heater went out on the 26th of October after both Chuck and I took showers. At first I thought that it was just that we had used our allotted amount of water for the day but when the lack of hot water stretched until Sunday I became suspicious. When Qi Yan and a worker came by last Tuesday while I was teaching and Chuck was home with Nate, the water heater was working. Although the worker said that the heater was old I did question us getting a new one since it was working that day. In the summer time this wouldn't be such a bad thing, but I've not had a shower since last Tuesday morning and washing dishes in cold water in cold weather is not my idea of fun. I boiled water to wash dishes two nights ago, but that process left lots to be desired. If I have to then yes I will do that but I just don’t understand why we can’t get permission to get a new heater. I hope we get that instead of having to move to the apartment left vacant by another foreign teacher family who moved to the old campus. Nice apartment, but I would hate to have to move; this apartment is home. There are subtle differences in the apartments although both of them are on the 7th floor.
Today Chuck and I rode our bikes to Wanda Plaza to get some winter tops for me at Wal-Mart. But before we went on our shopping trip we were able to use a public toilet. Chuck thinks it is funny because I opted to use the Chinese style of squat toilets over the offered handicap or American Style toilet. I perfer not having to wonder who sat on my toilet seat and squat toilets, while they take getting used to, do provide that. Our Wal-Mart purchases were next some long sleeved tops and a few groceries that we were in need of they also had a promotion, if you get two pear juices and a plastic lidded cup. We also ate lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant.
Once we got home we opted to sit and watch Ice Age 4 and enjoyed just hanging out watching the video and drinking coffee. Chuck made Chili for dinner tonight another success for my cooking husband. Just to let everyone know. My family is safe in New Jersey. My mom got word from her sister my Aunt Gail, she my Uncle Charles and Aunt Helen are fine. Dealing with power outages but fine. Nov.
3, 2012 Wow, I should string these quite days like pearls and wear and neat new necklace. Today is another quite day, Chuck went out with Johnny and had breakfast and did some shopping. Later he is planning to go to the spa for a shower and massage; he has offered me the ability to go as well. We need to as some point in time go and get our pictures taken for our visa pictures. Nate went on the roof today and was rewarded by getting to meet all four of Ford’s kittens. He already met and named one…Mittens. I look forward to hearing what he names the others. Mittens, is the only one that has ventured out so far. She even let Chuck hold her or him the other day when the Mao family came and visited us. Well indeed Chuck did go to the spa and Nate went out several times today to find and play with kittens and cats or Mao’s as they are called in China. I have worked on two stories and submitted one to a contest. I’m hoping to submit the same to two more contests this week and then get ready for Hong Kong. Because today is Saturday, Nate was thrilled when he got up that he didn’t have school work to do and he is now off to the store to get something to eat. He really enjoys getting out on his own and we trust that he will do what is needed to be safe. I love how we are able to let him do more on his own here. Nov. 2, 2012 Another quite day for us; Chuck has been out to teach, but Nate and I have been in the apartment all day today. I’ve been working on another story to submit for a writing contest and Chuck has been working on his papers to write for school. Nate has been working on his school work and we are getting ready to play a game of cards. Not much today, your average day living in a foreign country. Today Chuck and I went on errands and one of them took us to the flee market on Gongren Lu. Both of us got upgrades to our phones this month and the new phone we have allow us to access Google Translator. I was thinking I was being very proactive by getting my phone to say Olive Oil, I wanted to get that for my hair, I showed the phone to the clerk in the beauty supply shop and she reached over and got olive oil for me, the name is on the bottle in English. I felt silly! Sometimes it is funny how we don’t even look for things to have English on them or for a person to speak English. When in China speak Chinese right? That reminds me of what I was thinking as we rode our bikes to the market. When we first got to Zhengzhou City in August, we loved hearing American music coming from stores but there were also vans that rode around with a public address system on them making announcements in Chinese. I remember stopping and trying to find out where the sound was coming from and what it meant. I still don’t know what it means and I do wonder, however I think it is a testament to how human’s accept whatever our situation is because today I didn’t think twice about hearing Chinese spoken and truly get surprised when I hear music that isn’t Chinese. I’m also seeing that all three of us are getting more like Chinese when it comes to riding our bikes around. Just today a car backed out into the street in front of me. When we first got the bikes I know that I would have stopped cold and gotten upset that the car pulled in front of me and I had to get off my bike and wait. Well after having Chinese pass me and looking at me like I was crazy I’ve gotten the hang of how to handle that situation. I just steered myself around the front of the car since he was backing out into traffic. Now there are consequences of getting so comfortable with cars and other bikes and scooters and that is that you might get into a finder bender, but it is really surprising how few accidents we have seen involving two bikes. Bike and scooter riders here seem to have a 6th sense and the schools of bikes flow like schools of fish in a pond or ocean. It is wonderful advice to go when the Chinese go if you are walking or biking they seem to have that same 6th sense about themselves. Case in point, I was at a red light with Nate one day and there was a crowd of Chinese around us; the light turned green for us and every one of the Chinese around us waited and so did we. A bus ran the red light for him and made a right turn and had we gone we would have been under the wheels. After he passed we all took off across the street. Stuff like that happens more often than not if you pay attention to what is going on and follow the Chinese. Sound advice for eating from food vendors too! If you see a lot of Chinese at a cart or stall if in a market then the food is something that they eat and you are probably safe from getting sick. If you don’t see lots of people then perhaps thinking twice about a food cart is your best bet.
Nate decided to stay home while Chuck and I were out this morning. This isn’t a problem as he has his school work all listed and I instructed him on the fact that his laundry needed to be hung once it finished washing. We gave him lunch money and he was allowed to go out and get something for lunch on the condition that he would call us before he left the apartment and only go right out in front within walking distance of the apartment complex. He found a new drink at the store in the complex, Pineapple Fanta. This is his new favorite soda. I’m never left wondering if Nate will get his school work done, he is faithful to getting the schooling done. The promise that he can’t do mine craft or read fan fiction until school is done helps with that. The cats or Mao that Nate has adopted came to our door looking for him today. Ford, Arthur, and little Mittens came by the apartment to get scratched and to get food. They stopped by after Chuck came back from teaching his evening class. Chuck was able to hold the kitten Mittens too. |
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