Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 9th-10th

Day 12 – June 9^th

So, woke up at 6 am again. Why do I keep doing this? Sat around and finally decided to say good morning to A Yi. I assumed she had gotten the call from Jim about me moving out so I just got ready and started reading Path of Daggers. Unfortunately I’m seriously losing my wits end over not having more to read. I’m going to have to make a run for the city and check the foreign language bookstore. Hopefully they’ll have something for me. Who knows?

So I sat around then A Yi brought me an unwrapped Zhong Zi…? The triangle of glutinous rice and pork. I swear that stuff that makes it slimey must be the fat. I read somewhere that these are boiled for a long time so I can only assume that causes it. I’m no cook but I’m pretty sure there’s no liquid out there as comparable to that.

A Yi left about half an hour later. I guess Jim didn’t give her a call. I sat around for a while since I only had once class and it being at 6:30 felt no rush to head over to the High Long Plaza. Turns out I was wrong, it started thunderstorming or threatening to do so as I worked on a thank you post it note collection for A Yi. I wrote a message in English, Pinyin, then in Simplified Chinese characters. God that is difficult. Augh. Anyway got that going and hurried my way out of A Yi’s. I’m going to miss her. I saw her at the office once so maybe I’ll see her every now and then. :D Here’s to hoping!

After I arrived I saw Jim and he handed me the keys and gave me instructions for the apartment. Looks like I’ll need to figure out the internet after I figure out just what the hell I’ll need for this place. I wish the rain would let up though, it’s annoying carrying around an umbrella when it’s so windy and thus useless.

Two workers took me to the apartment and helped me set it up like seting out the sheets and such. I honestly can’t remember their names for crap but they’re sweet. We went to Lotte Mart right afterwards and we bought a ton of noodles. One even came with Tupperware. I then bought myself the same old delicious and sweet fruit cup I had discovered just recently and then we made our way out of the store. Just as we got to the ground level, one of the workers’ bag had broken. We piled their stuff into mine and then each took a handle as we walked back to the plaza.

I ended up getting duck and rice, figured I would maybe get enough meat off of the damn bird this time. The workers had bought a vegetarian dish and offered to share with me. It had all kinds of veggies, some I was familiar with and others I don’t know but equally delicious. It was really good.

It turns out that my class was cancelled.. sort of? Maybe the student forgot… Oh well. 

Day 13 – June 10^th

Woke up several times this morning. MY body is not happy with me right now for whatever reason when it comes to sleeping. Remembered I had classes at 1 so I decided I would get a shower and grab stuff for the apartment. I checked through the kitchen and noted that there were bowls and some potentially useable cookware. Grabbed a bowl to discover it was covered in some kind of brown sticky grime. Oh god. Tried to wash my hands and maybe the bowl and found sticky stuff on the sink faucet too. WHAT IS GOING ON?! I splashed and rubbed the faucet down with some water then checked the stove. It’s gas, easy enough right? Wrong, I don’t apparently know how to start a gas stove.

The microwave played a bit of a game of peekaboo with me before I got it working. The fridge has a really funny smell, not like just food that is different from even Korean fridges, just… funny. I’m a little worried about using the thing. I’ve kept it off/unplugged for now.

I’ve made two trips to Lotte mart today. I’ve spent about 300 RMB altogether. I still need more stuff. Augh. At least the rice cooker seems to work.

Taught 2 out of 4 classes. Students just don’t seem to care to sign up for SPA classes… Taught Della and Gemma as well as Steven’s class. Steven can do the English pretty well as well as John. I’m a little confused as to why they act out wait.. damnit.

J.C. and Zack took me out to the street food street. Got to meet their favorite vendor and we got some rice dumpling type thing covered in spicy spices and a fried pumpkin thing. They’re so good. 

This humid weather is not pleasant please go away or at least just give us rain.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 7th - 8th

Day 10 – June 7^th

Sat around the office for a good chunk of the afternoon doing absolutely nothing. No one signed up for the SPAs. And later on I found out that the business class is actually scheduled for Thursday. Damnit.

Discussed the whole public transit thing with J.C. I guess I’m not the only one. Maybe it’s just we’re terrible with it so used to being able to drive/walk to wherever we would want to go. I mean I could walk here I suppose but not from the city to Xiaoshan. That’s madness. Or a hell of a workout. Augh I wouldn’t get into A Yi’s until like 5 am if that. I don’t even know if pedestrians can walk it. Anyway, J.C. wrote down a place where I can usually find a cab with other people going to Xiaoshan. I’ll be able to find the area fairly easily with people shouting Xiaoshan. I hope at least. Man I wish I knew what it was with me and public transit. Augh.

Nothing really new. Found a silly website about terrible cakes (not just wedding usually birthday). Ended up buying a notebook so I could draw/write anything I fancy. Bought a bunch of mangoes, an apple, and an orange when I made it back to the Yucai district. The cashier asked me where I was from in Chinese then English. Even my cab driver asked me the same I think. Well he kept asking English then pointed to me then he pointed to himself and said Chinese. I’m not really sure. I tried to say American. I guess it wasn’t in his vocab. I certainly couldn’t remember it in Chinese.

Day 11 – June 8^th

Ended up getting a pleasantly lengthy call with Omma. God it was so great to hear her voice.

Anyway, work was uneventful. Bought a lot of fruit at Lotte Mart. Shared an orange with A Yi. Got a call from Jim saying I was good to move in whenever, in the morning if possible. I think that assumes I’ll wake up with A Yi. Hmm, we’ll see about that. I wanted to get her some tea before I had to move out. My roommate won’t be here for at least another week. The bedroom is bigger than the one I had at A Yi’s, but the whole apartment is smaller. Lacks a living room like hers. So clearly A Yi’s son at least is making some serious bank. I hope it stays that way, she’s a sweetheart and I’m sure her mom is as well.

The kitchen and in between area (hallway?)/dining area for the apartment.

Yay bed! Yay couch! Hooray for laundry!

 Actually wait, boo on that, because A Yi did it for me. Silly me, I wanted to do my laundry myself anyway with all of the free time I seem to have.

The icky kitchen that is for the most part unusable. D: