I’ve been trying to get settled into my new place.\u00a0 Shopping in China presents some challenges.\u00a0 For example, if you buy something you have to be able to get it home.\u00a0 We take our vehicles for granted in the US.\u00a0 If I go grocery shopping in the US, my groceries just have to fit in my car. That’s easy, right?\u00a0 Here, if I want to get groceries, whatever I buy needs to be small enough to be carried in some way on my bike.\u00a0 This makes a person much more creative.\u00a0 I’m forced to think of new and interesting ways to strap stuff to my bike (which, by the way, currenly only has front brakes) and try to balance on my way home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I’ve been discovering my new neighborhood and found a METRO, which is similar to Sam’s Club in physical size and warehouse style, but with much less stuff…\u00a0 I spent a good hour wandering around the METRO searching for things I need for my apartment…keeping in mind that whatever I buy here I have to carry home on my bike.\u00a0 After shopping for a few (random) items, I loaded up my bag and hung it from one handle bar of my bike. (This causes balance issues…)\u00a0 Sometimes,\u00a0if my items are too big, I’ll take a taxi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After getting home, I decided it was a good time to wash some of the rugs that have been sitting on the floor all summer and try out my washer also.\u00a0 This “adventure” took way longer than it needed to due to some language difficulties.\u00a0 The instructions on my (front-load) washer are all in Chinese.\u00a0 You’re probably thinking, “she doesn’t know how to use a washer?”\u00a0 I know. Pathetic, right. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I spent a good 15 minutes translating the characters for each of the 10 settings.\u00a0 Then, I figured out that there were really only two different “settings” and that each of the 5 parts was just a cycle in that setting.\u00a0 Great!\u00a0 I turned the knob to the correct setting, added the detergent and voila!\u00a0 Piece of cake, right?\u00a0 Well….<\/p>\n
I decided that it was a good idea to check on the washer periodically (like every 2-3 minutes) to see if things were going the way they were supposed to.\u00a0 After a couple ‘checks’ I discovered that there was water all over my bathroom floor.\u00a0 (Now, this in itself is not uncommon for this country.\u00a0 A person’s showerhead is usually directly\u00a0over his\/her sink\/toilet so a wet floor is commonplace.)\u00a0 My water on my bathroom floor was not.\u00a0 Isn’t there supposed to be a tube that connects the washer to some sort of drain?\u00a0 Nope. My drain is now my bathroom floor.\u00a0 We’ll see if I can get this one fixed…\u00a0A little while later, the washer is on the spin cycle and it is LOUD. I mean, I’m wondering if my neighbors are concerned about me.\u00a0 The machine was literally jumping around.\u00a0 (no wonder it is tied to a pipe with a piece of STRING… good grief. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 So, yes people, the best way for me to keep my washer quiet (and in one place) is to sit on it during the spin cycle. I may get a lot of reading done and not much else…<\/p>\n
Today, (Monday) I went to my ‘first’ Chinese class.\u00a0 I was successful this time because I was up really early and left my apartment really early.\u00a0 Actually, I left early so that I could Skype with my niece at a location that has internet.\u00a0 I got to a little coffee shop, ordered my coffee and proceeded to not get online because they eliminated their internet.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 That’s not cool.\u00a0 I didn’t really have any qualms about taking my coffee with me and heading out to find a different internet place.\u00a0 I walked to the new place and ordered a pastry and sat down to get online.\u00a0 The man gave me the ‘password’ that didn’t work.\u00a0 Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!\u00a0 It took this man 30 minutes to attempt to solve this problem. I was very annoyed.\u00a0 I finally got online and had to tell my niece that I was unable to chat with her because I had to go to class.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I found my classroom and looked over the first two lessons (because that’s what the lady at the counter told me the class got through the first week–the week that I missed).\u00a0 The teacher came in and proceeded to ask me some questions in mixed Chinese-English.\u00a0 The other four students came in and class began.\u00a0 The class was just beginning lesson two, which I was thankful for. I can understand a lot more if I know the context of the conversation.\u00a0 I would say that I understood about 70-80% of the class.\u00a0 This isn’t too bad and will definitely be a challenge for me.\u00a0 There is one woman in the class who is pretty good but the other three are very close to the same level as me. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I’m planning to enjoy it a lot! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Each 90 minute class is 30\u5143\uff0c if you pay for at least 10.\u00a0 So, my first two weeks of class costs me $47.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
So, here I am, after my class enjoying lunch before I go to the bank and get on the bus back home.\u00a0 I have much unpacking to do and a book to read while I wash some clothes.\u00a0 Until next time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been trying to get settled into my new place.\u00a0 Shopping in China presents some challenges.\u00a0 For example, if you buy something you have to be able to get it home.\u00a0 We take our vehicles for granted in the US.\u00a0 If I go grocery shopping in the US, my groceries just have to fit in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1084"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}