Mandarinwhitegirl's Blog

September 1, 2009

I got an apartment!!! It is really nice. 2 bedroom, 2 bath, hardwood and marble floors, plus a balcony, which is a great place to hang my clothes since China doesn’t have dryers. It is so nice to be unpacked and not living out of a suitcase. Every room has a window including the kitchen and bathrooms. I will have to adjust my cooking since I don’t have a grill or an oven. No more cookies, brownies, or homemade pizza. Now it is all stir fry, rice and curry.

Andrea and I spent 3 hours at Carrafour (a British store like a super Wal-Mart) yesterday getting some basics and cruising all the isles. Downstairs in the meat and seafood department you could buy anything from live bullfrog and snapping turtles to slabs of meat. The ethnic food isle (like in Publix) consisted of imported American foods. Upstairs I was able to buy some bedding, which turned out to be the wrong kind. I spent 45 minutes today trying to return it.

Getting my internet set up today took about 2 1/2 hours and the man still has to come by tomorrow to add the cable line. My real-estate agent, Forest, asked me today how people in the states get internet. I had to think about it because I have never had to deal with paying and setting up internet before. Unfortunately in China you can’t exchange internet connection for food (which I was accustomed to in Orlando)

I ate dinner tonight at this small noodle shop right around the corner from my apartment complex. It was 10RMB which is about $2.00. So cheap and delicious. I am sure I will be visiting it quite often.

I still have not been placed in my school. Monday would be the latest before I am placed. I’m beginning to get a bit anxious to start teaching again, but it has been nice to have sometime to settle in to my new home.