This and That

3/31/14

The first teacher I observed teaching at the main office in Shanghai said that Web International is one of the best schools to work for.  It is well established and the working conditions are good.  I am thankful that I have ended up here by the Grace of God.

Child riding and street side ride in Shanghai with Grandfather watching.

Street vender in Shanghai.

4/07/14

A fellow teacher explained that if I had gotten my health check form stamped by the Chinese embassy in the US I wouldn’t have had to go through it again here in China (it cost 660 rmb, about $100).  I remember the school representative tried to explain something like that to me, but she didn’t know how to get it done, as the immigration clinic and the immigration approval are the same place here.  So I had to go through it again and pay the fee.  Just one of the many little miscommunications in this process.

I spent three days cleaning my apartment.  I had asked for the landlady to clean it before I moved in, and she did a little, but it was still “filthy” with caked on dirt on the floors and sticky brown stuff on the shower floor.  Now that it is clean I am picky about every little speck of dirt that blows in from the balcony.  I clean it up immediately.  I’m sure I’ll get over this.

The bathroom is the only source of running water, so cooking and cleaning take place there too.  Again, now that I have scrubbed everything I want to keep it clean and I clean up everything after myself.  I take the shower mat up after I shower so that it won’t get moldy.  The space is so small that having it dirty makes me feel crowded.  I will probably get more relaxed about this also as time goes on.  

4/11/14

I have bought an electric kettle to boil water in, so that I don’t have to buy drinking water.  I bought a stoneware casserole dish so that I can cook soup in my microwave.  This worked pretty well.  I used a package of Knorr Chinese soup mix and added rice and vegetables, including some things I don’t really know what they are, but they were in the rice and dried bean section of Tesco.  I  bought some dried mushrooms for the soup that turned out to be smoked.  They taste very good.  My soup is pretty good too.

I froze my fresh strawberries.  The refrigerator said cooler/freezer, and there are apparently two settings for it. There are three little lights, and I set it with all three on.  Everything froze.  I have changed the setting so that only one light is on, and I now the upper part of the refrigerator is not frozen, I don’t know if the lower part is or not.  I don’t have any food in it, but it would be nice to have a refrigerator for one section and a freezer for the other.  No doubt I will figure it out in time. One of the Chinese tutors suggested I take a picture of it and bring it in for someone to interpret for me, so I think I will try that for my other appliances.

4/12/14

The clothes rod of my wardrobe has fallen down, and I need a new bracket to hang it on.  I also need to measure my bed so I can get the appropriate size mattress.  As far as I know none of the Americans here have screw drivers or tape measures (I asked several), and I hate to buy these things just for this.  There isn’t too much room in my apartment for tools.  It’s a strange existence being so helpless and transient, so I don’t know how to get things done and what to spend money on. 

            

My desk chair, living room chair, and lamps have arrived from IKEA.  It makes the apartment so much more comfortable to have good chairs and lighting.  I need them to come change the mattress I ordered for the correct size, and I am hoping they can measure the bed when they come.

           

I tried to buy eggs at Tesco the other day.  I was looking at a package of them and a store attendant came and (in Chinese) said that those weren’t good, and handed me another package, talking apparently about how I should buy them.  I sort of looked at them and looked around and figured they would be okay.  The next day I tried to crack one open and realized it was hard, so I pealed it.  It turns out they were black and purple , the “1000 year old” eggs.  Since they were what I had in the house I decided to go ahead and eat them.  I cut two up on my soup.  Besides the color, they have the consistency of soft boiled eggs, and taste like soft boiled eggs.  But they have a faint smell of something that has been in the ground for hundreds of years.  The smell isn’t pleasant, but it’s not that strong.  Anyway, I decided to give the rest of the package of eggs away.  It took them to work and offered them to anyone interested.  Some of the Chinese tutors took them.

4/13/14

            

I had dinner with Melanie, the manager trainee and Chinese tutor at Web, last night after work.  We went to a little restaurant and had Hot Pot, my first experience with it.  There are many kinds of Hot Pot, so I hope to try more of them.  Melanie has traveled a lot, living in Germany and Canada, and visiting the U. S.  It seems like we actually have quite a bit in common.  I hope to also get to know some of my students, who are business women and men.