Day 9 - Home Sweet Home for 10 Months

A much quieter day today.  David had a meeting with his department at 9 a.m. and then he went to his classroom and learned how to run the equipment.  It is all in Chinese, so he will need a helper who speaks Chinese!  I left for my meeting just as he got back and a woman named Lily gave me my class list for my first class of Juniors and also what lessons I should be covering during the semester.  We both worked on our talks.  Later in the afternoon, we walked to some shops and bought a microphone for the group computer for Sunday, some cardstock paper and some pears.  I made pizza for supper, trying to learn how to use this toaster oven.  It took a little bit to learn what heat I needed, but we had a great tasting pizza.  Then we worked on our talks some more.  Now to get busy on the lessons for next week.

Here is what our apartment looks like:

Living room.  Anyone recognize the people on the wall?

Can you guess where this is?  Yes, we are about the only ones in the complex with a tub. .. a big selling point for this unit,  We also have a western style toilet.  I'll get pics of a Chinese toilet sometime... You'll love it!

Water heater in the bathroom.  We plug it in a few minutes before we want to use it.

Sink in the bathroom.  

David in the office.  The door leads to the small balcony where we hang our clothes to dry.  No clothes dryer but the sun and the air.  A little concerned for how it will work in the winter, but we'll deal with that when it comes.

Our bedroom.  The bed was extremely hard, so we were able to go back over to the old apartment and get the foam that was on that bed and it made it a lot better.

The wardrobe in the bedroom.  I was really frustrated because the of inability to organize out clothes better, so we bought some baskets and that has helped a lot.  This was taken before the baskets.  You can see the kitchen on the other side of the hall.

Second bedroom, or office.  David loves having his picture taken!!

Our tiny kitchen.  The sink does not have hot water, so I boil it in the tea kettle and wash the dishes with that, and sterilize them, too.  The yellow topped thing is the clothes washer.  I felt so proud of myself for figuring out how to do it when all the instructions are in Chinese!

The kitchen from the doorway.  Yes, the frig is as small as it looks....  The stove is just a one burner deal.  Not conducive to making great meals, but we get by.  There is a toaster oven and a microwave that are centuries old too, but they work.  The table will fold up and can be put away a little bit.  David has to bring in a chair from the office when we are ready to eat.

Living room.  We have a TV.  It has two English channels.  One is news the other is movies.  Notice the water cooler.  We do NOT drink from the tap around here.  Not even the Chinese do if they can help it.  

View of the door to outside.  There are two doors and two locks.  Don't know if they want to keep us in or keep others out.  We leave the door open and feel safe in the other room though because of it.  

Down the hallway to the other rooms.  Bathroom is at the end of the hall.  The light switch is on the outside, so if David wanted to be mean, he could....   Kitchen to the right, bedroom and office to the left.

It is a cozy little place and we have all that we really need here.  Learning to live with less is okay.