So Day 3 we realized that we could not access Facebook, Blogspot, Youtube, etc due to the Chinese Firewall. Therefore I was not able to write my blog. So today I will write about both days.
Thursday - I tackled laundry for the first time. The wash machine is very small. It only has cold water going into the machine. Can not wash with hot or warm - cold only! The machine settings and instructions are in Chinese. Fortunately I asked Mrs. Gan to tell me what the symbols meant before she left. After the laundry was done, I had to figure out a way to hang them up - no dryer. The rack that was left here was all rusted. So I grabbed some hangers and hung them from the rack. I bought a new rack on Friday! I worked on cleaning the apartment. Trying to get it to feel like home. Still has a ways to go. I like to have things start off clean. At least I know when it is dirty that it is my dirt and not the previous tenants. So I have been cleaning like crazy.
Randy came home from his business trip. It's been tough on him, not able to ease into this China move. He has had to hit the ground running.
Went to make something for dinner for the kids and I and realized that we do not have any utensils. I looked through the box that Mrs. Gan said I could use. There were plenty of chopsticks, but no forks! We made sandwiches instead.
Friday Randy went to the office for the first time. Iris (an employee of his) came by the apartment around 8 to pick him up. They had to be to the office for 9:30. He needed help getting there since he hadn't been there yet and didn't know how to get there. She came to show him. He must take a taxi to the subway station, take a subway, then he must walk to the office. It took him a little over an hour. He told me that the subway is crowded and hot. He will probably wear shorts and a t-shirt for the trip in and then change when he gets there.
Amy, Daniel and I decided we would try to go to the store on our own.This would be our 3rd trip to Carrefour, but we had gone with Mrs.Gan the past two times. We walked to the store - about 10-15 minute walk. We only got lost once! Carrefour is a lot like Super Walmart, but better. Carrefour is in a large shopping area. They have all kinds of restaurants and shops, things like Burger King, The Irishmans' Pub, Subway, Hagin Dasz (not sure how to spell that) Ice Cream and Cold Stone Ice Cream, and a bunch of other things.
We decided to have Cold Stone for lunch!! While were getting our Ice Cream, a girl came in and she asked where we were from. I told her Massachusetts. She attends school in Northfield (near Greenfield, MA). She is a junior in high school. It's a small world!!!!
In Carrefour we needed to buy a lot of things for the apartment. I looked for forks and knives. Forks I could find. They sell them individually. Can not buy them in sets. I could not find any butter knives at all. Hopefully when we go to a different store we will be able to find them. I needed to find plates. The normal size plate is like a sandwich size. I did manage to find a little larger plate that we can use for dinner plates. These too are sold individually. Found a new drying rack. Could not find a laundry basket. We looked for salt and pepper and found a small grinder of each, but not Morton's type salt box or pepper. Was looking for bread crumbs could not find that either. Will look in other stores. The other thing I bought was a dish rack. We do not have a dishwasher so I needed this. When I got home it took me over an hour to figure out how to assemble it!
We ended up with too much stuff to walk home, so we used a taxi. Yeah we did it. I have our address written in Chinese. I showed it to the driver and we actually got home. Of course the streets do not go into the complex, so we had to carry everything from the guard shack to the aprtment, but we did it!
When we got home the maintenance man was waiting for us (we were supposed to be here from 2-3, we were a little late). I had to have a few things fixed. He did not speak English and I can't speak Chinese, but we managed.
Daniel was so tired that he asked to go to bed around 8pm. He never asks to go to sleep. Randy got home around 7:45 and wanted to go to dinner. So Amy stayed home with Daniel and Randy, Iris and myself went to dinner. We walked to where Carrefour is. We ended up in a Chinese restaurant that was horrible. We know we won't eat there again.
We have a lot to learn about China!
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