My adventures have been small for the past few days, compared to Beijing, but there are still adjustments here.
I did my laundry. It involved asking the campus convenience store for laundry coins. Jesse helped me figure that one out. You say something like, “she’e bee,” (I can’t find the pinyin version), which he told me means, “clothes wash coin.”
I went to the grocery store that’s walking distance from here. It was kind of sad, mostly because I was looking for wine or beer and all they had were expensive Merlots (ew) and Heineken (ew ew). I ended up buying two Heinekens, some weird potato chips, and chocolate. Sigh.
Flavors include lime, cucumber, Mexican tomato chicken, roasted chicken wing, and grilled squid.
These ones are grilled pork, pure tomato, Italian red meat, Texas grilled BBQ, and the one on the end you can’t quite see is kimchi-flavored.
I figured out how to get the English version of DiDi, which means I can now order my own taxis. Small victories, my dears.
I miss home, but I expected that. There are small annoyances here that I never consider at home, like slow internet and air conditioners that don’t really work and unfiltered water that you can’t drink and food that smells like it’s already been digested.
On the other hand, there are lovely things: The sound of water everywhere you go, whether rain or fountains or canals. Friendly smiles from everyone, even if you can only attempt tiny words in Mandarin. Big, beautiful windows that let in the light and the fall colors from floor to ceiling. A big bathtub that someone else cleans (which I haven’t tried yet, but soon, my pretty).
I have a little more than two weeks left here. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot more and see many more things. I hope I’ll be able to help my colleagues more. And then I’ll be ready to come home to Tom and my apartment and the cat I don’t really know yet and my job and my family and my friends (in no particular order).
Until then, my plan is to enjoy everything I can here, and to allow myself moments to wallow in the American things I can find, like skunky beers and Christmas specials on Netflix. (I watched a good one last night, by the way. The Holiday Calendar. Check it out.)
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