Today will be known as THE
Monday. Today it occurred to me that
“Mondays” can still be “MONDAYS” half-
way around the world. I was very excited this morning to talk to Paul on Skype,
we got all ready and I grabbed the computer to put it on the table, dragging
the extension cord and power cable along with it, which caused a SPARK! and
then the power went off with the cord.
It appeared that the outlet had tripped up, so I tried another
outlet….and another….and another…and another…NONE of them were working!!
Fearing the stuff in the fridge would go bad, I was trying to find that little
red “reset” button that we have in America on outlets. There was nothing ON the
outlet, but there was one ABOVE the outlets. So, I pushed it…and the FIRE ALARM
WENT OFF!!! Evidently, that is a fire
alarm button, NOT an outlet reset button. So, the outlets are all off and now
the fire alarm is blaring! I did not know how to turn it off, and saw that it
was sounding and flashing on the panel next to the door too. I had no idea how
to turn it off. All the labels on the buttons were in Chinese. There was one
button though that silenced it….Ahhhh! Five minutes later, though, I realized
that it was silenced only for about 5 minutes. I couldn’t get ahold of my
agent, so I called one of the people from the school, not really knowing what
to do. I ended up walking down to the guard station to get the cart so we could
drag the big tub of school stuff down to the street to catch a taxi. Now this
is probably the WORST cart I have ever used in my life! It would start to go
ok, then the wheels would turn and not go back. If I were twirling around in
circles it would be fine, but I was not doing that. I wanted to get my tub to
the side of the road so we could catch a taxi. It took us FOREVER to get there
with all the struggles getting the cart to run straight. When we got almost to
the gate, the security guard was heading up. Neither of us could understand
each other, so he motioned to go up to the apartment, so I nodded and said yes,
thinking he was going to just so up and take care of it.
Once we got to work, we had another loooong day of training.
After work, we went with Ruta and her
girls to get their pictures taken and then head over to the subway. We were
going to head over to the international grocery store to pick up some pancake
mix and syrup, we are DANGEROUSLY LOW!!! It took quite some time to get the
pictures because one of her girls really
did not want to get her picture taken. Afterwards, we walked through the parks
to the subway. It was a nice little walk. Lucas and Paula were all over the
place. They really enjoy playing together! They got off on the Taiyanggong
station and we continued on two stops to the Liangmaqiao Station. When we got off the
subway, we took a wrong turn at the first go, but then turned around and walked
through a little mall. Outside this mall, there was a HUGE air conditioner,
next to one of the ponds. There were several ponds here and we walked around
for a bit looking at and watching all the fish. We walked out the other side of
the mall and ended up on the side of the street that I recognized. We continued
on down the street…..on and on and on and on…. We got to “Lucky Street” which I
recalled Marlena mentioning that street. So, we walked down Lucky Street, which
is a strip mall that has many different international restaurants. We walked
past them, thinking we would find the “Fat Burger” we were looking for. City
Shop is beneath the Fat Burger. We kept walking, but didn’t see it. Though, I
did see a mall and a Cold Stone. We were very, very hot and sweaty by no, the
temp was about 32 degrees Celsius and it was very muggy. We went and got some
ice cream and water, then decided to take a taxi home, since it was about 6:30
already.
After we got home, I finally had the nerve to go back into
the little cupboard room in the hall next to our apartment to see if the slot
was in there to put our electricity card in to see how much money was left on
it. In China, when you prepay for the electricity, there is a place where you
put your card in and check to see how much money is left on your card. Then you
will know so you don’t run out of electricity. We still had 188 quai left. So,
in 11 days, we used 112 quai of electricity, just under $20. I’m guessing that
the amount we have been running the air conditioners (especially in the first
week) contributes to the higher electricity use.
Lucas had pancakes for dinner and I finished up my take out
from the weekend. Then it was off to bed. It was very, very late and we did not
get done after work what we set out to do.
What I learned: When going someplace new in China, get clear
directions OR the address in Chinese.
Things I took for granted: Stores that carry Lucas’ “comfort
foods.”
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