Thursday, August 21, 2014

August 5, 2013


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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