Life here in China has pretty much just continued to move forward. We continue to do the same things we have been and follow the same routines we would have in the States. The kids' had Christmas concerts, we are setting up the tree today, and a cold wind is blowing through town. As I type this I am watching the MAC championship game on ESPN2 and getting ready for the slew of games that will be fun to watch this time of year.
What has changed:
- I will be moving to a new bachelor pad. The one in Jingang was good for a year, but I have had many problems of late. People moved into the apartment below me and things went downhill from there. They are loud, come in and out at all hours of the night (slamming the outside door when they bother to close it at all), smoke in the stairwell and leave cigarette ashes and butts on the stairs, and turned off the light for their landing of the stairwell. When they moved in, I was not there and they connected their wireless router to the Internet (mine was off). When I got back, I had no Internet. I asked for my own line to be run to my apartment, but the new tenants were given it instead. So, I share my line with the guy who lives in the office downstairs and plays Internet games and streams movies all night. The Internet has gotten so bad lately that I use my AirCard for a fast connection and work from home has become impossible. Sometimes I have heat, sometimes I do not; sometimes I have hot water, sometimes I do not. I also spend 2 of the 3 nights I am there a week in ZJG, and then have to take a taxi to Jingang. Anyway, I am moving back to ZJG into a new apartment that is close to Alice (the girl I teach English). I am done complaining now, and yes, I realize I am blessed to have these types of problems for things most people can only wish were problems...
- I went on a trip to Xi'An with my friends Matt and Paul. It was a quick two-night, one-day trip. Here are a couple of pictures from what I saw:
The Chinese version of the Salvation Army. These people were displaced by the reinstatement of the city wall around Xi'An and the attempt to restore the neighborhood with new shops. They were bartering over used clothes and shoes.
4 comments:
Karen and the Welser's write:
How good to hear from you on your blog. I still check it regularly, but haven't commented in a while - not that I don't have something to say! That "salvation army" kinda looks like my bedroom floor - dirt and all! It inspires me to not be such a slob! (Half the solution is realizing there's a problem.) Glad you are doing well, cigarette butts and all.I saw a friend on Tuesday who was VERY QUICK to rub in the fact that she got to see my friend in China and I didn't. I threw a fit, pouted a little and then heard all about Shari Fosdick's trip with her husband. How fun. Have a great day! It's snowing here-pretty fluffy steady type snow.
Oh my goodness, that apartment mess sounds horrible! I think you had a huge right to complain. How is the new one??? Right now, I'm glad to be in the USA.
We love you,
Aunt Carol
OOPS!!! I guess I'm not mom/grandma to you. I forgot to change that!!! :-)
Aunt Carol
LOL! I will try not to cave in to Facebook anytime soon. Just because I'm a maverick, like my friends John and Sarah, so if everybody else is doing it, I have to be the odd one out. But can we still be friends?:-)
Sorry about your apartment woes, Mark. Hopefully, things will improve in your new space. If you start finding weapons near your commode again...I would keep moving.
Say, Karen...how to you know Shari?? Tell her I said hi! And does she know the Bergs, too? What a small, small world indeed!
Take care, and I pray you all will have a wonderful Christmas! We plan to, with or without the blessing of Congress! :-)
~ Betsy
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