I will race you to the waterside and from the edge of China shout out loud so they could hear it in America - it's all for you
Another day, another lot of new experiences.
Hard work pays off today. After trying to figure things out with the DSL company yesterday for so long, I went home last night and decided to clean the apartment before I went to sleep. While cleaning out the drawers I found a cable modem. A cable modem with the address of the cable company on the bottom. It wasn't hard this morning to find the company this morning and figure out how to set up cable internet in the apartment. After paying a late fee, it cost 180 RMB ($25 USD) to get unlimited cable internet in our apartment. The paperwork should go through sometime tomorrow, so tomorrow night I shouldn't have to worry about going to a coffee shop to use the internet.
I'm a little sad though, the people at this coffee shop are really really nice. I like them a lot. Perhaps I'll come back here every now and then and get a Coke and chat with them.
We found a really good place to eat breakfast that is 100ft from our front door. It also only cost 3.5 RMB ($.50 USD) for breakfast. So far the day is going swimmingly.
After that it was time to go to Walmart to get some cleaning supplies and some hookups for the new cable modem. Much like Burley, Walmart is located at the center of the mall here in Nanjing. Unlike Burley there is a Gucci shop on the floor below the Walmart, and a Prada store across the way from it.
This would be the first of two trips to Walmart today, as I would realize that I remember to pack everything, including five pairs of shoes and a pair of cowboy boots, but I forgot to bring a white shirt. Unfortunately I would learn on the second visit to Walmart that even though it seems like they have everything, they do not. And I will be attending church in a hotel lobby tomorrow in a lavender shirt. How cute.
For lunch today a classmate and I found our way to a noodle shop that we saw a few days ago that is run by a Muslim family. It seemed interesting so we decided to try it out. The shop is a shining example of globalism in China today - it is in China, run by Muslims, who are from western China, watching a Korean soap opera. Add the two Americans who were seemingly their only customers for the day and you have a Brady Bunch type drama waiting to happen. The noodles were delicious though.
After lunch it was hot, which meant it was time to clean. It was nice cleaning the garbage the previous occupants left in the drawers. After taking out the first trash bag, the neighbors across the street (all three of whom live in a house half the size of the bedroom - a sad but true reminder of the atrocious poverty gap here in China) asked if they could have any of the garbage we threw out. We were more than happy to oblige.
Three to four hours later the apartment was clean. The entire bathroom had been scrubbed by Muscle Man (the brand of cleaner, not the person doing the work), every drawer cleaned out, and the floors all mopped. I guess I've always just been the type of person who liked to live in a clean place.
I boiled some water to drink (because you can't drink it out of the tap) and unwound by watching the movie 'The City of Life and Death' or 'Nanjing! Nanjing' about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese (WWII). I skipped dinner because the noodles did pretty good at filling me up.
I now find myself here. On the way to the coffee shop I ran into an old mission companion - Aaron Fanello. He's here with his wife as part of ASU's Flagship program. That's cool, I'll get to see him at least at church.
Monday will be the start of classes for us here. I'm excited to have stuff to do, as it seems like today we did a pretty good job of getting everything set to live here for the next while.
Tomorrow should be a good day off.
Hard work pays off today. After trying to figure things out with the DSL company yesterday for so long, I went home last night and decided to clean the apartment before I went to sleep. While cleaning out the drawers I found a cable modem. A cable modem with the address of the cable company on the bottom. It wasn't hard this morning to find the company this morning and figure out how to set up cable internet in the apartment. After paying a late fee, it cost 180 RMB ($25 USD) to get unlimited cable internet in our apartment. The paperwork should go through sometime tomorrow, so tomorrow night I shouldn't have to worry about going to a coffee shop to use the internet.
I'm a little sad though, the people at this coffee shop are really really nice. I like them a lot. Perhaps I'll come back here every now and then and get a Coke and chat with them.
We found a really good place to eat breakfast that is 100ft from our front door. It also only cost 3.5 RMB ($.50 USD) for breakfast. So far the day is going swimmingly.
After that it was time to go to Walmart to get some cleaning supplies and some hookups for the new cable modem. Much like Burley, Walmart is located at the center of the mall here in Nanjing. Unlike Burley there is a Gucci shop on the floor below the Walmart, and a Prada store across the way from it.
This would be the first of two trips to Walmart today, as I would realize that I remember to pack everything, including five pairs of shoes and a pair of cowboy boots, but I forgot to bring a white shirt. Unfortunately I would learn on the second visit to Walmart that even though it seems like they have everything, they do not. And I will be attending church in a hotel lobby tomorrow in a lavender shirt. How cute.
For lunch today a classmate and I found our way to a noodle shop that we saw a few days ago that is run by a Muslim family. It seemed interesting so we decided to try it out. The shop is a shining example of globalism in China today - it is in China, run by Muslims, who are from western China, watching a Korean soap opera. Add the two Americans who were seemingly their only customers for the day and you have a Brady Bunch type drama waiting to happen. The noodles were delicious though.
After lunch it was hot, which meant it was time to clean. It was nice cleaning the garbage the previous occupants left in the drawers. After taking out the first trash bag, the neighbors across the street (all three of whom live in a house half the size of the bedroom - a sad but true reminder of the atrocious poverty gap here in China) asked if they could have any of the garbage we threw out. We were more than happy to oblige.
Three to four hours later the apartment was clean. The entire bathroom had been scrubbed by Muscle Man (the brand of cleaner, not the person doing the work), every drawer cleaned out, and the floors all mopped. I guess I've always just been the type of person who liked to live in a clean place.
I boiled some water to drink (because you can't drink it out of the tap) and unwound by watching the movie 'The City of Life and Death' or 'Nanjing! Nanjing' about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese (WWII). I skipped dinner because the noodles did pretty good at filling me up.
I now find myself here. On the way to the coffee shop I ran into an old mission companion - Aaron Fanello. He's here with his wife as part of ASU's Flagship program. That's cool, I'll get to see him at least at church.
Monday will be the start of classes for us here. I'm excited to have stuff to do, as it seems like today we did a pretty good job of getting everything set to live here for the next while.
Tomorrow should be a good day off.
Comments (1)
I keep hearing great stories of being Mr Clean. I can only hope that this desire for cleanliness someday transforms the manner in which you keep your bedroom at home organized and I use the word organized very loosly (including this recent summer). I guess old habits are hard to break - if not I would have stopped biting my fingernails at least 30 years ago.