barbarians

ah, the joy of return.


the dusty apartment, brown water coming out of the faucets, nothing in the fridge but some milk, which is still okay to drink after 6 weeks opened! say no to Chinese milk. too many preservatives and icky stuff.

my favorite student Rita came to visit me on Saturday just hours after my arrival. She has a cute new haircut, and we rode our bicycles to a print place so I could print out my new class schedule. No class on Tuesdays this semester! whoo hoo! and only 1 class on Thursday afternoons, but that means I have more classes on Monday/Wednesdays. whatever. I like the change in routine.

After a month of maid service in Thailand, with hot water in the tap, and no cooking, no cleaning, just relaxing, I've concluded that we live like barbarians here in Tongliao. For one, we have no hot water, and second, we have to boil our water to drink it. My face and hands need to get re-used -to the splash of icy water every morning. The boiling water situation takes more energy than one would think. I like to boil water to wash the dishes, otherwise...the grease stays. Also, sometimes I boil water to drink it, but then I forget about it and it cools, and then I have to re-boil it. Ned does the laundry, thankfully, but we have to be careful when it dries on the balcony outside, because often it freezes and freezing and wet is not good for laundry I want dry and warm.

Another barbarian thing about our apartment is that we have no dining table. We've been eating with bowls in our laps since forever. So today, I transformed the "lets-throw-Mandy's-gloves, books, teaching stuff" table into a cute dining table. We even had a spare flowered pillow case that I made into a table cloth. I set bowls, glasses and chopsticks on the table just for looks, and to my un-surprise Ned suggested we use the new dining table not as dining table, but as an art installation.


sorry Ned, not this time.


So we're just getting settled, re-adjusting to life here. I lesson planned like mad today. I teach for 6 hours tomorrow. I want to send some postcards after classes. Also, buy a new pot because ours is dented and burned. I'm thinking of buying a printer. Printing shop computers don't have Adobe Reader...so many of my documents won't print. How did I get used to living like a barbarian before?


I guess people can get used to a lot of things. This semester I'm taking my living conditions a step up. I've even buying candles to light at my new dining room table. I'll post pics soon.