Pieces of my China

This is the Santa that my city puts eeeeverywhere. See his bling? SO much cooler than our St. Nick.

My apartment entrance. My bedroom window is the one adorned with sunshine. (take the symbolism as far as you want to go, I don't mind.)

That is also my heater that makes a sound comparable to the Titanic at full speed, and will see the same fate if it isn't fixed soon. grrr....

There is also a large enough hole in my concrete wall that allows the heating tube into my bedroom. I don't think the builders anticipated a sparrow fitting through the hole as well. News for them: sparrows do, and like to, especially at 6:30am. The worst alarm in the world is having a trapped bird swooping over your head as you lay in bed.

(...what the...?!)

Here is Heidi, my wonderful team mate and dear friend. On HER left is our apartment building. Directly behind it is Dongda's older, dirt track and soccer field. The red brick building behind Heidi is the new dorm that includes our preferred cafeteria for easy, convenient meals.

On Heidi's right is a small building- the equivalent to a dumpster in America.

This is also the road where the rat was killed, where the sale of honey is loudly announced at 7:30 in the morning, where all the grandmothers of the neighborhood gather and talk, watching their grand children waddling around, and where our students walk us back to our apartments after English Corner. :)

This is the road outside one our entrances to our neighborhood. These blue stalls line the street allllllllllllll the way to the corner, which, if you can see in the distance, is a long way off.

Heidi inspecting/befriending someone's dinner. (butchered on the spot, if so desired.)

You can get anything on this stretch- and it changes from day to day.

One of my favorite stalls. They roast the nuts and seeds right on the street, and have a myriad of choices available. Always smells really yummy too :)

What you are looking at now is our favorite restaurant on the left, and our most convenient grocery stop. But I don't know that man, so don't ask. These store fronts are directly across from Heidi's chicken friends.

This restaurant is so good. Any further description on the quality of food would come off as trite to me, so that stops there. The inside of the restaurant is tiiiiny, with a bootleg make-up of tables and chairs and pictures that aren't accurate depictions of the chinese food they serve. The owners are a younger married couple with two sons. The sons hang out with all the diners, and are either studying hard, or watching their favorite TV show: Dora the Explorer. (They aren't learning Spanish; Dora speaks English, and is teaching them English words in Chinese. Wrap your cultural cortex around THAT. Go Dora, Go.)

Ugh. The food is SO GOOD.

The Grocery store is owned by a women who makes very obvious observations about us based on what we buy. (ahahahahahaa.... he really likes blueberry.... hahahaaha) She's endearing, and stocks our favorite ice cream treats for us, knowing exactly how to attract us to her store. Very sweet :)

So that's it for this post. But now that I have my VPN, I will be able to upload many more pictures at a time, and blogging won't feel so far away anymore.