ChinaTeacher

Well, I just finished moving into my apartment, which is located on the university campus. You may recall that I am going to teach English at university this Fall. Well, they have kindly let me move in early which means I was able to let my old apartment go, and won’t have to pay rent for two months this summer. I’m not working for a total of three months, so this is welcome news! Come to think of it, I have never had 3 months off in a row before!

MOVE
A Chinese friend of mine lined up a mover for me, ie man and small truck. In turn, I asked two Chinese friends to come and help me with the move. However, a small truck and FOUR GUYS showed up 30 minutes early, and we were all loaded up and ready to go, before my friends even arrived! Within 1 hour we had travelled to the university (located in the north end of Hangzhou), and the men carried all my bags up to the 5th floor (that’s right, no elevators!). I might add that they were required to move 15 BAGS!! I can’t believe how much I have collected after 2 years in China! Actually, I am quite angry that I have amassed so much, especially considering how often I go on about other people being so ‘materialistic’. Well, I guess the same applies to me after all.

APARTMENT
The apartment is adequate, nothing fancy. My bedroom seemed a little small, but after moving the furniture around a bit, it feels much larger. I think I will be able to do something with it after all. The apartment has a bright kitchen, a bathroom with its own shower stall!. My last bathroom just had a shower nozzle on the wall, so everything got wet! You go down a long hallway to the bedroom which comprises a bed, night stand, desk/chair, armoire, tv and easy chair. You do everything in here – there’s no tv room or living room. That’s it, but it’s enough. And hopefully, it will prevent me from amassing more ‘stuff’!

You know, I feel like I have just arrived in China again! Everything here is unfamiliar and a little strange. When I toured the university and its surrounds a few months ago, everything was busy and upbeat. Now, school is over and it’s very quiet – not many people. Many of the shops and restaurants are closed. The back alleys are quite dirty – came across a huge rat last night – he was NOT afraid of me!!!! I know I was getting far too comfortable in my own digs, but I have to admit I didn’t realize I would go through those same feelings again (vulnerable, insecure, etc.). Oh well, I’m only here for a few days before I take off again, so those feelings can’t last, right ?!?!?!

WEATHER
It has been blistering hot and balmy here in Hangzhou lately. So much so, that the city is opening up their old ‘bomb shelters’ to the public as places to escape the intense heat – many people don’t have air conditioning, especially the oldtimers. But there are very strict guidelines: Access is permitted when temperatures remain above 35 degrees centigrade for 5 days straight, or above 37 degrees centigrade for 3 days straight. Only then are people are permitted access to the shelters. Some of the shelters are equipped with tvs, tavles, reclining chairs, water dispensers and emergency lamps. It is reported that more than 150,000 people used the shelters last year. I read that there are eleven bomb shelters in Hangzhou which have been converted for the public’s use this summer. While the earliest of these were built back in the 1930’s, when Hangzhou was threatened by Japanese invaders, the majority were built throughout the 40’s and 50’s. I’ll let you know if I get a chance to check one out!

And, if the heat isn’t enough for us to deal with, it looks like Hangzhou is going to experience a large number of Typhoons this summer! Today we received typhoon alerts, as the winds picked up substantially throughout the day. A lot of construction is going on in Hangzhou, so the air has become thick with dirt from these projects.

TRAVEL
Fresh from settling into my new digs, I am now faced with packing, again. I am headed to Cambodia on Tuesday, July 18th. (I am getting really sick of packing/unpacking!). But, it is sure to be a very interesting and educational experience for me to travel to Cambodia. I know desperately little about their history, but will try to catch up before I head to the airport on Tuesday.

Well, that’s it for now. The next time you hear from me, I will be in CAMBODIA! Carol :o)

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.