Day Five: Saturday

Someone near my apartment left their wifi unprotected, so I'm able to update from home for now. Picture time!

First up: My apartment. I've unpacked now so it's cleaner/messier than some of these look.

My room during the unpacking process. Note the penguin covers. Aside from the little shelf on the left, my bedroom is a lot cleaner now.

The living room is still fairly empty. I don't use it much since the neither the TV nor the wired internet work. Graeme told me the TV didn't work even when the person before me was in here. I'm still working on cleaning the dirt off the floor.

Dining room with a little view of the Kitchen. Aside from my room, I'm in here the most either eating, or trying to figure out when else I need to buy. Apparently that computer monitor has been here ages. I'll probably just throw it out since it's in the way of more food.

These greeted me when I opened the fridge on arrival. they're in one of the lower drawers right now. I'm not much one for beer. There's milk/juice/other stuff in there now too.

This is the bathroom. I took the picture through the mirror to get all of it in one shot. The round thing on the wall is the water heater. The switch to turn it on is by the lights outside the door. The thing below it is the washer, which I still have to figure out. Maybe I can get Graeme or Chris to explain it to me.

There are a lot of little parks in Xi'an. I pass by two or three depending on what school I'm going to at the time. Even the apartment complex has some trees in it. You can still hear the outside, but they do a great job cutting down the noise. There are a bunch more trees out of the frame on the bottom left.

There are a lot of these security guards throughout the city. Probably about 8 at the complex alone. As of yet I have no idea what the difference in uniform is between them and actual police.

Friday: Halloween in China
Because Kid Castle focuses on American English, they had a big Halloween party at the Jin Du school yesterday. My job for the day was just be there so they could parade the foreigner around for the parents. I don't really mind though, because I still got some free candy.

It started at 8:00, and they had me stand at the entrance with some of the other teachers to greet te parents. This would have been pretty boring, but I got to see all the kids with their costumes. Chinese have absolutly no idea how Halloween works. Half the kid's costumes were a collage of different things. A pirate shirt with a wizard hat and a pitchfork, or a monster mask with angel wings. Only a handful of them were anything that made sence. I saw a lot of Spidermans, and Batmans. One girl was Snow White. They all had fun though, and the attitude was infectious. The parents loved it too, and there were plenty taking pictures or even videos of their precious little children.

After all the kids had arrived, they divided into classes and went out on the town. Accompanied by an entourage of teachers and a couple parents who stuck around the kids walked a couple blocks to sing some songs to delighted onlookers. Honestly, they were so cute if you hugged any of them hard enough they probably would have exploded into candy. No lie.

Once they sang their songs the teachers passed out candy to them. I got a handful too, but half of it was flavors I've never seen or heard of. Or corn. There was a gummy corn in there too. They went to about four places. Despite the insanity that is an intersection at a Chinese city, I've never seen traffic come to more of a stop than when those kids were crossing the streets. It was a very reassuring sight. During all this, my job was to carry around a sign with a big ghost and pumpkin on it. If it weren't for the kids, I'd of had even more people starring at me than usual.

When we got back it was lunch/nap time, so I had a bit to eat and went back to my apartment for a nap of my own. I wouldn't say I have jet lag, but I am fairly sleepy lately.

When I got back to Jin Du, the teachers were beginning to set up for the big snack buffet thing. All the candy and treats that the parents had brought with their kids were laid out on some tables and everyone got some to eat. I have seen the dark side of China now, and it is that the will put corn with anything! Corn is not meant to be in the same dish as grapes! I will eat any of the noodles and meats I see here. But I have never been a fan of corn. In Lotus, I saw what I'm pretty sure was either a roast cat or a dog, next to a roast duck. I would eat that before some of the things they make out of corn. That rant over, some of the food was really good. They had some grapes that remindedme of the wild grapes that used to grow along the road by my house in the states.

After the lunch wasfarily relaxing. I wasn't sure where to go after that, so I stuck with Julia, the teacher of the class that I had gone around the city with earlier that day. We basically set up the TV and I watched Cartoons with the class. I wasn't till the Parents arrived to pick up their kids that that they realized I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing that day and sent me on my way. I can't wait till I get an actual work schedule and can know ahead of time where I'm supposed to be.

On my way back I stopped off at Lotus again and picked up some more stuff. I needed another pillow because the one I have is hard as a rock. It took me a couple minutes to find one that was actually soft, and even that had a section on one side that was just as rock-like as the others. I bought some shampoo too. At least I hope it was shampoo. It looks and smells like shampoo, but there were so many bottles in that section that can't be sure. My hair feels clean though so I think I got it right.

And that was my Halloween.

Today
Today is my first day off since I got here. And by day off, I mean, I wasn't told that I have to be anywhere. I'm using the opportunity, along with my newly discoverd wifi, to catch up on cleaning, blog updates, and general relaxation. I've got the hot water heater on, and in a little bit I can take a nice, hot, but short shower.

My plans for today include:

1. RELAXING shower.
2. Clean the mud off the floor in the living room.
3. Eat any of the poptarts that survived the flight over.
4. Try to find out Graeme and Chris's home number.
5. Figure out how the laundy works.
6. Maybe wander around Lotus, and see if there's any more food (snacks) I want.
   

Sunday:
Tomorrow, I'm going on a tour of the city with Nikki, a teacher at Jin Du school. I've been wantint to do this for a while, and Nikki is attractive as well, so this is a double bonus for me.

Monday:
On Monday I'm going to get the requored health examination. I'm hoping that it will beno more complicated than getting a shot or four and peeing in a cup. I don't know what else they really could do, but I have a strong imagination.

Other Notes:
Somehow, a person in Xi'an found my cellphone number on the internet and messaged me looking for an English speaking friend. I have no idea how this happened, seeing as I don't even have my number memorized, and have just now been on the internet long enough to do more than copypaste some blog posts.

Got my first telemarketing call a today. I was almost releived when I realized it wasn't someone telling me I had to be somewhere today.