Finn's first morning in his Chinese apartment (step by step)

1) Got out of bed, still in boxers, and proceeded to stumble about the apartment after 12 hours of jet-lagged sleep.

2) wandered into 2nd bedroom with no curtains up, got stared at by a Chinese guy cooking breakfast in the apartment building across from mine

3) set up curtains

4) shower time: I wandered into shower/bathroom/laundry room (you have to walk across the shower area to get to the toilet and washer, which are set 6 inches above the shower area).

5) started shower, only got cold water.

7) Tried to work Chinese water heater.

8) Got burned by chinese shower.

9) Tried again to work Chinese water heater.

10) got slightly less burned: commenced showering.

11) tried to differentiate Chinese Shampoo and conditioner with little success.

12) turned on the sink to shave...cold water

13) stopped up the sink, pointed shower head into sink for hot water.

14) shaved

15) Used a sgueegee on the floor as I had managed to soak everything in the room with water.

16) Got dressed, headed out for Chinese breakfast (hot noodles, egg and beef)


These are the steps I would recommend for anyone's first night in China. It certainly makes for an interesting experience when you can't read ANYTHING in your apartment.

Well, Luke, Katherine, and I are in Shiyan now. We have set up in our apartments and are doing well. I have many many stories to tell, but I am typing right now on my neighbor's computer. Our internet is sadly not set up yet, and we have no Chinese cell phone for the moment. We have alerted the school though, and tomorrow morning we will be getting phones and internet.

Shiyan is a beautiful city. Although busier than you or I could have imagined, the people are friendly, the air is clean, and the mountains are gorgeous. Sadly, it has rained all day today, so Brad showed us where to buy umbrellas. We grocery shopped a little and had lunch with some of our fellow American teachers that we ran into on the street. We ate at a place they call "happy lady's" because the owner of the small restaurant is a short portly Chinese lady who CONSTANTLY grins from ear to ear. She was SOOOO sweet and we ate very well (5 of us ate for just over 5 American dollars!!!).

I will have more pictures coming, as well as some other stories, but for now I think I will get out of my neighbor's hair and go watch a movie or something. Thanks for your patience. I promise we will do better at blogging/facebook/skype when our internet is hooked up. Until then, goodbye, and God Bless.

Finn