First Days in China

Our first few days in China were truly an adventure...Our liaison basically threw us into the water and told us to swim, then seemed surprised when we didn't drown.  We found a great pizza place, Subway, and Walmart.  We set up a Chinese bank account and got SIM cards for our cell phones.  Since this was all dealing with Chinese speaking folks, we made some quick friends with students in the line who helped out these distressed senior citizens.

Students who helped us translate and get our cell phones

We hired a taxi and met other BYU teachers across town for dinner.  $8 for the taxi each way, only $10 for dinner for both of us.

Sunday morning found us standing in line for nearly 3 hours to have blood tests, while listening to BYU's "Hail Mary" finish. We nearly passed out from excitement, heat, and lack of water (before the lab tests).

Our apartment is tiny, but has some nice features--wood floors, and screens on the windows, and nice storage.  The kitchen is just wide enough for one person to walk through. We did laundry, and Tim had to hang it all out to dry as clothes dryers are non- existent in China. If the internet keeps functioning, we will be OK.

 We have nearly walked our legs off, but there are lots of shade trees.  The power lines are hanging in bundles, from tree to tree.  Certainly glad not to be an electric lineman here!  Found a grocery store--there are fruit and vegetable markets on nearly every corner.  Bananas are safe. We'll learn how to safely wash the others or use my handy peeler.

Our fellow teacher under the power lines