A Day In Our Lives

We live in the foreign teachers' building in a complex of short apartment buildings. Across the way, a woman is cooking dinner in her kitchen. Yes, we're close enough to see. Their cooking area is right at the window. Often, the man in the apartment cooks without a shirt. It's hot here in Jinan. We understand that it hasn't quite made it up to the top 3 "ovens" of China yet but it's a close 4th. Thank goodness for a/c!

Our apartment complex is located on the same street as the south entrance to the university so we don't have to walk far to get to school. It's a bit of a walk to the teaching buildings though, about 15-20 minutes to get there across campus. All along the streets, there are vendors for household items, fruits and veggies and most importantly, there are food carts.

This morning, we woke up, downloaded some episodes of our favourite tv shows from the Internet and then went out on the street to forage for breakfast. We bought breakfast sandwiches from the ladies near the campus gate (about a 3 minute walk). On the way back up the street, we stopped at our favourite fruit vendor. We try to stop there as often as we can. During pineapple season, we often got big slices on a stick from her. She is our favourite because she goes out of her way to pick us the best of what she has to offer and she always greets us with a smile. Today, we picked up grape tomatoes (they are REALLY popular here), some logan fruit and some cherries. Lately, we've noticed that her family seems to have pitched a tent behind their stall on the sidewalk and are sleeping there because she is there from day to night.

We came back to the apt and watched some tv while we ate our breakfast. Instant coffee is also big in this country (it was in Mexico as well) so we've given up any pretenses and are enjoying it. We're even lazier though cause we're buying these little packets of pre-measured coffee with sugar and creamer. We only have to microwave some water. Y voila! Then we went to work marking. Ok, Don did. I watched tv. I'm slightly addicted to Gossip Girl.

When I got hungry for lunch, I went back out on the street and bought us these great wrapped sandwiches filled with cooked shredded carrots, cabbage, potatoes and spices. The nice man just cooks it on a flat round surface placed on a stack over a block of hot charcoal. Lunch cost less than $1, just like breakfast.

Now we're getting ready to go have dinner with a couple of students. It's become a bit of a regular thing these past Sunday evenings. These 2 boys, Jerry and William, are among the most eager English learners on campus. Jerry is a Japanese major who loves speaking English and William is one of Don's students. They take every opportunity to practice and we're happy to help. Bye for now. J

p.s. Just got back from our first hot pot in China. I'm stuffed!!