It’s very very quiet! The teachers’ dormitories are almost empty. Many of the apartments are assigned to teachers who have homes in the city. They use them only to rest during the day while at work. Our current neighbours are the ones who are not from Shantou and there are just a few of them. We’ve seen them wandering around with their families, hear their scooters and see the occasional car drive by. The students haven’t arrived yet because school doesn’t start till September 7th.
Jenny and Lily took us out for dinner to a restaurant within driving distance from here the first night. We had a delicious meal with fresh seafood chosen from tanks at the front door. A yummy start! We spent the next 2 days shopping for food and other basics. Since the campus is nearly deserted during the holidays, the nearby little stores and restaurants are closed and there are no fruit or veggie vendors either. For now, we have to go into town to get everything. There is a village about a 5 minutes drive away with tiny stores. We were driven there the first night to get a few things but we haven’t checked it out ourselves yet since it would mean a 20 minute walk in the heat or a 10 minute bike ride. I haven’t been on a bike in many years so I don’t want to be trying the hilly ride until I’ve rediscovered my bike legs. All that to say, we have to cook. The kitchen here is bright and inviting. It’s also large enough for two people so we can cook together again.
Without a nearby source of food, we desperately shopped for things we might need for our meals for a couple of days at a time. The first day we had the driver with us so we could buy bigger and heavier things. On the second day, we had to take the bus into town with Lily’s help and we headed to Walmart. We bought what we could carry and took the bus back to the university by ourselves.
One of the “essentials” we had to shop for was cockroach spray. Why? Because I saw my first live one in the bathroom the second night we were here. I saw lots of dead ones in Mexico and maybe one live one but I’m not sure since I didn’t get a good look at it since it was the middle of the night. I was unpleasantly surprised! Don came to my rescue. Since the walls are concrete and the window was shut, we think it came from the floor drain or the sink. A plate was assigned the important task of covering the floor drain when it was not in use. The next day when I told Lily about it, she also suggested putting a heavy rock on it since rats might try to come up the drain in search of food. Yikes! A full water bottle quickly joined the plate until we can find a rock. I will not be happy to see one of those! I saw one dead on the street when we were in town but in our apartment, I don’t even want to think about that.
We finally got out and walked around the campus yesterday. It has been very hot (34ºC) and humid so we went early in the morning. It didn’t matter. I’m not sure it’s ever cool here. The campus is large and hilly. There are many buildings to accommodate the 7,000 students who live in the dormitories. Some of them are only here during the week and return home nearby for the weekends. I’m sure the campus will look very different once they all arrive. In the meantime, everything looks abandoned. We saw many people working on the grounds. The vegetation has taken over during the summer so they are busy cutting and cleaning.
Everyone is preparing for the new school year… except us. We haven’t received our schedules yet or our text books so now that we’ve settled into the apartment, we have to wait. We have been enjoying the Internet, and our two English (not CCTV 9) and Cantonese tv channels. My Cantonese will definitely get a work out here and I’m teaching Don more. Mandarin is still the working language here but some people do understand it. I’m sure I’ll be able to communicate more. I’ve already spoken it with Jenny and Lily and heard it around me. Our Mandarin still won’t be improving quickly but I’m happy that I’ll be able to help do things. Besides our intention to experience a different part of China, we wanted to live in an area where my Cantonese might make life a bit easier.
Update: Btw, Don is a big attraction here. No other foreigners in site … until yesterday at Walmart. It was funny. I found Don talking to her and when I approached I was happy to see another foreigner but she didn’t know to be happy to see me. I keep forgetting what I look like ☺ Everyone tells me that I look Chinese until I open my mouth!
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