Virginia’s Housing History, Take Four! Saturday, Aug 29th

A first in China, this Lin’An apartment 3 km from workplace, Babe English Training School. It was clean inside, with many small necessities like broom, soap, purified water, and food in refridgerator.  The “Enterance” (spelling seen on prominent supermarket out a bus window) is securely triple-locked, though I’m told theft isn’t a problem. Sliding doors to my drying room “balcony” got its broken lock fixed the second day here; they cleaned up trash on the mildew-streaked cement out there the third day. No place for drinking tea, that!

I’ve prettied up the walls with US calendar art and Chinese folk art gifts from Hainan. Yesterday morning, I biked to a supermarket for peanut butter (chunky, knock-off Skippy!) and an electric pot for morning oatmeal. Zoe and Bear arrived with a rice cooker and loaner bike; Co-owner Shirley gave me a box of tart plums, now in season. Clock arrived after I settled in, with explanation that same Chinese word for “death” doubles for “clock”, so I put Hainan Cheri’s grandma’s cross-stitch insoles there to remind myself Time Marches On!
 
I await a TV and–hopefully–chairs and a table to join a funky puppy-print red futon. Playful puppies play ball over my queen bed night and day; computer sits on a corner desk. Tiled bathroom gets cleaned each time I shower; washer is big. View from bath and kitchen gets lively around 7:00 a.m. with the trash truck’s rumble. I’m hoping to screen that view with plants and look beyond to university trees and buildings.
 
I cooked chicken-vegetable stew to share with Mark, next door co-worker. He’s delighted to be here, away from gang-infested Oakland Middle Schools. He’s sharing Skype and indebted me greatly yesterday. I boarded the bus, hoping to eat lunch near school and leisurely prepare for four demo classes with five-six year olds and parents. Exiting when I saw the landmark overhead tubes (water? electricity?), everything started to look alike with no other familiar landmarks.

No cell phone answer from Zoe, my owner life-line in Lin’An. I walked both directions, discovering the emergency yuan I carry had been removed when I washed cell phone carrier. I had ID and 1.5 yuan left, so I boarded Bus 6 back to my flat. Zoe answered a third call, and Mark biked home to lead me through twists and turns on bikes (seat’s still far too low, after raising it beyond where Chinese wanted it raised). We arrived to…no kids!

A teaching assistant ran to KFC for a sandwich, and Chinese teacher Sam gave me “bubble tea” (the same sweet milk tea with rice balls Hainan called “pearl tea”–no bean curd, like I thought), and I relaxed a moment.
 
Teaching times had changed; I taught 5-6 year olds (including one, whose grandpa told me my class was “too easy”; then I learned his grandson was nearly-eight years old!); next came a mixture with one girl whose mom needed to sit behind her to wipe tears and sisters who cried until Mom took them out (the older one told Zoe she “was the best in her kindergarten and didn’t understand everything with this foreigner”); last, 3-4 year olds straggled in over thirty minutes’ time and were so delightful you could eat them with a spoon. Zoe said parents were signing kids up; it sounded like she was doing an agressive sell job with them.
 
I fall asleep before reading much at night; I can get Fish Fry on www.kcuf.org mornings, and perhaps we’ll soon have some kind of schedule by September 10, when classes start. One day at a time while it marches on…