This morning I thought I was supposed to teach a new freshmen class so I got up early and headed over to building 49 room 301. Suspicions arose when the students told me that no, they weren't freshmen but that yes, this was an oral English class. What they failed to tell me was that they had already started the class a week before with a different teacher, Peter. During the first five minutes of class I saw Peter walking back and forth in the hallway and finally called to him to see what was going on. "I think you are teaching my class," he said. We pulled out our teaching schedules and saw that indeed we were both scheduled to teach in that room on that day at the same time. I apologized, we laughed and I took off for home with some extra free time. Unfortunately, there is probably a class of freshmen somewhere on campus waiting for their Oral English teacher to arrive. I am sure this will get sorted out in the way that most things seem to be dealt with here: lots of time, a lack of communication and ample confusion. We've generally just stopped asking why.

With the extra free time I decided to post pictures of where I live. It's a beautiful day out today - sunny and warm with highs in the 70s and I didn't mind walking outside snapping pictures of the neighborhood.


I live in a little block of concrete townhouses that is filled with other Chinese teachers and foreign teachers. Sean lives to my right, Jordan lives on my left and Ken lives behind me. Peter and Daniel live in the hotel which is near the entrance to the university. While they don't have as much space as the villas, the hotel apartments are much nicer, don't have the mosquito problem and they have dryers to dry their clothes.

Above is the entrance to my house and below is the view when you first walk in. It is basically a dining room but I do most of my hanging out, lesson planning, grading, chatting and surfing the internet in here because there is a lot of light and more potential for people watching.


This is my kitchen. It includes a hot plate, toaster oven and microwave. The main problem is that the counter is built for the height of a Chinese person and washing dishes or cooking means stooping down a lot which gets old quickly.


This is my laundry room. The machine is a bit of an enigma as it involves a lot of crazy steps and buttons to push all of which are in Chinese of course. The process of doing laundry and using the machine was explained to me by a Chinese man who probably doesn't even do his own laundry. What isn't pictured to the right is my very own squatter toilet. Needless to say, I don't use it much.


This is my living room. Currently there are student journals strewn about on the coffee table and I am told that a new TV and DVD player are on their way soon. We'll see about that. Teddy, my waiban, was saying the same thing back in September.


Now it's time to head upstairs.


This is my extra room which is connected to its own bathroom (not pictured) and the sun porch used to hang clothes to dry. I am using this room to do P90x right now which is why the floor is cleared of anything.


This is what the sun porch usually looks like. Oh for a dryer to make clothes nice and soft again.


This is my bedroom. My bed is draped in mosquito netting - one of the most satisfying ways I have ever spend $3.


Here is another view of my room with the wardrobe to the left and the bathroom to the right.


This is my bathroom - a western toilet and plenty of hot water!

For all those interested in the mechanics on squatter toilets, I'm planning on devoting an entire post to them. Fire up.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my house - and I'll let you know if I ever find those freshmen =)

2 comments

1. Chen on October 15, 2009 at 12:38 AM

   You have also got that mosquito net? Haha..

    
2. Mama Hawk on October 15, 2009 at 12:56 PM

   Those short counters look appealing to me... and to Xander!