Thanksgiving and....egh....

So I had an excellent Thanksgiving….Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, stuffing, Homemade Cranberry sauce, AND GRAVY OVER EVERYTHING!!!! So some friends and I went to O’reillys Irish pub to have a thanksgiving meal cooked by a German woman. Now, she is the best international cook in Kunming. So we knew it was going to taste good. The downside was that it was only one plate and not all you can eat like I am used to eating in the states. So after we were done eating and playing pool….we went out for some Chinese BBQ. So the Thanksgiving meal satisfied the taste buds and the BBQ satisfied the hunger.

And then that Sunday, I got food poisoning. I ate some bad chicken. So for two days I was rushing back and forth from the bed to the toilet. But I am all better now. So I didn’t eat for two days, which made me so hungry by the third day when I started eating…I think my body was in shock because when I ate a bowl of the fabulous pork stew that made in my awesome crock pot, I had horrible chest pains. So the stew consisted of pork, tomato, carrot, two types of leafy greens, onion, and peppers. I was trying to hit all of the nutrition thingy.

So the apartment has white tiles….which look really great….when they are clean, but they only stay clean for a day, mainly, because we have a shoes on policy in the house. I have to sweep my room every other day. It is kind of getting tedious. I will never have white tiles again. So my next home project is the increase the water pressure in the shower. So we have solar hot water which comes from the roof. I think when they installed the shower, they took the pipes all the way down to the first floor and then routed them back up to the bathroom which is the reason I have no water pressure in the shower…Also, there is this device that is next to the water pipes which is not turned on and I don’t know what it does. I am going to take it out. Wish me luck. Also, I purchased a toilet seat and it didn’t come with the nuts and bolts so my toilet seat is duct taped down. MAN HOUSE!!!!!

House warming party

We had a house warming party. There were about 25 people who came over. We also got a huge crock pot out of it. Now, this is no new age crock pot with all the FDA restrictions....This is an old school crock pot that actually can cook stuff in an hour. So i made a pork roast today with carrots and peppers. The carrots and peppers were awesome but the pork wasnt very tender. So it was a good dinner. So now that my friends here have seen my new place...it is time for you to see it. I also have a microwave now....but no rice cooker...We are probably the only apartment in all of china that does not have a rice cooker. It is kind of embarrassing. My roommate said he was going to buy one at the second hand market but he didnt. We do have some art. You might notice the huge fish tank also....It came with the apartment. There is no plan to put fish in it because it is too big to have to CLEAN. The furniture might not look great but it is REALLY comfortable.

Internet is back on.....

I can finally communicate with the world again.

New Apartment

So I finally have some time to relax after I am fully moved into my new place. My new apartment has three bedrooms, huge living room, kitchen, two bathrooms, and great roommates. So I am living with a german and another American. The first time I met the German was when I came to look at the place, but I have known the American since last December. So my room has a private bathroom, king size bed, wardrobe, futon, and a couple bed side tables (See pics below). So I took over the bedroom from a girl who took a job 2 hours outside of Kunming and she didn’t want to make the trip everyday….Understandable. So my bathroom needed a new shower head and a toilet seat. The shower head was easy to find, but the toilet seat has been harder as most people have squat potties. So today I head over to the east side of town to try to find a toilet seat. The character class had another person sign up last week….So it is getting a little momentum. We just finished responsibility and are moving on to self-control next week. 

So we have had some trouble with internet access at the new place. Apparently, we are on a pay as you use system....I think. and if that is in fact the case, then we are definitely changing it to a monthly system. So the day after we moved in...we couldnt access the internet because we didnt know why...so we let it go for a day...then figured it out...Well, that only lasted a day before the internet just stopped. But this is a different problem because we have no internet coming into the house. My theory is that China Telecom is making some changes because i have heard from different people that the internet goes down for a couple of days and then just comes back on...We are going to let it go for another day...and then we will make a fuss about it. So i have to lug my laptop with me to a cafe to check emails....Also, Oreillys is the only place my VPN works so i havent been able to post anything or send out a newsletter.

Moving

So i have found a new place to live.....I am so excited to move in. My new room is about 5x as larger as my current room. We have a solid internet connection and not just the cheapest one. It is 4mbps instead of 600kbps. That is by far the thing i am most excited about. So the residential complex that i am moving to is across the street from a police academy so a lot of police officers live in the complex and when i went to look at the place there was a police car parked right outside. So i imagine that there is little to no theft in the complex. So i bought a bicycle. 19" mountain bike. Second hand of course because it still might get stolen. And i have two locks on it....one key lock and one combination lock. Do you think i need to get another one? I move into the new place tomorrow. So a couple of other features....I have my own full bathroom. I have a wardrobe, king size bed, futon, and some other stuff that i cant really remember. AND THERE ARE NO GIRL ROOMMATES!!!!! So that means that there will not be hair EVERywhere It is not great to walk into the bathroom in the morning and see a glob of hair. 

We are doing responsibility in the character class....so at the beginning of the class i gave  all the kids an egg and told them to write their most important thing on it...It was there job to make sure that the egg didnt break through out the class. One boy put the egg in his jacket pocket and we started to play a game and of course he hit is chest one time and the egg broke in his pocket. Another boy had his egg in his hand and we were clapping and he forgot it was there....So he went to clap and it busted in his hands. It was pretty funny. a majority of them did a good job at keeping their eggs safe. In the sunday class i was throwing my egg around showing the kids what not to do and i dropped my egg on the floor....It broke....It was a great example. 

i will post pictures of the new place and bike after i get settled in.