Finally...

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Yes, Nancy finally got her cast off yesterday. We took the big trek to the hospital in the morning and, once again, went through all the pocesses...x-rays, doctor consultation (along with a dozen others at the same time!!), waiting and more waiting. But in the end, out came the scissors and off came the white stuff. Both of us would have done a dance in the room if we could have. I asked if I could take pictures but was was informed by the nurse not to so I was a good little boy and kept the camera in my pocket. Ok, so I did sneak a few shots here and there as I was waiting around.

Last night, we took a taxi to the Cafe Brussels, a great restaurant with western food and lots of good beer. It is about a 60 kwai taxi ride from our place so it is about as far away as we have gone by taxi so far. We had a little map to get there so the driver eventually found it but he had a little difficulty. Coming home, the cabbie had no idea where Vanke was, but I managed to get him there with my limited vocabulary. We have only been there once or twice before but picked out enough landmarks to know how to get back home again. Of course, he kept asking questions and I kept telling him I didn't understand. I am going on a mission to improve my ability with this language in the next year!! I have ordered a DVD audio instruction package, attend the classes at the school regularly and have joined a couple of online language chat sites.

The weather here continues to be nice but it is getting chilly at night. Still quite warm during the daytime. We are still blown away by the low cost of living and will definitely have a hard time adjusting if we ever go back to Canada. A couple of nights ago I went across to the small neighbourhood store to grab a couple of beers and a bag of sugar. The grand total was 8 kwai, a little over a buck Canadian. As someone said the other day, you can gather up enough loose change around the house to have a party. Of course, any western style stuff is more expensive but even it is not too bad and, at the most, comparable to Canada. We can grab a couple of Big Mac meals at McDonalds for about 40 kwai, which is only 6 or 7 bucks. And brick-oven fired pizza delivered to the door is about 100 kwai, not bad unless it is a cold, rainy night. It is usually deliverd by scooter so can be wet, cold and a little mixed up depending on the weather!!

A few of us have started the process to get our Chinese driving licenses so hopefully that will happen in the next week or so. It is just a case of putting together a bunch of paperwork and finding the time to get to the license bureau, which is quite a ways away. The next step will be getting something that we can use to get out of town and into the surrounding countryside. The electric scooter just won''t do it.

Anyway, that is about it for now from the China Canuck.

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Photos

Always a great view into the trauma room from the waiting area!
Usually there is something exciting going on that you have a front row seat to watch as you wait.

Comments

[victor]

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come to your blog accidentally.most thing that i thought is the difficulty of a foreigner.oh,by the way,i am a chinese collage student in xi'an.welcome to here.may you all right!