Random Pics, Everyday Life

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I got the apartment cleaned up and modestly decorated. My old roommate went to go do research at Yale and I got a new roommate Chen Jiao, a very sweet girl my age who is in her 5th undergraduate year studying veterinary medicine. (All medicine undergraduate programs are 5 years.) She was just living by the Chinese Academy of Sciences so that she could complete her undergraduate thesis research here. Now she finished her research, so she has already moved out. We had fun jogging, watching some Chinese movies I didn't understand and also Desperate Housewives together : ) Also one evening she and her boyfriend made me dinner which was really nice of them. I feel bad one night I invited her to Vox without knowing what the band would be like and it was this really weird experimental group from Norway that wore zebra bathrobes and no pants. It was kind of fun anyway because after a few beers I get less nervous about speaking Chinese and more friendly so we got to have a nice chat.

The Powers that Be jacked the postdoc housing rent from 400 rmb/month to 1200 rmb/month (I pay half) and I thought I was going to have to move to the graduate student dorm. They are not willing to house foreigners because they aren't willing to deal with possible communication problems. So if you want to live there you have to get an HR person to nag them for a long time and insist that your Chinese is fine until they give in. Rent for Chinese students is 160 rmb/month, but for foreign students it is 200 rmb/month. Anyway worked it out so I could stay put and rent only increased to 300/month.

Went to the dentist in Wuhan approximately 8 times for the tooth that hurt a lot when I was traveling with Lauren. They only spoke Chinese to me so I was not so clear on what was going on, but I got a root canal and a crown. I tried to get anesthetic, but the dentist was like "your tooth has been hurting for many days and you haven't had anesthetic so why would you use it now?" lol. Also went to go see the East Lake Hotel during a Chinese Academy of Sciences meeting. Mao Zedong liked staying there and it's generally a popular place for important politicians.

I don't have a washing machine. I asked around and determined that most undergraduate and graduate students wash their all clothes by hand! Buying a machine for 9 months didn't seem worth it, so I went out and bought some large buckets and now I spend hours every week listening to NPR and hand washing my laundry. My former roommate Chen Jiao and I both hate washing clothes and we complained together. Also though the temperature is generally in the 30's/40's in Dec/Jan/Feb, Wuhan is just South enough so that the buildings here do not have central heating. Many rooms (such as my bedroom, my office, the lab) have air conditioners that do both cooling and heating, but of course you have to turn them on and wait for the room to get warmer. My bedroom air conditioner is not so effective (if it's 30 degrees outside like tonight, maybe my room can get to be 60 degrees max) so I sleep wearing at least a few pairs of pants, a few pairs of socks, a sweater, a sweatshirt and a hat. My kitchen and bathroom are probably around 40 degrees right now though. To do laundry without my hands freezing, I wear knit gloves and then waterproof gloves on top. Also now I understand why people here will wear the same outfit for multiple days in a row and I do it too now! I'm like "if I only wear two pairs of pants this week, I only have to wash two pairs!"

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Photos

Kitchen
Cleaned and decorated!

Flowers Blooming
On my street.

Happy National Day!
At the nearby military base. Military base yeah that is why they objected to me jogging there.

Cooking With New Food
Lotus root!

Pomello
Like a big, sweet grapefruit.

Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping
Once shook hands in the hotel!

More New Food!
Fresh haw berries.