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Published: October 1st 2013
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Ahhh… today was great! I swear that it was like Christmas in September. I started the morning off with a trip to downtown Nanchang with my coteacher. We picked out a new toilet for my apartment.
My toilet has been such a disaster! It is broken into several pieces and leaks all over the floor. The fact that the used toilet water gets all over my bathroom floor means that I have to use strong chemicals on my floor to keep Ava and I from getting sick. The strong chemicals are causing our feet to peel and the whole thing has been generally disturbing. After a whole lot of begging, pleading, and complaining, I finally got permission to buy a new toilet and be reimbursed. So, my coworker helped me to haggle the seller down to a reasonable price. The toilet was strapped to the back of a moped and delivered and installed in no time.
There were a couple of minor inconveniences of course. The biggest one was the Zac had carried the toilet downstairs and we were told later that I had to keep the toilet on my balcony until… well, we don’t
know when. So, the toilet is sitting on my balcony. I think it really classes up the place. (ha ha).
After that, Zac, Lauryn, Ava and I went to downtown Nanchang and celebrated our first paychecks by getting Starbucks. We bought bags of coffee and coffee drinks to go. I had a salted caramel mocha, which was wonderful.
We decided to check out a few bakeries after drinking our coffee and found one named Vanilla that is right by Walmart and the main square. The pastries look delicious and are less than the chain bakery we previously found. Also, they sell coffee for 1/3 Starbuck’s price. So, next time we will try out Vanilla. I consider it a victory with future rewards.
Then, we went to Walmart and I bought Ava 4 pairs of jeans and also bought myself a nice water bottle. All this was less than $50, so I was super happy with those purchases.
It was 6:30 by this time and we were all pretty hungry. The last time Ava and I had perused the main back street, we found a place that smelled delicious.
However, there were no empty seats at the time. So, we went back to the place but decided that the dishes looked unappetizing. We tried out another place instead. This place had pictures on the menu! Also, Zach had his guidebook that gave the names of some meats and veggies. In the end we ordered rice with 4 different dishes. This was by far the best food we have had so far in China! We ate our fill and still have 2 full bowls worth of food that we plan to eat for brunch tomorrow. This cost a total of $17.66.
We decided to stop in the city square before going home and watched a children’s rollerblading class for a while. It was super cute. Ava danced around with no music and seemed to enjoy herself immensely.
We got in line for the bus just in time to run into 3 of my students. They had bought a puppy. I am still wondering how they plan to keep the puppy in the dorms, but I guess that is their hurdle to jump over. There were hoards of students trying to get on the bus,
so we all shared a van back to the university. It was nice to chat with my students outside of class time and also nice not to be crammed on the bus.
I’m about to go to bed. But I just wanted to write and say that today was a fantastic day that was full of wonderful coffee, food, shopping, friends, and city experiences. Enjoy the pictures and video!
Here is a video of people posing for photos with Ava:
https://vimeo.com/75701232
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jingjing
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finally
Finally, I saw you four faces all together! I am happy for you guys! It was a wonderful day :-) Once more, I am so happy that life has been so interesting and wonderful to you guys :-)