Ouf!

Ouf!
I guess that this statement summarizes my month,

Obviously, my month has been spent working long hours at the yard. Life outside of the yard has been almost nil.

This, of course, is driving Rox crazy.
Lets see where I last left off.

We definitely spent a few weeks commissioning the new apartment. Every day, there was a new problem: our bathroom leaking into the downstairs neighbor, our upstairs neighbor leaking into our apartment, leaky piping in the kitchen, floor drains smelling of sewage. Needless to say, the guys who were in charge of finishing the apartment did a scandalously terrible job. None of the drains aligned so it didn’t take long to realize that out toilet sewage was backing-up under the floor! They even had used an empty beer bottle to wedge the bath piping. into place.

On a slightly more interesting note for us, we did spend a few hours shopping for furniture. It’s certainly fun spending someone else’s’ money.

The kitchen is considered a large one. Compared to where we were on the south shore, this one is a closet! One interesting find in the kitchen is the dish sanitizer. It looks like a dish washer but it only produces hot air and UV light. AFTER you wash the dishes, you arrange them to dry/sanitize in this gizmo. I hate it because I think that the dishes gave food a funny and the spoons have a funny smell. But after realizing how dirty the tap water is, it’s kinda nice to know that the dishes can be made clean.

I’m writing now in pigeon English. This is the result of having to spend all day and evening speaking in monosyllabic phrases. My speech is now extremely slow. Even my typing fingers are now faster than my thoughts. When speaking, I must really sound like a retard because I carefully pronounce every word. I do think that it is achieving its purpose however because I often end up translating to the Chinese what my English colleagues are trying to say.

I haven’t resumed any mandarin classes since Christmas. I am picking up a few words here and there but I would have liked to learn more.

Spring here has more than arrived. All of the plum trees are in blossom. The rainy season will soon commence and wash away the winter’s dust. The air here is clean most of the time. The wind must be blowing in the right direction.
I have a used bike for going around the yard. I try to get out for a tour every day now. Question de se changer un peu les idées.

Gotta run!
Un abraso a todos.