House Hold Appliances!!!

It is a red letter day!! I took the bus to my apartment this morning around 7:30am. I let the cleaners in at 9:30am-which I would like to make a side note about. The painter painted on Friday and it was him and his wife for three bedrooms, kitchen, living room plus all the ceilings and they had it done in one day-they started around 9am and by 6pm they were finished. The cleaners are a husband and wife team and they had a HUGE job in front of them and they expect to be done by 8pm. American's would never work this hard.

Okay, so after I had a brief dilemma dealing with the water and the lack of a functioning toilet-which everything was resolved in a timely manner and the toilet should be a-okay now. April and I went large appliance shopping. Yay!!! I wish that I had been thinking because I would have taken pictures for you...but I didn't, sorry.

We first came to the stove top appliances and oh the choices. There are infrared ones and just electric ones. The differences is that the electric ones can only be used with iron pots and pans. The infrared ones can be any kind of pans. The infrared do not heat as quickly and cost much more. Being as I have no pans or pots at this time I opted to get the regular one and just make sure that they have iron. If and when I need another kind of stove burner I will get one at that time. :)
When I bought my stove burner I got as a special gift two pots, a teapot, and.....wait for it....a pressure cooker. Wow....ooooo...ahhhhh!!

Second, the friges. It was imperative that I find one that I could stick magnets on-however there is no refrigerator culture here where they stick things to the frige-so it was pretty impossible to explain to the sales lady what I was looking for...April said that every one they have had was magnetic. So I bought a white one that has 135 in the refrige part and 75 in the freezer part. Don't ask me what unit of measurement it was because I do not know. I am very excited to hang people on it. :)

Third, my washer. This is my favorite one. I got an LG-(2002 northpark beijing team)front loading washing machine. April said that the top loading washers here are worthless-like just putting your clothes in plain water. My shiny silver LG(NPU 2002) has English and Chinese characters. It hold 6.5kg of clothing and I get to tell it how fast or slow to spin. It can spin as fast as 900 spins a min. Isn't that CRAZY!!!

Who knew that house hold appliances could be so exciting!!! The great part about it all is that every single item was on sale. The refrigerator would have been even more on sale if I could have shown that I was a Chinese rural farmer, however,that proved difficult to verify. So I only got the somewhat on sale price. :)

Then as I was walking home from the bus stop through the park next to Ruth's home there was a five piece band made with traditional Chinese instruments playing and there was this really old man singing what sounded like opera. It made my day. So I skipped and pranced the rest of the way home.

Thank you all for being a part of this day!!

Bike Ride

So, I took my first solo bike ride since being here and I have news for you. 1. Riding a bike is much more scary than walking here. There are so many things to keep track of. The other bicyclists, the other motorcyclists, the cars, the buses, the pedestrians. The many many many pedestrians. I biked from Ruth's home to my new home. It really didn't take very long but it was a frightful ride-against traffic, with traffic, paused in traffic. This is all very new and different and you can just continue to think of me during this time. Oh and for those of you who wanted to know I do have a basket on the front of my bike...:)

Here I am

I am finally back on Blogspot. I am sorry that it has been a while. The Issue: when I turn on the filter that will allow me to access Blogger my wireless internet is disabled. Something I intend to figure out the glitches before I move. If I am unable to-I will let you know that there may be a temporary break in my communication. :)
I sign my lease in the morning and then go pick out paint colors with the painter. Not much else is happening. I did not find the pecan pie flavored moon cake but I did have a grape flavored one which tasted like a fig newton. I watched the National Day Parade with some nationals and it was unlike any parade I have ever seen. I sat for two hours before I left. I guess the floats and dancers and entertainment followed after the third hour. But all I saw was the president and prime minister riding in fancy cars past all the military and the weapons oh and don't forget the speeches. I will upload pictures now. love you so much. Denise

Denise's View of KM

Pictures of My Un-Finished Apt:

New Apartment!!

I will soon be the proud renter of a two bedroom, one office, one bath apt in KM. I am so pleased and excited to eventually share pictures of it. Things are so different here. Instead of paying monthly rent you pay the whole year all at one time. That is a huge drop into the bucket. So tomorrow is the Moon Cake Festival. I have been instructed to find the moon cake that tastes like pecan pie. So, those of you who had the pleasure of trying the moon cake at my open house, not all moon cakes have an egg in the middle. I know that you are all relieved on my behalf.

Biker Chic

I rode on the back of a bike today. Sounds really cool until you realize I mean a REAL bike and the bike was short and I am tall. Soooo it was really awkward cause I had to lift my feet up off the ground and balance myself on the back of the bike too. The woman who was driving said that we would be the silly girls and everyone would smile. I told her I was used to being funny and having people laugh at me. I imagine it was quite a site.