Life is GOOD!!! We are
absolutely LOVING this experience we are having!! We seriously couldn't have chosen a more
awesome experience to begin our life as missionaries. I think the hard part will be comparing
everything to this first one! We are
reminded daily how amazing it is to be here doing what we are doing at this
time in our lives. It is such a blessing
that we are able to do this while we are fairly young. I’m not sure how some of the older couples
that are closer to 65 keep up sometimes because it is a pretty crazy schedule
and has a high demand of physical-ness to go along with it.
Here are some of the physical aspects of
China:
1
--Everywhere you go, you get there by
walking. Our closest store is about a 15
min walk. We walk EVERYWHERE…to the
bank, to the store, to the fruit and vegetable markets, to the subway (about 20
min walk), to the bus (about 15 min walk), to explore the city… You get the
idea! We walk, walk, and walk! And, whatever you buy at the store must be
lugged home. We typically each take a
backpack to the store with us and then load it up and heft it home. I tell ya, we are building muscles in strange
ways!
--Getting to school each day requires
running down 2 flights of stairs carrying our heavy briefcases (laptop,
projector, cords, speakers, teaching supplies, etc.) and then hauling them up
the bus stairs and down the aisle, only to repeat this step backwards to get
home. My arms are getting quite strong I
think! Plus, once we get to school, we
go up, up, up to get to our classrooms (someday I will count the number of
steps), carrying all our gear. There are
no elevators anywhere in the universities, at school or in the dorms that are 6
and 7 stories high. Everyone must take
the stairs! We are definitely getting
good exercise!
INTERNET
The good news is that WE
HAVE CONSISTENT INTERNET!!!!!! Well, as
consistent as it gets in China. We
finally have our own internet that is secure so we aren't sharing with 7000
other people here. It has changed
significantly in that we can access the internet pretty regular. We still have times where everything shuts
down for a while and then it will come back on… we just have to be patient and
wait it out. We are getting pretty good
at being patient!!!
COST OF LIVING
The cost of living here is
quite cheap. The other night we went out
to dinner and afterward, stopped and got Jordan a haircut (I didn’t have the extra
room or luggage weight to bring my hair buzzers) and here was our total: 20 yuan for dinner (we had yummy Muslim
noodles) and 10 yuan for the haircut, for a total of 30 yuan ($4.92). We about broke the bank that night! It is
almost cheaper to go out to eat than to try and get ingredients to make meals
here. But, I still try to cook pretty
regular because it gets old eating out every night.
WATER
Water is an issue
here. We must only drink bottled
water. Even the locals refuse to drink
the water. For dish washing we add
bleach to the wash and rinse water. So
far so good. We must wash all fruits and
vegetables with either bleach or a special food detergent before eating
it. Again, so far so good. Brushing teeth requires some fancy bottle
swishing and rinsing. Next time you
stoop down and get water from the faucet to rinse your mouth, say a little
prayer of thanks for the simpleness you enjoy!!
TAXIS
We had our first bothersome
taxi ride. We had gone about 20 min
across town by taxi to meet some friends for dinner. It only cost 20 yuan ($3.20) to get
there. When it was time to return home
we caught a black taxi (most taxis here are green and yellow) and at first we
were surprised at how clean and new it seemed.
Very quickly we realized it wasn't all good. The meter started cranking up very quickly
and the driver was going about 10 miles an hour. At one point he pulled over and searched
around and around inside the front seats to recover his cell phone which he had
lost, all the while the meter is cranking up.
I started to get a little worried that he might be “taking us for a
ride” so turned on my phone GPS and started tracking our progress toward
home. It was apparent he either had no
idea where he was going or he was trying to get everything he could from
us. I started spitting out words I was
looking up on Google translate to try and get him to turn where I knew he
should turn. He would act annoyed and
ignore me. We got more vocal and
demanding and he started to respond, maybe realizing we were on to his
game. Finally, after 45 min and a 60
yuan fee (3 times what we paid to get there), we got close enough to home that
we had him pull over and let us out. We
certainly learned our lesson…. Never take black taxis!! We now know black taxis are privately owned
and they pretty much do whatever they want, especially with dumb foreigners. Whatever…fool me once….that is it!! We understand it could have been way worse than
what we experienced so we are grateful someone was looking out for us!
TUK-TUKS
Pretty much, our favorite
mode of transportation if we can get one is a TUK-TUK. They are motorcycles with a little cab
attached to them (the same thing they have in Thailand). They are generally falling apart and we
wonder if we will ever even make it home.
The top speed for a tuk-tuk is probably 15 mph. But, they are easier to catch than a taxi
here in Xi’an, so many times we either walk or hail a tuk-tuk. They are
referred to by the locals as “killer cabs” but that hasn't dissuaded us
yet. Believe it or not, they charge more
than the taxis do but they are also more likely to stop and pick up foreigners
than taxi drivers. For some reason,
taxis don’t like to stop for us foreigners!
A little frustrating!! The other
night I was out with a group of women and taxis were passing us right and left
and stopping just after us for locals.
We tried to remain positive about that little obvious prejudice! A tuk-tuk finally stopped but after smelling
his breath and realizing he had probably had way too much to drink, we went
back to trying for a taxi. After about
30 minutes we finally got one to stop.
Oh the joys of city life!
Well, time to get to
bed. It is late and morning comes
early!! Life is good....
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