We first agreed to rent the house when it was still being zhuāng xiū (a word that means something like decorate). All houses here are bought completely empty; cement walls, pipes exposed, no finishing what so ever. Since we caught our landlord in the middle of the zhuāng xiū process, we had a bit of say into how we wanted the house to be finished. But to no avail, we couldn't get everything we wanted. As it stands now, there are 7 different kinds of tile (white, blue, green and brown, etc), and 5 different kinds of wood color (dark, light, medium, red, etc) scattered throughout the house. But don't hear me wrong, our house is beautiful. We have an outdoor patio, a big open layout, three medium size rooms, two full bathrooms, and really friendly neighbors. In fact, our neighbors are so friendly, that if we leave the front door open, they will walk in and check out the place. This was a bit alarming at first, but now we find it inviting (until they start asking how much we paid for things like lights, chair, etc. and continue on about how we paid too much and they could of got it for cheaper). Our neighbors directly across the hall are especially welcoming. They gave us a house warming gift of raisins, almonds, and a "really cute" tea set (as Laura says it). She invited us over for lunch in which she cooked up a feast; fish from Hunan, pork, and 4 other vegetable dishes I couldn't put my finger on, but it was good. She also has a dog named kělè, which is cola in Mandarin. The dog is a brown haired poodle, cute but an ankle biter.
We haven't finished our own personal zhuāng xiū yet. We have couches from Ikea coming next week (thank you aaron and stacy in Chengdu for ordering and shipping those for us), we have a full kitchen coming at the end of the month, and we are furnishing everything else as it comes, màn man lái. You're probably wondering how we're eating or what we're sitting on. Well, we have a makeshift kitchen set up of a single burner and refrigerator (we do dishes in the bathroom!). And we are currently using our bed for just about everything, office, sleep, eating, and I'll stop there.
School is still moving on. We finished Phase I of GPA and are moving on to pīnyīn (the Latin pronunciation of Mandarin) and other grammar topics. We can feel the progress we are making, but some days are much harder than others. Still though, we are enjoying our classes and especially enjoying our teacher. We are grateful for our school.
Here are some recent pics:
Laura and I were walking through a quiet part of Old Town when we saw some white folks in pairs with backpacks and big cameras. I said, "Laura, this looks like the Amazing Race," and she replied, "Look, and there's the clue box!" We asked them what version of The Race they were filming but they wouldn't tell us. Based on their accent, I would say it is the Australian version (yes there are multiple versions of The Race, maybe 4 or 5 total).
A confusing pronunciation lesson.
Local fried cheese (not sure what kind) sprinkled with sugar.
Cute little walrus street dog. ("Walrus" because of the splay-footed paws.)
Who would have thought?
