So life is slowly settling into a routine. Days are beginning to flow into each other, much as they would back in the states. Last weekend, I took the bus to Ole with Jessie. Ole is in MixC Mall, which is a big western mall with stores like Prada, Gucci, and the like. You get the picture. There was a ColdStone, KFC, and a Yankee Candle (good to know when I need my candle fixes). At the bottom was Ole, which is a Western-ish style grocery store.
As soon as I walked in, I was in heaven. First off, it was set up like Whole Foods, with little baskets. They had tasting stands up so I sampled many thing. They had REAL bread, REAL milk and CHEESE!!!! It was amazing. I spent around 600 rmb, which is $100. Not bad for getting some of the stuff I really want. Watch my haul video below to see the items I got.
Jessie met up with an old friend so I got to venture home on the bus alone. I rode 13 stops and then transferred to another bus to get home. I was so proud of myself that I accomplished this. :) It makes me feel like I really am belonging, despite the constant stares I get.
Wednesday, I had Josie and her husband Evan over for dinner. I made Indian paneer out of the milk. I actually wasn't hard at all. I need to get some cheese cloth (or gauze) so I can make it more often. I put that into a tomato curry and made naan on my stove. I got a whole bunch of yeast, but since I don't have an oven yet, I had to be content with stove baking. It was a yummy meal.
Friday, I met my new student who is starting Monday. Her name is Yuval and she is from Israel. She doesn't speak any English so it shoudl be fun. My two Chinese speakers came in knowing some English and they've caught on really fast. They knew letter names, sounds, and are working on word families. I'm not sure about Yuval, but I'm going to start low and hope that she surprises me with more English. She seemed sweet when I met her and the kids are excited. Now, I'll have 13 students, the smallest class I've ever had (not counting the one semester I taught 12 2nd graders at BACS). I do not, however, like that it's an odd number. Now groups are off. :( Booooo!!
Nothing really exciting happened this weekend. It was pretty lazy, which was nice. It stormed pretty hard Friday night. The wind whipped everything around, which was awesome because Saturday was blue skied. It was lovely. I had forgotten what blue skies looked like. Scary right?!?! That night, a bunch of us went to an Indian buffet near West Lake and it was soo good! I'll definitely be going there often. I also got bored a little last night and decided, after looking at all the yummy pictures of bread on Pinterest, to whip up a batch of dough.
This morning, I smeared Nutella on the dough and popped it into my crockpot to "bake" or steam as it was. Yup, I learned you can "bake" bread in a crockpot. It was a very tasty breakfast if I do say so myself. Nothing say homeiness like bread baking. I went to the store and make a Nutella cinnamon and a cinnamon loaf. I didn't bake these in my crockpot. I went over to Miriama's and baked them legit in her oven on campus. Her whole apartment smelled amazing.
From there, we went across the street to the Aussies' apartment. I found out that Hannah adored the BBC Pride and Prejudice as did Miriama. As soon as we found this out about each other, we KNEW we were having a movie date. We had appetizers as we watched the first Episode. Jem, Hannah's boyfriend, made cucumber sandwiches, so we really felt British. We were saying the lines and giggling at our favorite parts. After the first episode, we ate Mexican food. Yup, total P&P food I know. But it was good. Soooo good. Miriama left, but Hannah, Jem, and I watched til Episode 3, where Lizzie refused Darcy's proposal. What a wonderful way to leave. I had such a fun time. I love that P&P can bring people together.
I will leave you with video. On this is my daily walk to my house. Even though it's from the bus station, the station is right next to my school so this is the way I walk daily. A short tour of my apartment and then my Ole haul. Sorry the video is shaky. It's taken on my camera and it's not a good video. I also haven't truly mastered how to do video yet.
Apt tour and Western food haul
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