China #5

Nihao,

Things keep going on around here....some good, some not so good.

We have had this moldy smell in the hall part of Olivia's room as well as increased humidity also her shower seemed to leak onto the bathroom floor.  So...first they caulked the edge of the glass against the wall....no good, still leaked, then they decided the bottom of the shower needed re-grouting along it's perimeter.....no good, still leaked and now, as they have washed the excess, cement like caulk down the drain, the drain is barely functional....All weekend Olivia showered in our bathroom......her bedroom was not longer humid or smelly.....However, when the crew came on Monday to assess the drain they were also looking into the smell, humidity issue....they pulled up a floor board in the hall and it is all wet and moldy under there......Today they had to chip out the tile in the shower and replace the waterproof whatever under the shower.....when that is fixed they have to rip up the floor boards in the hall space of her room and replace the sub-floor and the finished floor........So fun, NOT.  At least we have a guest room with a full bath she can move into until all that is done.  These houses in the compound are all cement construction and they do not take very good care of them.... maintenance is non-existent....they just repair/patch in a half _____ manner.
Friends say that is not just here in our compound but all of them,  so wonderful.

I had my first day working in the school store today.  Items are not priced....just a list on the wall, makes it a bit challenging when you aren't even sure what the items are.  Oh well, I guess I will learn.  I have two co-workers.  We will work together every other Tuesday.  One is from Italy, one from Finland.....truly and international community at the school.  We ended up walking across the street and having coffee together then going to the market where they showed me some Chinese products they have found that work well.  And I shared a cab home with the one from Finland.  They both live in our compound so now I have more friends in my neighborhood, Yipee!!!!!  Cabs are very cheap here and they are like ants....tons of them.  I usually walk to and from school but it was nice to have a lift as it had gotten quite warm.

We have has some glorious weather after those horrible days on Thursday and Friday.  We got rain Saturday afternoon and evening through a good part of Sunday morning.  Brought the air quality index down to 45, I think Olivia said that.  Blue and clear....could see all the way to the mountains in the west.  I got pictures so when I get it figured out I will show you the difference.....amazing...scary.

Mike was very happy to play hooky from work this morning to watch his Monday night football game.  LIVE from Virginia Tech.  (our Tuesday morning).  I am not sure how it worked out, I left before it was over.

Olivia had her first swim team practice yesterday morning.....It nearly killed her as she is a bit out of shape and today she has very sore muscles.  Lots of massaging going on here......That 6:27 bus was early!!

Enough for today, need to practice my Chinese so the teacher will be happy and I can communicate with the cabbie as well as Katja!

Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona