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| Our wonderful host family. |
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| Our street at night. |
Well, it's been a busy week for us. Mark and I recently decided that we would like to move out of our host family and try living on our own in China for our last few months here. Mr. Zhang (the head of the foreign affairs office at the college where we teach) offered us an apartment near campus that they reserve for teachers. Free of charge I might add. It was not in use this year. We took his offer, and yesterday, we moved in. The apartment is a little old and and musty as it hasn't been used in quite a while. Mark and I spent a few days cleaning mold patches off the walls (with the humidity in Nanchong, everything gets mildewy very quickly) and throwing away junk from the previous occupants. I think we now have it in livable condition and we will be quite comfortable here. We are in a very good location; close to downtown, the market streets, our school, the bus stop, Sea Turtle, and Holly's Bakery (our western haven when we need one!). All along our street there are little delightful little hole-in-the-wall restaurants and carts where people sell fried rice, steamed buns, sweet potatoes and various other tasty foods. All of these things are very cheap, which is excellent as Mark and I have yet to master Sichuan cooking. Yesterday for supper I had a big plate of fried rice with egg, vegetables and meat in it, and a piece of flat bread all for the cost of six Kuai (less than one dollar) Some of my students are planning on coming over some weekend to teach us how to make some of their favourite dishes. Also, Mark and Nate S. and I have started going to a restaurant owned by a friend of Nate's host family on Wednesday around lunch time. We helped them prepare some meat and vegetables and we watched them cook several dishes. It's difficult to know how to make dishes taste like they do, as no one uses recipes. Everyone has just grown up here knowing which spices go together with which foods. Hopefully we will pick up some Sichuan cooking techniques by the time we leave.
Lisa
