A Day in the Life...

Several people have asked me what I'm doing, what I'm eating, where we're living - and the list goes on and on.

With that in mind I decide to chronicle my day today!

I started the morning off with a shower while Stephen finished sleeping. Our hot water is in a tank above the shower and you can see the temperature of the water drop as you use it. It takes a while to heat back up so we stagger our showers. The water is about 75 degrees Celsius at first and drops to the 60s (for Dana) or the 50s (for Stephen).                                                             

Hot Water Heater

This is the sink area of our bathroom. It is the only mirror in our hotel suite. Sadly there isn't an outlet in the room.

I've had to improvise and use the flat screen TV to see my reflection as I dry my hair each morning. It works pretty well since I'm not very picky!

After my shower, while I'm waiting on Stephen to wake up I have my quiet time and this morning spent some time messaging with Maria.

When Stephen gets up he makes us some coffee. We have a hot water kettle in our room. Coffee is hard to find here so I brought back these single cup filter style coffee makers and some coffee. Last night we walked to the little rural community down the road and found some milk and sugar.

Coffee Station

Our suite consists of two rooms. A bedroom and bathroom and the sitting area. Thankfully it's fairly spacious as it appears our home is several months from a move in date! The Chinese believe that after a home is built it needs to "air out" for 3 months. I'm working on that.

Once we're both ready we head across the street to the company. Breakfast is served at 7:30am in the company cafeteria. This morning the offering was a red bean and rice porridge, hard boiled eggs, a pastry that had a slight pizza taste and a pastry filled with vegetables. There are also two communal dishes. So far we've had peanuts, bean sprouts, and leftovers from dinner the night before. Breakfast has been my favorite meal so far.

After breakfast we attended the morning meeting and then we both went to Steve's office. (My office should be ready soon). Steve did some design work and I started my lesson plans. I'm not sure when my classes will start but I have a better feel now about the proficiency of our co-workers.

Lunch is at 12 noon. Almost everyone eats at the company cafeteria for the mid-day meal. I forgot to take a picture, but lunch (and dinner too) consists of rice, a meat and veggie stir-fry, a side vegetable, soup (which is more like herb infused broth) and fruit for dessert. Also, everyone is responsible for washing their own dishes after the meal. 

The Chinese don't drink a beverage with their meals. The soup provides hydration. They realize now that Americans like a beverage so at breakfast they put our OJ in our place (I think they may be Baptists since it's assumed we'll sit in the same spot for every meal) and water is waiting for us at the other two meals.

Jutton spot at the end of the table next to the wall

After eating lunch we rest in our suite since lunch is 1.5 hours long. Work starts back at 1:30pm. Today we went over to the new offices and factory with our boss Abraham to see where my classroom will be located.

In the time remaining before dinner I helped Stephen organize his office a bit. It's looking better and we'll post more pictures in the days to come.

The common areas (hallways, meeting rooms, bathrooms) aren't heated at the company. Due to the temperature of the one western toilet seat I have begun using the Chinese stalls. Besides it's a great quad workout too!

It's amazing to see the Chinese engineers and Stephen figure out common ground and overcome the language barrier. Our co-workers are a fantastic group to work alongside.

The factory is ridiculously clean. This is the factory floor from the hallway outside Steve's office. It is mopped EVERY day. Everyday. By hand!

Dinner is at 5:30pm. This was tonight's meal. I'm not a big fan of some of the meats. They don't worry about bones. They just spit them out as they eat. I pick and choose my pieces. I don't like bones in my mouth. All the vegetables have been wonderful though.

After dinner we made a trip to Walmart for a few things. And basically Walmart is as crazy here as home. What's funny is that we're the weirdos that everyone is staring at in amazement!

In the evening we use our VPN and a laptop to watch the news and maybe a show from the USA. We have quite the set up in the entertainment area.

And for right now an early bedtime for me especially, as I'm recovering from jet lag.

Love you all!