Thursday, June 4, 2009

Summer in Zhejiang Province

It's hot. Very hot. Some days it's not so bad, but others are miserable. Luckily, we have great air conditioning in our little apartment/cubbie. At school, though, everything is open. Windows, halls, etc. There are a/c units in the classrooms, but they don't seem to use them... too much power maybe? Sometimes they use the ceiling fans. Mostly, we just sweat through it. The poor students come in pouring sweat, and heaving from gym class outside. How can you expect them to TRULY absorb the intricacies of trick-or-treat and jack-o-lanterns when they are so hot?
Most of my family knows that I do NOT do well in the heat. Actually, I'm doing much better than I thought! Sure, it's hot... but I'm not really having the terrible headaches I had back home. My headaches are mostly gone. Honestly, I think staring at a computer screen 8-10 hours a day was my biggest issue. So the heat doesn't HURT...it's just HOT!
People here deal with the heat in a few different ways. One is naps. The school schedule changed once summer started, and now we have a 2 hour gap for lunch/naps at the hottest part of the day. If we stay in the office to do work, you will see teachers with their heads on their desks, or laying down on a reclining deck chair. People in the canteen sleep at the tables. Also, men hike up their shirts. When you walk down the street, it's common to see men with their shirts bunched up around their armpits, and their bellies showing. Girls just wear short, flowy dresses or shorts. I haven't actually seen any naked babies yet... it seems like even in this heat, they like to bundle!

Enough of that...

I've had a few people ask for a "care package list". So, here it is... the "I wants" And "I needs"....

-deodorant (you can't find it here!)
-cheesy skeezy tabloid weekly magazines for Amy(oh, how I miss my weekly dose of gossip)
-National Geographic for Matthew
-Self Magazine, Shape Magazine, People Magazine...
-mac n' cheese (you can NEVER have enough!)
-dryer sheets (most people don't have dryers... so no dryer sheets here. We have CLING!)
-gum (we've got a small hoard thanks to my uncle, but it'll only last so long! Chinese gum loses flavor really fast)
-letters from home... these are the best!
-DVDs
-Spam (ooooooohhh I miss spam)
-pictures of home... people... we wanna see your faces!
-Women's shoes size 9.5... CANNOT FIND here. Dressy sandals. They are all teeny here!!!

That's all I can think of for now. The address is in a past post... and we know it works. We've gotten a letter and postcard already!

Anyway, have a fabulous weekend. We plan on staying out of the heat, watching some horror movies borrowed from the neighbors, and just relaxing. As all the little ones here say,

"BYE BYE!"

1 comment:

  1. really? you miss spam? haha...you would

    ReplyDelete