At the mid-point of PST this summer, my friends and I joked that after one month of intensive language training we had enough vocabulary to write a Chinese pop song. It is pretty simple stuff, but then again, I suppose that is the nature of pop lyrics. Chinese pop music is starting to grow on me. Well, some of it is, and I truly have little choice. It is pervasive. You hear it in the supermarket, on campus, on buses, in every store you enter, even blasting from loud speakers onto the street (noise pollution hasn't occurred to the Chinese yet). My apartment is set up high on the hillside overlooking the city and every day by 10 am the music from outside RenRenLe floats up to my ears. RenRenLe is the most popular supermarket in the center of town, and I think the music is a streetside marketing technique. At this very moment I am listening to a mix CD of Chinese pop given to me by my host brother this summer, ChenChang. Unfortunately, it lacks the one song I really dig right now, sung by this guy about his girlfriend dying. Anyway... You can see a shot of RenRenLe below.



This has been the week of repairs. First, my bed frame broke the first night I slept on it, which was embarrassing to say the least. After I convinced the worker that it couldn't be fixed by hammering the aluminum bars back into place (they were horribly bent, but flimsy, I promise) we reached the compromise of a sheet of plywood to be placed between the frame and the mattress. This naturally took a day to arrive. Next, I started having problems with my AC/heat unit, which is installed on my bedroom wall. It wouldn't heat at first, and then later it would trip the circuit breaker for my apartment, leaving me without lights each time. So I did without heat for several days while they figured it out; the problem was fixed today after hours of work. Lastly, my Waiban delivered a washing machine to my apartment yesterday, but due to plumbing issues, it was again worked on today. And now I am happy to say that I have a bed to sleep on, heat to keep me warm at night, and a fabulous new machine to wash my clothes. I'm also happy to notice that any "manana, manana, manana" phenomenon is absent on my campus, though other PCVs seem to have trouble with it. As long as I have a day or so worth of patience in me, things get taken care of.

Below is my bed frame, before the fix.




Just kidding! The photo is actually of monks quarters from a little temple on FangShan, a local mountain destination (shan means mountain). I haven't photographed my new apartment yet because of all the upheaval, but I will do that and post them soon.

Happy November, everyone! Now that I think about it, Friday will be my four-month anniversary in country, wow. Until next time...