Vacuum Cleaner and Kandy

Saturday, December 13. Today I go back to the wholesale market because I want to buy a vacuum cleaner. At first, I don't think I'm going to find one there, but after walking around for awhile, I find one vendor who has a few. So I've bought a Chinese vacuum cleaner for about $35. Hope it lasts for awhile.

Here's how I make drinking water: First, I run water from the tap into a big pot and boil it. Then after it cools down, I pour the water into my Brita water filter pitcher. After it has "filtered", I transfer it to one of the two containers I keep in my refrigerator (in addition to the Brita pitcher). I use the "purified" water for drinking and for cooking if I'm making something where the water will become part of the food, such as vegetable soup. If I''m cooking something like noodles, where the water will be boiled but then dumped out, I just use water from the tap.

However, I'm not too paranoid about the water in general. I rinse my mouth with tap water after brushing my teeth; I just don't swallow it. And I don't worry about small drops of tap water in a bowl that I'm going to use. So far, so good. Other than a bad cold, I haven't been sick at all. No gastrointestinal problems other than the 10 days or so in August.

And here's how you deal with no central heating: you just keep your coat on, all the time. When you go to visit someone, they may actually have their windows open to let in the fresh air. You just keep on the coat you wore to their house! We could learn a lot from the Chinese about not overheating homes, restaurants and other public spaces. Even my classrooms are not heated. The kids just wear coats to class. The only rooms at school that are heated are the teachers' offices (12 teachers share a common office).

My apartment has heating/air conditioning in two rooms: my bedroom and my "office." In the summer/fall, I could only use the a/c in the bedroom; the unit in my office leaked water after being on for a few minutes. Fortunately, the a/c in the bedroom was enough to keep my whole apartment relatively comfortable (probably around 80 but lowered the humidity). Now in the winter, the unit in my bedroom puts out almost no heat so i don't even bother to turn it on. I use only the unit in my office which is where I spend most of my time when I'm home. And I keep the door closed. It reaches about 68 degrees in that small room. The rest of my apartment is about 50 degrees most of the time.

Sunday, December 14. One of the Senior 2 students (I teach Senior 1s) accosted me in the corridor on Friday to ask if he could meet with me to work on his oral English. His English name is "Kandy." We agreed to meet Sunday morning at 10 a.m. However, his spoken English was so hesitant that I wasn't sure whether he understood exactly when we had agreed to meet. However, this morning I showed up in his classroom and there he was, and it was the sweetest thing. He had prepared two written pages of things he wanted to say or talk to me about (the first was something like "I am very honored that you are willing to meet with me"). He was so nervous at first, his hands were trembling, but fortunately he calmed down after about 20 minutes!

He lives in the countryside - about a 4 hour bus ride from ZZ, so he almost never goes home on the weekends ("sometimes it's lonely"). His father works in a factory (and "is always very tired in the evening."), his mother is a farmer, and he has an older sister too. (The one-child policy isn't imposed as strictly for people who work the land.) He said he is so appreciative for the sacrifices his parents have made for him. He is in the highest ability class, and I assume he must have done very well on the high school "entrance" exam and maybe has a scholarship (?), because i'm sure his parents couldn't afford to send him here otherwise. I spoke to his regular (Chinese) English teacher today, and he said that this student's marks are very high in everything except English - so here's a kid who is really trying hard. Anyway, we are going to meet in the cafeteria for dinner on Wednesday so we can keep talking! These are the things that make the lack of central heating all worthwhile!

I went nuts today with my new vacuum cleaner because I couldn't stand it anymore. I have been using a wet mop and a dust mop on the floors but it just wasn't enough. So I spent a very satisfying Sunday afternoon running the vacuum around the entire apartment. :) Never thought I would have so much fun with a household appliance!

To the market in the afternoon for apples and such. The weather is colder now.