Rainy Wednesday

Wednesday again. It's been a pretty uneventful week. Yesterday and today have been quite rainy, but I'm not complaining too much, because the temperature today was down into the 60s. Going to run some errands, I actually wore a (light, short-sleeved) sweater.

As nothing much has happened this week, I thought today I'd take you through a typical Wednesday. And since I spent several hours today writing the first draft of a short story for a holiday exchange, I don't feel much like telling you in words. So, get ready for the Rainy Day Photo-Essay:

The day begins in my room. I overslept a bit today, as I don't usually set an alarm on my day off. The rain meant the light coming through my window was more muted than usual, so I slept later. But once I was up, I turned on my computer and got ready for the day.

First up, breakfast. 

I was feeling lazy this morning, and I have milk to use up, so breakfast was Frosted Flakes. They are imported and really expensive, but I love them. Actually, this is one of my biggest problems with cooking and eating in China. All the of the foods that my brain insists should be categorized as 'cheap' and 'typical' are actually quite often expensive. To name a few: cereal, cheese, peanut butter, and tomato-based pasta sauce. On the other hand,  I can get frozen dumplings, instant soup noodles, and steamed buns wicked cheap, so it evens out.

After breakfast, I ran a load of laundry. The washing machine is still working fine (hooray!). The laundry room is a little porch off the kitchen. It overlooks the "inside" of our building, and I can see the laundry room-porches of many of my neighbors. I absolutely do not spy on them.

I walk back to my room through the living room with my cereal. Normally, I would eat breakfast at the table (it's off the the left in this picture), but today is Video Chat day, and I want to catch my family before they go to bed. Now that Maine is back on Standard time, the time difference is 13 hours.

Okay, breakfast is eaten, phone calls are made, and the laundry is hung up to dry (good luck, considering the damp weather). It's time to leave the apartment and run some errands. Who can spot the interesting fact about the elevator panel?

My first errand is down Huanshi Road, about a five minute walk. I have to stop by China Telecom and pay the internet bill for the month. This is actually remarkably easy, once the clerk gives me a tutorial on how to use the self-service machine. Of course, I'll have forgotten the exact process by next month, and I will annoy whoever is in line behind me next month as I take three minutes to decipher every menu screen.

If you go a little further along Huanshi Road, you hit a block or two of shops that all seem to cater to the same clientele. Oh, look! Theodolites! And I know know that the Chinese word for surveying/mapping/cartography is 测绘ce4hui4 (and theodolite is 经纬仪 jing1wei3yi2, which is wicked cool, since 经纬 also means warp and weft, so 'theodolite' ends up being 'warp and weft instrument' ... okay, so it's really like 'latitude and longitude instrument').

After paying for my internet access (it's about 29 USD per month, if you're curious) and fondly gawking at surveying equipment like a loon, I hop on the bus to the shopping mecca at Tiyu West Road. I'm not actually shopping today (I did my grocery shopping yesterday) but I've got that story to write, and I need a writing environment other than my room. So, I'm headed for a cafe for a cup of tea, an armchair, and the mild distraction of people watching (rather than the major distraction of the internet).

There are several buses that go to the same general area, so I usually take which ever comes by first. Today that was the B3. The B buses are the rapid transit network, and stops at the central station. From there, I head underground to cross under the major intersection. This takes me through one end of Festival Walk, which is an underground shopping street. The B bus station is on this end, and the other end is the Tiyu subway station. Oh, and according to the sign on the wall, this is also an emergency air raid shelter.

Looking toward Tee Mall, while standing at Victory Plaza mall. There are four other malls within a five minute walk, not including Festival Walk, which is under the intersection in the picture. In all honestly, I think there is more retail space in this square mile than there is the entire state of Maine.

After a couple hours at the cafe (yum, oolong tea) I head back to my apartment. Bus 78 drops me around the corner from the building I work in (see the big blue curving sign? Our school is on the third floor, behind the sign and extending toward the right). Before crossing the street, I stop at my favorite steamed bun place for some black rice buns.

It's still raining, so there are no street vendors on my stretch of sidewalk. Too bad, I could have gone for a roasted potato.

Through the gate, across the courtyard, up the elevator to my floor. It's supposedly the 29th, but it's actually only 26 stories up. Have you solved the 'what's up with the elevator panel' problem yet?

Dinner tonight is leftover vegan pumpkin soup from yesterday with the black rice buns I bought on the way home. The soup isn't as smooth as it should be, since I don't have a blender, but it is kind of delicious, if I do say so myself. Pumpkin soup plus the cooler weather today? Gosh, a girl could almost think its Fall!

The day ends with a little blogging and catching up on Castle. Tomorrow morning I'm off to the fabric market to pick up the pants I had made, then it's back to weekend-mode as I get ready for the long days of classes on Saturday and Sunday. But for now, I think a cup of tea and then bed. There's nothing quite as relaxing as a rainy Wednesday.