Elevators

I needed to get up to the ninth floor in a 24 floor building today. I was warned ahead of time that only one of the six elevators actually goes to the ninth floor. When I got to the lobby I found a crowd of people waiting for each of the six elevators. I asked one lady which one will take me to the 9th floor...she pointed in the other direction. So I went to another elevator and asked another lady, who then pushed her way to the front to show me the small sign listing which floors each elevator goes to. That elevator only went to floors 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The lobby finally cleared as the crowd made its way into their respective elevators. I found the one elevator that went to floor nine, only to realize that it was out of service! I hopped on the elevator that took me to the eighth floor and found a set of stairs to get me to the ninth floor. I felt like I had solved a complex math problem....or maybe this is Frogger II: the elevator challenge.

Pineapples

I was surprised to find it's pineapple season, as there are plenty of fruit vendors selling pineapples at a very cheap price. Plus the pineapple vendor peels and cleans the whole pineapple, then weighs and sells it. Such a sweet and tasty treat.

Cookout

Some Swiss friends invited us to cookout with them for dinner. Our apartment complex is located on the edge of town, and we walked less than five minutes down by the river before reaching a suitable site to build a fire. Sausages, homemade bread, potato chips, and french fries were served. So close to our city home, yet surrounded by trees we felt like we were really out in the woods on an adventure. We had just enough time to eat, chat, and enjoy before a storm started blowing in, signaling the end of our cookout. We quickly packed up and ran home, just in time before the rain started. A lovely evening.

Train Trip - Part#2

Next stop was another 24 hour train ride to Kashgar. This town was like stepping back in time, as it had the feel of an old city seen only in movies. Old style houses, small alley ways, vendors pushing carts of food along streets, men barbecuing mutton kabobs along the sidewalks, and women in colorful scarf head coverings...were all sights from this town. The people were mainly Uygur Muslim, speaking a form of Turkish. Such an amazing place.

Pomegranates were plentiful in this town and many local vendors sold small cups of freshly squeezed juice. Later we realized that these small cups were rarely washed. As we walked through the alleys of the old part of the city, many kids begged us to take their picture, not sure why, but it was a quick way to make a small friend. Visited a local Muslim cemetery still in use today. It seemed that each family owned one plot and underground there were many chambers to bury many bodies. The bazaar was a world of its own - a sea of people filled the street selling and buying just about everything. This guy was selling sliced pieces of melon. The other guy on the left was making fresh noodles. I sat and watched as he was cooking a bowl of homemade spinach tortellini for me.

Train Trip - Part#1

Before school started we caught a train up north to check out some of the sights that we long heard about but never had the opportunity to see. Our first stop was Urumqi. It was a 24 hour, non-stop, train ride to this city. It was my first experience with sleeping on bunk beds three rows high. Time passed quickly and we eventually made it. Urumqi is a much bigger and more diverse city then where I currently live. There is a lot of color and history close by. Here are a few of the sights that we saw by order of the pictures to the left: Pic#1: We first ventured to a park located high up on a hill... Pic#2: ...where we could see the whole city. Pic#3: The park had all sorts of cultural items... Pic#4: ...and cultural scenery. Pic#5: The next day we took a bus just outside the city to a small town known for their grape vines and Uygur people. It's supposed to be a fairy tale city in the summer time, but things were sort of dead and cold during the winter. Pic#6: There were plenty of grape / raisin drying houses located around the city. Pic#7: We checked out a UNESCO old city site... Pic#8: ...and posed for a group shot. Pic#9: It was the remains of a civilization a long time ago. Since it was off season, we were the only people looking at the site. Pic#10: On the drive back to Urumqi we passed by these wind turbines located in the middle of dessert.

Hot and Cold

The best and worst part of being here is you really never know what's going to happen next. This morning it was our hot water. Water runs hot for 5 seconds, then cools off, and runs cold for 5 seconds, before heating back up and repeating the cycle. So taking a shower looks like: Wet hair, stand back and count to 5, lather, rinse hair, stand back and count to 5, wet hair again, stand back and count to 5....etc. Turns out it's happening to our neighbors too. Maybe it will start working again? I don't know, but such is life.

I'm Back

It was about a 40 hour trip, door-to-door. The trip was uneventful, which is usually the best kind. It was a 3 hr flight, 2 hr layover, 15 hr flight, 17 hr layover, 2.5 hr flight, 0.5 hr ride back to our apartment. We spent one night in a hotel during the 16 hour layover. The set up of the room was like any standard hotel, BUT the shower had ALL glass walls (with pull down shades when actually taking a shower). So from the toilet, you could see straight through the shower to the bed and outside window. Such a pretty room. It was nice to be back in Asia, and in the morning when we went to the airport at 6am to catch our last leg flight- we found many restaurants open and serving hot dishes and soups. There is nothing as satisfying as a big bowl of noodles for breakfast! We arrived back at our apartment, finding it just as we left it. This week has been filled with cleaning, re-arranging our apartment, registering, signing up for classes, and reconnecting with friends. It's been good to be back.