Monday we
officially became Peace Corps Volunteers after our swearing-in ceremony!!! We are now part of the China 18 team. It felt
like graduation all over again- speeches and then running around taking tons of
pictures with my friends. I’m really going to miss everyone but I’m glad we had
a fun last day together.
My
university supervisor/contact person, Kerry, came to the ceremony. He waited for me to say all my goodbyes and
give all my hugs (which took a while because there are so many awesome people
in our group!), and then we packed up my stuff in his car and we drove to
Jiangyou, my home for the next two years.
Monday evening and Tuesday I spent with Kerry doing errands in town:
shopping for groceries and stuff for the apartment, getting registered at the
local police department, getting a haircut (more on that later)…
He also
helped me get my shower and toilet fixed.
It’s really funny about the shower because the cord on the new shower
head is not as long as the previous one so the water doesn’t come out very
high, and I have to bend my knees in order to rinse my hair under the shower
head. I guess the plus side is that I will have strong thighs from having to
squat in my shower!
The toilet I
had at first flushed but you had to lift the lid off the water tank and pull a
string, which was kind of gross. I feel like when that’s happened at my parents’
house a plumber can fix it without replacing the toilet, but yesterday there
was a box outside my apartment with my brand new toilet! I’m not complaining
though because I don’t have to pay for it and now I have a shiny new one.
Everything
in the apartment was rather dirty when I got here, just from being unused for
the past few months since the previous volunteer vacated the apartment. The bathtub had nasty white residue and the sink
had black gunk. But with some bathroom cleaner
and a handy sponge, they are clean now! I’m
taking advantage of this free time before teaching starts to clean everything. I feel that maybe I am being a little OCD
about cleaning every surface but I know that once teaching starts I will be
very busy and I won’t be able to clean as often. Plus I kind of enjoy it, because it’s making
my home nicer. I don’t know if the
previous volunteer got lazy or just didn’t care anymore, because some of the
stuff that grossed me out when I first got here has been defeated once I gave
it a good scrub.
Another
quirk in my apartment is washer/dryer. To
fill the washer, I have to hook up a plastic pipe to the sink faucet and turn
on the water which then fills it. Then once the cycle is complete, I have to
turn a dial to indicate that the machine should empty the water… which
unfortunately causes it to drain out of a hose onto the floor! I was able to aim the hose at the Chinese
toilet which is basically a porcelain hole in the ground so it all went down
the hole, but I had to stand there with the hose for about ten minutes for all
that water to drain out. The clothes don’t
get wrung in the washer so you pull them out and they are dripping wet. The
dryer can only be set for up to five minutes at a time, and after letting it
run two cycles, I gave up and just put everything on hangers. Luckily clothes dry fast because of the
heat. I had to hang all my clothes at my
Chengdu host family’s house, too, so that’s nothing new, but at least their
washer wrings out the clothes first. Oh
and when I was hanging up my clothes, the shirt I was wearing got really
wet. I am just grateful to have a washer
at all (I know one volunteer who was just given a washboard and a bucket!) Let’s just say that washing clothes will be
an adventure!!
Oh yeah, my
haircut yesterday was the best haircut experience I’ve ever had! First I lay
down on this bed and the hairdresser washed my hair with warm water and
massaged my hair with shampoo for a good fifteen minutes. Ahh it was so relaxing I almost fell
asleep! He cut my hair and then spent
about ten minutes drying it in a way that the ends curled in. Then he had a coworker take a picture of us,
and said that anytime I need a haircut, I can go back there and get it for
free! Foreigner discount, cha-ching!!
Pictures of
my apartment to come. I realize now that I should have taken some before
pictures so you could see all the dirt and gunk but you’ll just have to take my
word for it. Just know it was pretty
gross.
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