That's more like it
On Tuesday, I went for my Medical (needed for my Resident's Visa). I was accompanied by someone from the Relocation Company who told me where to go and what to do, so it was a pretty painless experience. The Medical Centre itself is very near Gubei, which is about 15KM away from where we live, and is where the vast majority of the Western compounds are. The biggest Carrefour is here, and all the shops have signs in English, and the Restaurants are all geared to Western tastes. There is a bar there (one of many I'm sure) called Hooters, and for the obvious reason, so that about sums it up. You could live there for 3 years without ever needing to remember you were in China at all. This is why we felt we would all get more from our China experience if we didn't live anywhere near Gubei at all. This can at times be harder - as I discovered during my walk later that same day - but I think on the whole it's a good thing. Today restored my faith in that decision.
After D and J had caught the school bus this morning, S and I went back home. It was a lovely day, very sunny and warm again (yesterday had been warm but dull and wet). We sat on our balcony with a pot of Jasmine tea. It was so nice and peaceful. Not really having anything more important to do, I went with S on the shuttle bus to the metro station. This is the first leg of his journey to work. The shuttle bus goes from the estate to some shops, then carries on to the Metro station - this journey takes about 15 minutes (and actually goes the way I'd walked the other day). Next to the metro station is a huge supermarket. Like Carrefour, it sells everything from live frogs to electric scooters, but this was a Chinese supermarket - and much nicer than Carrefour. It was quiet, the people were friendly and the store was clean and spacious. S and I wandered around for half an hour before he went to catch his train, and I stayed there for another hour, mostly studying the food to try and work out what it was (unlike Carrefour, there weren't any English translations).
I finally left (with some bread, a box of coloured pencils, some Dove shampoo and 6 eggs), crossed the road (easily!), and called a taxi. Because this is so close to where we live (probably less than 4 miles away) the taxi driver had no problem this time and knew exactly where I wanted to go. He even taught me how to say Left and Right. I was home 10 minutes later, and my taxi fare was 12RMB (about 60p).
What a lovely morning.
After D and J had caught the school bus this morning, S and I went back home. It was a lovely day, very sunny and warm again (yesterday had been warm but dull and wet). We sat on our balcony with a pot of Jasmine tea. It was so nice and peaceful. Not really having anything more important to do, I went with S on the shuttle bus to the metro station. This is the first leg of his journey to work. The shuttle bus goes from the estate to some shops, then carries on to the Metro station - this journey takes about 15 minutes (and actually goes the way I'd walked the other day). Next to the metro station is a huge supermarket. Like Carrefour, it sells everything from live frogs to electric scooters, but this was a Chinese supermarket - and much nicer than Carrefour. It was quiet, the people were friendly and the store was clean and spacious. S and I wandered around for half an hour before he went to catch his train, and I stayed there for another hour, mostly studying the food to try and work out what it was (unlike Carrefour, there weren't any English translations).
I finally left (with some bread, a box of coloured pencils, some Dove shampoo and 6 eggs), crossed the road (easily!), and called a taxi. Because this is so close to where we live (probably less than 4 miles away) the taxi driver had no problem this time and knew exactly where I wanted to go. He even taught me how to say Left and Right. I was home 10 minutes later, and my taxi fare was 12RMB (about 60p).
What a lovely morning.
posted by Linda at 2:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home