I now love going to the grocery store!

Day 1 back may have been a struggle but the past few days since I have been here have been great!

Thursday: 

I met with Penny (a Chinese friend who is in her 40s) to get a blind massage. You may be wondering what a blind massage is.... it's the best thing ever! A person who is blind S the massage and it only costs 30RMB for one hour.. so cheap! The place Penny and I go to is run my a family and most of the family is blind.

After the massage she took me to Carrefour to grocery shop. The perk... SHE HAS A CAR. So we PARKED at Carrefour, bought our groceries, brought the cart TO THE CAR and she drove me back to MY APARTMENT DOOR. You don't realize how easy grocery shopping is until you move to Asia. I mean... my dad brings a suitcase to the store. I, thankfully, have not done that yet. So as you can probably tell, this was the highlight of my day. And even better... she said we could go grocery shopping every Monday... meaning... I never have to trek my groceries home on a bus. So great.

Friday:

I FOUND OUT KATRINA (MY "CO-TEACHER") IS PREGNANT! Henry and I went to her wedding in June right before we left for the summer holiday. Her baby is due at the end of March.. maybe March 26th?!?! 

Anyway... Friday morning Katrina took me to join a different gym. Last year I joined a gym that was a 20 minute bus ride then a 10 minute walk away... I obviously did not go very often. This year I joined a gym right behind Carrefour. It was the first gym to open in Ma'anshan and has been "newly renovated". The gym is actually really nice and they have all sorts of classes I can take for free. Like... Belly Dancing! I will never go to that class, but I do plan on going to the Spin and Yoga classes. At least to try them out.... 

After I got back from joining the gym I called the "Waterman" and asked him to bring me a new jug for my water cooler. And guess what.... HE LEARNED ENGLISH OVER THE SUMMER! So exciting for him! Our conversation went something like this... "Hello! I come I come. See you in hour. Bye bye" Apparently my water cooler was disgusting because he had to "disinfect it". Which involved boiling water and salt. It was definitely a process but now I have water! 

Saturday:

Henry came today! I was so excited to not be the only foreigner anymore, I could hardly stand it. It really is a strange feeling being the only foreigner in a city... can't say I loved it. I hardly slept the 3 nights I was here. Yes, I am a baby. 

Saturday morning I went to my gym and when I walked in every single guy stopped what they were doing and looked at me. It wasn't awkward or anything..... 

The rest of Saturday afternoon I finished cleaning and unpacking... finally! Although, the cleaning never seems to stop here.

Saturday night Henry and I jumped back into our routine: dinner and Breaking Bad! Last year I started watching Breaking Bad and became, well.... addicted. We watched the first 3 episodes and I sat on the edge of my couch the entire time. Can't wait for episode 4! 

Sunday:

Penny and I got tea Sunday afternoon at UBC Coffee. The coffee there is $30 and the tea there is 30RMB.... huh. 

Tea was great! We decided we are going to meet every Monday to get a massage, get lunch and go grocery shopping (if I need to). I think my Chinese speaking will really improve by hanging out with her once a week so I am really excited about that! After all, half the reason I stayed a second year was to continue to improve my Chinese.