Hi friends,
I’ve been meaning to put these pictures up for probably a month now – but too many others things took precedence! I’m now counting down the days until I leave for Shanghai (8 DAYS!) and I’m doing fieldwork and work in the office these days – so nothing too exciting!
When I first arrived – I had a hard time adjusting to my room – I didn’t know how to use the kitchen, and there were cobwebs everywhere, but over these last few months – its gotten better. Every night when I go to sleep – I just don’t even think about what could be possibly behind and underneath my bed. So far – so good. I’ve seen a few house geckos around and when I manage to capture a photo of them, I will put it on this blog!
Here’s my bed!
There was one night a couple of weeks ago where I kept waking to a fluttering and scratching sound above my head. When I finally turned the lights on – I saw that the sound was from a cockroach climbing around my things in the shelves above my bed. Not cool – cockroach – not cool!
Here’s the view of the rest of my bedroom:
Directly opposite my bed – is another bed! Most of the Chinese students here live 2 students to a bedroom, and 4 students to an apartment. But I guess since I’m an international visitor – I got to have a bedroom to myself.
And here’s where my computer sits!
haha I have a confession to make – I have not even opened any of the many drawers and cupboards here for fear of a massive swarm of cockroaches living inside! Sometimes – ignorance is bliss!
Now, right outside my bedroom is the living room. I don’t really use this space – pretty much walk through to the kitchen and bathroom! I’ve never even turned on the TV as well!
Now here’s the kitchen! Haha I still don’t know how to use all of it and I don’t really cook! I pretty much eat instant oatmeal (from Canada) for breakfast and that only requires boiling water. Lunch is eaten at the student cafeteria – and for dinner – I boil more water and cook noodles in a pot. That’s the extent of my cooking! 
And here’s my lovely bathroom! The good thing is that the water pressure is nice and strong and there’s always hot water! And the squat toilet makes flushing dead cockroache bodies down very easy!
I promise the bathroom doesn’t look that grimy in real life – it must be something to do with the light – the walls are really not that yellow!
All in all – very different from my room in Canada – but I’ve gotten a routine down and things are fine. I do have a apartment mate who stays in the other bedroom. But honestly – she went up to Kunming about a week after I got here in March and hasn’t been back since! Sometimes – I hope she would come back soon so I have someone to talk to and help me deal with strange noises at night. But most of the time – I enjoy the solitude and not having to share my living space with anyone.
allright – that’s it for now! Hope you now have a good idea of where I’m spending the majority of my time here in China!
Take care friends,
Jess
In a land full of statues and stories 