Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Panzhihua Observations

1) I am going to have some killer legs when I leave this place. The city is nestled among the mountains and there are some steep climbs to get anywhere – including from my apartment to the classrooms and campus.

2) Bubble tea exists! I stumbled across a shop in my wanderings and the bubble tea shop (aka Jack Hut Fresh Drink) will probably be a regular stop for me on my trips into town.

3) I had my first cockroach sighting in my apartment yesterday. Today I bought my first can of cockroach killer. I don’t so much mind dead cockroaches, but I am not fond of the live scurrying variety. And although I had some issues with bugs when I first got to my site in Bolivia, I actually would prefer scorpion infestations to cockroach infestations…the natural countryside bug vs. city dirty bug argument. I’m just very squeamish.

4) Wang Ke Long. It’s like Carrefour where you can buy anything from appliances to apples. I went there today to buy some household supplies and was attacked by the random salespeople on all sides. I think they enjoyed helping me because I actually bought their ridiculous fancy things after they convincingly gave me their best pitches and product demonstrations. 150 kuai wet/dry mop anyone? I also happened to checkout behind the guy that was buying the 3 plastic bags (as in shopping grocery bags, not small produce bags) of pig fat. No, these were not sealed bags, they were grocery bags that had been shoveled full of pig fat and tied at the top with the fat oozing and spilling out the top. No doubt, pig fat ending up on the cashiers’ hands and the handle of the broom that I bought. Lovely.

1 comment:

Tammy said...

Heyyyyy...

So you and I went in complete opposite directions. I live in a village of 200ish ppl and going through training right now. It is tougher than I thought it would be to do it a second time around.

Hope all is well with you!!!!!!! Be good and have fun. I miss you!

tammy