Saturday afternoon a group of us went to a large grocery store (it was similar to a Target or Walmart store) to do a little shopping. Some of the students were buying sheets and towels. I didn't need those things, so my focus was on toilet paper (they don't provide it anywhere) and snacks. The tp was easy, but the snacks were a bit more work. There is plenty to choose from, but my Chinese is pretty basic at the moment, so I had to rely on pictures to figure out what things were. It makes for a much different trip to the store than if you can read everything!
I went to dinner on Saturday with the resident director, Wentao, and her husband and daughter, and a visiting professor and her parents. The parents didn't speak any English and I don't speak much Chinese, so it made for interesting attempts at conversation sometimes.
Sunday was orientation day. In the morning we had a long meeting and then a group lunch. Then we got into small groups and had to go to an assigned location in the city by bus and return by subway. That was a lot of work! The bus and subway systems are actually really good, but when you don't speak Chinese, it makes for a mental challenge, especially the first time. We were all successful and got to our locations and back without any major incidents. Our group went to a major shopping district which was very busy on a Sunday afternoon.
Lunch!
A sight on the way to our destination - a major shopping street in the city.
The subway was very crowded!
I have to put in some construction pictures too! This one is just showing a lot of scaffolding which is all made out of pipes connected together. Even the steps are just pipes. This would definitely not pass OSHA in the US.
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