So far, I've been fairly able to do my regular daily tasks on my own here in China. I've been able to go to the store and buy food, I bought some new towels and a drying rack, I've taken the metro by myself, and I get myself to work everyday... but today... I was faced with the Chinese washer. All the buttons and options are in Chinese characters! I tried looking up some words in English that are probably on the washer, and I could find some... but still had no idea how to do laundry. After about an hour of searching, I finally gave up and asked the South African guy that lives here how to do it. If I had been in my own apartment, I would have just tried pushing buttons to see what would happen. I even found blogs of other foreigners with similar laundry issues... but they too didn't seem to be able to figure it out (and some even caused floods). But I decided that flooding the kitchen area MAY not be the best idea during my first week in this apartment so I asked for help. Now I have a handy diagram so I know which lights should be lit when I start a load. (Yes, I'm a total loser and drew a diagram... I'm REALLY unwilling to ask for help twice). So really, this wasn't a difficult moment, but I did realize that I'm probably going to need to be asking for a lot of help the whole time I'm here.
In other news, the previous Fogarty scholar left me a number of items that she collected through the year that she couldn't take back to the United States and I took everything home with me yesterday. It really felt like Christmas! I really appreciate her leaving all these items and I'm sure I'll be especially thankful during the winter while I'm using my heated blanket and my space heater. I will be warm and toasty! Thanks Puthiery!
And finally, with the help of some colleagues at SCI, I was finally able to register with the police. I'm one step closer to having my residency permit! Next step... health examination.
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