Sunday, February 20, 2011

Hui Yi Wan Pan


Our seventh floor apartment faces the back of our building, and looks directly across the street on to the back of an identical building.  Someone on the fourth floor of that building keeps birds on his balcony.  I can see three birdcages on one side, two hanging in front of the balcony, and at least one on the other side.  In the mornings when I am first moving around, someone is often out there feeding the birds.  On the first floor of that building lives a cat lady.  To the best I can tell, she has 16 cats.  Her apartment opens in to a small yard surrounded by a fence.  She comes out with all the cats in the morning, and feeds them.  When she returns to her apartment there is a flurry of furry followers that makes it difficult to count. 
We live in Parc Paros #18. A resident on the second floor of our building keeps a St. Bernard on their balcony.  Their apartment faces the front of #18 and Josh and I always talk and wave at the dog when we arrive at the entrance to our building.   Every day at about 5:00 PM two or three elderly gentlemen gather in the small lobby of #18 to play what I believe is Chinese Chess.  It fascinates me and I always want to linger and see if I can figure out more about the game.
Birds on the Balcony

 All of the balconies have two drying racks (thin metal beams with holes evenly spaced where you can insert hangers) that are suspended close to the ceiling and lowered via a pulley system attached to the wall. On Friday, I bought a drying rack to put inside the house, assembled it and figured out how to use the washing machine.  Currently I have clothes hanging both inside and outside and our apartment looks like laundry central.  When I first arrived Jessica (the kind International Ed staff member who helped us get settled, and serves as my “go-between” whenever I am dealing with language barriers) had taken a digital photo of the instructions on the washing machine and then printed the photo and translated the instructions for me.  It is a simple machine and works well, but it does not seem to have any temperature options.  Everything is always washed at the same temperature, which judging from sticking my hand in the water is cold.  It is tricky to tell when anything is completely dry because at about 50˚F I can’t tell if it is still damp or just cold to the touch.  I try to tell myself to quit whining about the cold because in no time at all it will be over 90˚F.
At UIC, I share an office with a historian named Victor.  We discovered he lives in the apartment directly above us at #18.  We also figured out that last Monday, when we had Internet installed in our apartment, Victor’s Internet quit working.  Yesterday, the Internet technicians came to fix his Internet, and once his was working – ours no longer worked.  Of course by the time I discovered this, the technicians had left the building.  I will wait until later in the day to call Jessica as I hate to bother her on the weekend.  She helps international staff but her first responsibility is to the international students and I believe she has had her hands full with that. 
Josh went home from school on Friday with his buddy, Anthony, and last night Anthony spent the night here.  When Josh texted me to ask if it was okay for Anthony to stay over, I said it was fine but he needed to bring a big blanket with him because our apartment is frigid. The forecast predicts it is supposed to warm up some this week and I really hope that is accurate.  (Of course I cannot check the current forecast because I don’t have Internet!!)
Josh and Anthony
Negotiating this 14 hour time difference has been tricky for communications with home.  Bob is currently out east for a number of meetings so the time difference is only 13 hours.  The most frustrating part of not having Internet service at this time is that this morning we had a scheduled “Skype” date.  We had very intermittent Internet service throughout Europe and Israel, but in both of those locations our Blackberry phones worked so we could always communicate through e-mail or “blackberry messenger.”  Here our U.S. phones don’t work at all, so when the Internet goes down I feel particularly cut off.  These days, I, like many others, am so used to instant communication that I begin to feel as if it is an entitlement and I have been cruelly wronged when it is not available to me.  Given the situation at hand, an attitude adjustment seems my only option. 
Happy New Year - it is the Year of the Rabbit.
One thing that has worked well in our apartment is the hot water.  I don’t quite understand the system, but it is environmentally more progressive and heats the water only when you need it.  Whatever the system, a hot shower is a luxury I thoroughly appreciate and think it is the best course of action for facilitating the above mentioned attitude adjustment. 
(Six hours later . . .)
Josh, Anthony and I headed over to the Xiangzhou area so Josh could get some of the food he remembered so fondly from his first days here and I could try to find a yoga mat.   Anthony informed Josh that the “fat noodles” included in the bowls of ramen were most likely some sort of intestine, and that ingredient quickly lost its appeal.  He is still a big fan of the dumplings.  I found a yoga mat and a few other items and caught the shuttle back to Hui Yi Wan Pan (Horizon Cove).  It was a little warmer today and while still hazy, it did not actually rain.  My Internet guys are suppose to be here about 9:00AM, and, fingers crossed, I will back in touch with the world later in the day. 

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