My Chinese Home: Yongkang

First, remember that I live about an hour away from Beth and Jitka who are in Jinhua. My school and home are in Yongkang, same "state" but a different town that "belongs" to Jinhua. However, after living here for two days, I have come to believe I live in, kind of, the Carmel or Zionsville of Indianapolis. Like Jinhua's nicer, baby suburb. And by baby I mean city of 500,000 people. So. The three teachers from Logansport are in very very different living situations (Beth's in a college dorm-type situation and Jitka is in an apartment with her co-teacher), but let me show you what mine is like! :)

This is our home. It's a townhome. 

That's one of their cars, they let someone who doesn't have a car use their other ones. Now, I don't know ANYTHING about cars. But someone implied that it was nice, so I took a picture of it. All I know is that it's a BMW, which is a nice car. Smooth ride. That's all I got. Now, I'm going to show you around the inside of the townhouse. 

This is our street. It's in a private neighborhood that's gated to get into with 24-hour security. Very narrow roads. This is the view from the kitchen window. 

This is the dining room. They had a decorator design the insides. (I should mention that Betty's husband is in charge of a private language school where students go after classes at night to work on their English. He also trades stocks.) Betty swears that having a decorator come do your house in China isn't that expensive... But like I said, I don't think I believe her anymore, because it's gorgeous. 

The dining room wall made of tiny ceramic tiles. 

The kitchen. Where the housekeeper cooks all of our meals. 

This is the view from the dining room into the living room. It was raining outside when I took these pictures, so it was kind of dark. I apologize for the quality of the pictures. 

This is the second floor landing. That's a gorgeous picture of Betty (which is her American name, actually they call her "Ugly Betty"--WHAT?! One of the prettiest people I've ever seen close up? No hope for the rest of us). Around the picture are decorative mirror tiles. This house is like an IKEA showroom. Also on this floor are an office, guest bedroom, and Betty and her husband's room. 

These are the stairs to my floor. 

To the left, the open room on my floor. This used to be the bed of the second housekeeper/babysitter, but Betty said she and her husband let her go when I was coming and also because she wanted to have less people in her house all the time. In China this isn't as harsh as it sounds, there is a lot of work for babysitters and nannies in Yongkang. Kids in China are... very very well off. At least the ones in my town. 

My bathroom. I haven't yet used a hole-in-the-ground toilet. I know they're around. Just haven't run into one yet. Obviously I am in a huge hurry to find one and live it up.

That's the piano I play Mozart on. Er, wait...

My bedroom. It's the baby's room, but while I am here it's for me, and baby girl is very excited she gets to stay in her parent's room. Chinese Beds 101: Ow. That's a bamboo cover. A cover on top of of the  mattress that feels more like a box spring, but that's how all of them are. But the room is huge and very very nice. I have an air conditioner that I can turn up and down, and I don't use the TV because I just use my computer. Not that I don't I love Chinese soap operas, which are a lot like the Californians on SNL.  (Insert "Tre", OE 2013)

The view outside of my window. Actually, I can see the mountains, but it was foggy and rainy outside when I took the picture. 

Baby girl watching the TV and playing. She calls me Ayi, which means "Auntie" in Chinese. Sorry, I'll give you a second to mop yourself off the floor, 'cause I know you just melted into a puddle of "precious."

Mom, those are pictures of roses. :) They remind me of you every time I see them.

Betty watching baby girl. (I seriously cannot pronounce her Chinese name, everyone laughs when I say it, so I call her baby girl or sweet girl, which is likes even if she doesn't understand it yet. She can tell the meaning.) 

I don't know why stinkin' blogger uploads some pictures all funky, sorry. :(

Hiiiii, Ayi!

The housekeeper/babysitter makes the meals. This was my first lunch in their home. Always delicious. 

It takes two, and sometimes three, people to feed one Chinese baby. They always have some sort of game to distract her and kind of trick her into eating. To which she looks as if to say "Guys, I'm totes not into this. Let's roll."

One of her dolls. 

Pretty soon, we headed out to get some bread. Everyone at the school is very concerned that I am not hungry. So far, totally not a problem. I feel like I never stop eating in China! Food is very very important to Chinese culture. This is how we rode to the bakery. I don't know what they call it, but I am calling it a bakery. Also, see baby girl? She's riding around in the car like all kids her age in China. Unless they are hanging on their parent's backs on a moped. Chinese kiddos are tough!

My little basket.

Mmmmm. Turtle.

Yum, yum, yum.

Then, it was time to go SHOPPING. So, Betty and two of her friends took me out to their favorite places to buy clothes and shoes. I found that I have seriously gargantuan feet in China, which are 7.5/8 in America. They only have my size part of the time. I am giant Superlang. Sorry, Mar, they'll never have your size, girl. Also, I am fat in China. (Carmen, I can hear you already, I know I'm not really fat.) The housekeeper called me chunky, lol. Ouch. I said "In America, I am normal sized!" 

NOW. ON TO THE SHOE SHOPPING. Chinese shoes are seriously darling. They have so much personality, and are very feminine. And Chinese women wear them all the time. Going on a walk? Wear these.

Oh, HELLO THERE HEAVEN. So I tried on some pairs of shoes, but decided they were too expensive and went to another part of the store with one of the girls, and then all of a sudden Betty offered and insisted to buy me the pair of shoes as a gift. WHAT?! Thank you, thank you, I love you, you seriously shouldn't have! What do you even say to such generosity? So sweet, so kind. 

Here they are. And. I. Love. Them. 

Hahahaha. Betty said 99% of Chinese wouldn't know what it meant. But they wear it. Hahahaha. True, fashionable. Kind of funny, though. 

We're shoppers! She says "Hi America." 

They said because it was raining we would take this way across town tot the restaurant. Fun! Traditional. 

Good work, man on bike.

This is like the "cook at your table place", but they bring the raw food and you cook it. They laughed hysterically at me. Apparently noodles slipping between the chopsticks constantly is funny. Sorry. White girl can't grab slippery little sucker with sticks. 

Tofu. Evil slippery little sucker that tastes like scary worm. 

Then, it was nice out, so we walked home. Yongkang has a beautiful river that runs through it, and it's how I, and probably most people, anchor the city and how to get around. 

We saw the Xijin Bridge. It's beautiful and very old. Construction completed on it in 1718. This is when Betty told me that when she was an exchange student in Britain, the British say that America tries to buy history. Ouch, Tom. Ouch. Burn. ;)

Some of the shops. Very traditional architecture.  I like it better here in Yongkang than in Jinhua or in Shanghai because many things look a lot more like I pictured in my mind. More traditional. 

And this last one I saw right before we got back to the car. On my bucket list before I leave China is going to an American movie and seeing if it's in English or subtitled in Chinese. This picture goes out to one of the loves of my life, Jamie Z. :)

More adventures tomorrow!