Day 5: April 27th - Filling the house

Now that everything was settled, we went to what I call the Chinese Walmart, called the Carrefour. It's actually French, but it's a huge department store with everything. We filled up on everything we needed for the house, and I had to hail down a taxi to get us home, since there was so much stuff. It was actually cool, to see a Walmart-like environment, but hectic because of the huge number of people there. This place also put Walmart's "low low prices" to shame. Just about everything we picked up cost around 1 quai. Somehow, we managed to spend about 370 quai though. Some of the cleaning supplies were costly as well, as was my shampoo (which was necessary, because as you remember, I bought body lotion instead earlier).

We got back just before the landlady showed up again, this time to give us our washer. Jessica and I had to move it out from the other apartment on the same floor, and move it into our apartment. The problem, however, was that our washer wouldn't fit through the bathroom door. The landlady had to call her son and have him remove the door so we could move it in and install it. He showed up not long after, and also built our bed. The funny part is that I have a bad habit of assuming no one around me speaks English, so every once in a while, it catches me off guard. I was talking about how the son was by no means a handyman, and every time he and I have done some form of manual labour, he's been dripping in sweat and been extremely weak. He and I brought down the mattress for Jessica and my bed, and he could barely handle it, and also angled the mattress in bizarre ways to do it, so I was making fun of that, and how he's removing the door in a silly manner. Here's the funny part: When the washer was installed, they pulled Jessica over to show her how the washer worked, and he spoke English to her. Now, I don't THINK he understood any of what I said, because he probably wasn't actively listening, but if he did, I don't imagine they're terribly impressed with me.

Chris showed up out of nowhere. He called us, which was funny because we didn't even have a phone number the last time we saw him. He came over for a visit, and described his tutoring job at the kindergarten. We chatted, and had a few glasses of beer, then went out for barbeque, which is similar to the grill I described on the first day (street meat squared). This put the grill to shame. They had a bunch of food laid out on sticks, ready to be cooked, and it was all so cheap. I had chicken heart, a chicken wing, beans, and some spicy green peppers, all for about 6 quai. That's still under a buck Canadian.

I had a new beggar experience here as well. I have already gotten used to beggars, and know how to handle them, but this one trained a small child to approach us and say "Money" in English, relentlessly. The kid wouldn't give up, and I made the mistake of looking at the kid, so he kept following me, and grabbing at my leg, and Jessica yelled to be careful, as the kid will try to put his hands in my pockets to steal change. I walked around Chris, using him as an obstacle, and the kid moved on. I thought it was disgusting, and glared at the man, but he just smiled and asked me for money too. The sad part is, I bet it works all too often.

After barbeque, we all went back to the apartment, and had a drink and chatted some more. Alex discovered a maggot in her food, which was gross for me, but no one else cared, as the food is cooked at a really high temperature. I knew it was hygienic, it was just gross. It took a while to get over, because I ate from the same dish, and I know I probably had one or two of my own. Mmmm, maggot. Today was the first non-jet lagged day as well, I actually managed to stay up past midnight. Hopefully, tomorrow we can manage some Wuxi night life.