Day 8: April 30th - Crappy Wiring

We made a fun discovery last night after I finished summarizing the day. The wiring in our house is designed to drive us insane. I went to turn off the light last night, but it only half shut off. The light dimmed, and was clearly not getting as much electricity as it needed, but enough to be disturbingly bright and strobelight-like. After some experimenting, Jessica and I discovered that if a different outlet is being used (her cell phone was plugged into that outlet), the light would not shut off. Here's the fun part though. If the outlet is being used, it won't get electric current unless the light has been shut off. So her cell phone was not being charged unless we turned off the light. Even more confusing, the light would not shut off completely (see Strobelight-like above) if something was plugged into that light. So, to use that outlet, the light had to be shut off, but it wouldn't turn off completely. The outlet would work, and the light would go wonky. In order to actually turn off the light, that outlet had to have nothing plugged in. Sigh, this apartment is so weird.

Jessica and Alex figured out how to make real coffee today, which was exciting. The end result was decent, but they didn't seem to like it, since it wasn't strong enough. I also had a banana and peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, which was exciting simply because I haven't had one since I was a child. Overall, a fairly boring morning.

Eventually, Chris called, and we all decided to venture out to the Plum Garden, which was one of the few attractions here in Wuxi. I've discovered recently that 4 million people constitutes a small town, and Wuxi is known as a cultural desert. The Lonely Planet book Jessica has about China describes only 4 attractions here in Wuxi. It's fortunate that Shanghai is only 37 quai away. It's like the Las Vegas of China. Hookers, gambling, and lots of excitement there.