Wow. I live in China?!

I was riding the bus home today, looking out the window. All of a sudden, it hit me that I live in China. I know that sounds weird, as I've been here for about six weeks. But you have to realize, I sort of live in a bubble. Sometimes I call it China Lite or Pleasantville, Asia. This area is a bit of a bubble. It's an industrial park built next door to a lovely garden/canal village. It's been infused with an expat population and foreign companies. A lot of people complain about having a tough time finding ingredients, certain products or foods but there is a surprising amount of import goods available. Not to mention a lot of western restaurants and fast food places. So all this is to say that in the beginning I often forgot that I was in China. Only when I leave the bubble do I sometimes realize I am far from home.

I am going to stop apologizing for not having time to post. It has well been established that I am busy these days. I suppose that is par for the course - moving to a new country, starting at a new school.

Re-cap of the week since my last posting. We had a national holiday last week in China and got the week off from work. I spent a few days at home and then flew down to Malaysia with AJ. I started in Kuala Lumpur, where I found JK (a guy I met at the Cambridge job fair) He is working at the International School of Kuala Lumpur as an elementary music teacher. He showed us around the first day and at night went out with some of his Malaysian friends to the home of one of their friends. See, it was Hari Raya the day we arrived, the first day after a month of fasting. So we had a huge dinner at this friends' home. I don't know how I ended up experiencing this. It was pretty amazing. The next day, JK flew to Malaysia for his own little trip but his friend drove AJ and me to Melaka. We had already planned to go but she thought it would be fun to join us. On the way there, we stopped at a beach at Port Dickson. Then continued to drive along to Melaka. We spent the day walking along Jonker Street looking in the different stalls. In the evening, our friend GR showed up to meet us at our hostel. He had spent the previous few days in Taman Negara. So here he was, leech bites and all. Unfortunately the hostel was full and had no more beds left. I won't post here where he slept.

The next morning, we walked around seeing the many, many museums of Melaka. Mid-day, we left for Kuala Lumpur. Then we got to KL, settled into JK's friend's apartment (she so graciously let us stay there while she was away) and took a nice shower. We went out for an awesome Lebanese dinner, finished off with a strawberry shisha.

The next morning, we just went out for a quick bite and then were off to the bus station to get to the airport. Many confusions and long lines later, we were on the flight back to China. (I'm getting more tired at the moment so this is getting less detailed) We got to Hangzhou, then made our way to the hostel. Very nice one... We woke up the next day, completely sore because of the good old hard as a board Chinese mattresses. We checked out and went looking for food. We found a really yummy and very inexpensive dumpling place. Then we were on our way to the bus station, to get home to Suzhou. Two hours later, we were back and on the Suzhou public bus. When I got to my apartment complex gates, I felt this relief of being home. Usually at the end of a trip, I am ready to get home - but this time, I didn't think about home as NY, but of my home in Suzhou. Photos of the trip will be up on Flickr soon.

More happiness from the week:

- I got mail! Thanks, KK! :D
- My shipment has arrived in China! I probably won't have my stuff for a week or two while it is in customs but at the least it is near!

Okay, only exclamation mark worthy comments to be posted and I don't have more good news like that.

So, more to come...