Shopping

Daily grocery shopping can be a fun task in China, mainly because sometimes I marvel at how cheap things actually are. Take for instance my trip to the vegetable market today. In total I spend 45 yuan (a little under 8 dollars Canadian). For this well spent 45 yuan I got:
-two large heads of broccoli
-one large head of cauliflower
-one head of celery
-one head of lettuce
-two large handfuls of long green beans
-eight large tomatoes
-eight large green peppers
-eight large carrots
(eight is a good number in China, sounds like the word for 'wealth' and you want to avoid four, because it can sound like 'die')

Is it organic, no, is it local, not too sure how local, but I bought it from a local, so that fits the bill for me. The local, my regular produce lady, was shocked at the weight of the bag as she heaved it over her neatly arranged rows of vegetables... then she asked if she wouldn't see me for another week... only time will tell on that.

What are all these vegetables going to make you may ask?? Well Christina is going to make a huge batch of her delicious Minestrone soup so that we can freeze some and have some ready to go meals after those long hard days at the office!!

back in TEDA

We're back! Our apartment greeted us late Tuesday evening to a hot stale air smell. It really doesn't cool down up on the 29th floor when all the windows have been closed for a month. Our Air Canada flight was GREAT!! No one sat in the third seat so Christina and I had the whole three-seater for two !! We enjoyed two very nice meals, a mustard chicken and a penne bolognaise, as well as many snacks and best of all had our own personal entertainment systems to pass the 10+ hours in the air, and did the time ever FLY!!

We've had two orientation sessions at the new school, and we are enjoying things so far. I've been given the keys to my new classroom and biology lab (Christina had already been over to her classroom before we left in June) and we are diligently planning the year. Well Christina is and I'm trying to! We have two more days on Monday and Tuesday with all the returning staff and then on Wednesday the students arrive!!