Matt didn't have his kindergarten class tonight as it was a review class. Every 4 classes, the Chinese TA's do a review class so that if the kids don't understand anything, hopefully they can figure it out and talk chinese etc to catch up. I think it's a pretty good idea, and it means that we get out of teaching once every 4 classes!
So, last night Matt asked if i wanted to go to Wal-Mart tonight and I was like err why walmart? Why don't we go elsewhere? And then this morning it clicked that DUH! On Tuesday afternoons we have kindergarten classes near the walmart and we can go straight from there to walmart without having to go back to the office! Brilliant idea. Matt either never wishes to go shopping, or has to go back to the office on tuesdays for his kindergarten class .. so i was glad when he suggested it tonight. Anyways, in the end we decided on going to Auchan as it's a way better store and Walmart is pretty expensive in comparison. Soo .. off we went on the bus to Auchan.
We went to Auchan one Friday night a couple of weeks ago and it was seriously busy. I thought we may have had time to get dinner and do shopping ... but we were in the grocery store for about 2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!! and we had to leave to catch the bus home. The shop closes at 10, but the last bus leaves about 9pm! It's a 2Yuan ride home compared to about 40Yuan for a taxi ..... It is like K-Mart and Coles in one store, but so much better. Tonight I made Matt walk around the shopping centre and look at a few stores before we did groceries. There isn't a whole heap to see and I think that half the stores are still to come, anyways ... we still ended up in Auchan for at least an hour and a half. It's just that big. They have nearly a whole aisle for noodles, and another for soy sauce and half an aisle for msg and an aisle for milk drinks and gah SO CRAZY! They have live fish swimming in tanks (although half of them are dead .. gross!), prepared foods, preserved meats you can buy what you want, pick and mix your own tea and not to mention all the household electrical goods / toiletries / clothing / plants / bikes / furniture and homewares etc that you can buy. We bought food that our local store doesn't really stock ..... alot of junk mainly (snacks etc). We bought mince to attempt to make spaghetti but the mince we have seen looks quite fatty. I guess we'll have to wait until we make it to find out what it's really like. So that is how we spent most of our evening.
I bought some chinese herbal cought mixture because my cold seems to be getting a little better (finally) but now I have this really annoying cough at times because my throat feels itchy. I wake up in the early hours of the morning coughing and errgh. It's just irritating (for Matt too). I also finally found tracksuit pants that are warmish and that were cheap! (cheap = 50 Yuan) They are too big for me and look hideous no doubt, but who is going to see me at home, besides Matt and pfftt, if he really cared I'd be worried.
We caught the bus home and it wasn't packed for once! The buses here are usually pretty nice, but we have discovered some buses that are old and crap and that stall every time the driver stops to let someone on or off. It's kind of amusing. Some of the older buses have wooden floors and the doors don't really close properly. One night when it was freezing I swear my feet got so cold i could hardly feel them on the bus. Sometimes the buses are so so crowded i have mid panic attacks that we are all going to die because the bus is going to crash. Some of the bus drivers are a bit crazy and pull up and stop rather quickly and all the standing people sway a bit violently if they aren't hanging on tightly enough. Oh well, that is life right? I'm going to die one day, and if it happens to be by catching a bus around Suzhou, so be it! I can't just sit at home all the time and i refuse to catch cabs because they cost too much.
I really want a jacket. Not a big coat, just a jacket to wear as the weather is warming up. I have no idea where to buy one though. The clothes seem to have skipped from winter to summer already. Maybe I can go shopping on thursday without matt!!! I'm sure he will be supportive of that idea.
On Saturday we have the Aquarium trip with work and then I think it's the Monday that we get off for Tomb Sweeping Day. It sounds pretty much like Easter to me! I think we'll see if Jake from work is interested in going out on Sunday night, or going on an adventure on Monday. We quickly talked about going to Hangzou but it's a bit short notice to arrange anything so I think we'll just do sight-seeing around Suzhou because there is heaps that we haven't seen yet. I want to go to the pet market. I want a kitten and they are so cute and look like they need rescuing but probably not a good idea. We may get a fish when the weather warms up a bit more. Matt seems quite keen on this idea. So this week is looking like a good week. Matt is now supposed to be coming to the aquarium and then we will have Sunday and Monday off ... together!!! We have seen ads for a place that you can get a 4 course German meal for a set price or other places advertise roast lunch. It's a bit more expensive than Chinese food but it seems like a good enough occasion to splurge .. and we get paid tomorrow!!!!!! Our first pay!!!
I might see if I can stream another episode of Ugly Betty before going to bed. Yay for good internets and for having something to watch other than hourly news on the only english channel! if i've watched all of the Ugly Betty episodes, I can always watch more Gossip Girl!!
xoxo
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