I'm so glad things are getting better. I was worried when you first got over there. Carl's telling me all sorts of interesting stuff this week- like about how they have to have bottled water (not sure if that's country-wide or just a Beijing thing or just a his-hotel thing) and how the government has mandated that the a/c not be turned on anymore and it's uber-hot in his hotel room. He also had pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, which apparently are rather plum-like and not very pumpkiny. :)
The water thing is country-wide, as far as I know. The tap water just isn't safe to drink. It's fine for showering in and for brushing your teeth with, though. My flatmate and I have a water cooler in our apartment for drinking water. :P
As far as the A/C thing, I have never heard of that. That sounds terrible. I can turn on my A/C whenever I want, and things would be pretty miserable sometimes if I couldn't. Yesterday I had students complaining that the classroom was too hot, so I turned on the A/C... if I couldn't have turned it on, my students would not have been able to focus on the acitivites!
Never heard of pumpkin pancakes in China but it doesn't surprise me that they didn't taste quite how he expected. Maybe pumpkins in China taste different, or they mistranslated it?
Long distance definitely takes work, but sometimes its easier than expected. I'm SO SO SO thankful the year and a half of distance between Daryl and I is coming to its end, but I'm also SO SO SO thankful we had it. I'm so thankful I moved to Seattle and he didn't try to stop me. It was so good for us. We're definitely a million bajillion times stronger as a couple, and as individuals, having gone through the distance. Make sure to keep communicating (which it sounds like you definitely are!). It's hard not being able to read the other persons face in a conversation, so I had to make myself talk about the hard stuff a lot more than usual. Daryl couldn't see me being upset via the phone, so I had to use words. And it was hard. Communication is definitely the key to long distance.
Yeah, we're using Skype, so seeing each other is at least something we get to do for the most part. I think this is something that will strengthen our relationship in the long run. When I was having a really hard time at first with the culture shock and technical difficulties of trying to get Skype working, he was really supportive. I was having a hard time not blaming myself for the difficulties we were having at first, when Skype or the internet would stop working, because it was my choice to come over here, and if I hadn't come over here, we wouldnt' have been having those difficulties, right? But he was insistent that it wasn't my fault and that he supported my decision to move here, so I should stop blaming myself... and I did. It's nice that now things are working fine and we have gotten into a pretty good routine where we will talk usually when I get up in the morning, which is right after he's gotten off work. We are actually also able to call each other, using Rebtel (this awesome company that gives each person a local
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As far as the A/C thing, I have never heard of that. That sounds terrible. I can turn on my A/C whenever I want, and things would be pretty miserable sometimes if I couldn't. Yesterday I had students complaining that the classroom was too hot, so I turned on the A/C... if I couldn't have turned it on, my students would not have been able to focus on the acitivites!
Never heard of pumpkin pancakes in China but it doesn't surprise me that they didn't taste quite how he expected. Maybe pumpkins in China taste different, or they mistranslated it?
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Long distance definitely takes work, but sometimes its easier than expected. I'm SO SO SO thankful the year and a half of distance between Daryl and I is coming to its end, but I'm also SO SO SO thankful we had it. I'm so thankful I moved to Seattle and he didn't try to stop me. It was so good for us. We're definitely a million bajillion times stronger as a couple, and as individuals, having gone through the distance.
Make sure to keep communicating (which it sounds like you definitely are!). It's hard not being able to read the other persons face in a conversation, so I had to make myself talk about the hard stuff a lot more than usual. Daryl couldn't see me being upset via the phone, so I had to use words. And it was hard. Communication is definitely the key to long distance.
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Have you taken many photos yet?
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