The Little Things

It's amazing how the little things are often the ones that can really make or break your day in a new country. Yesterday during training I looked over at an older foreign colleague during lunch, using her chopsticks so adeptly, and it struck me like a bolt of lightning: I live in CHINA! Incredible! Latter that day my school's Chinese go-to guy for life issues here helped me buy a phone and a SIM card, only for us to realize that my data plan - which I only bought so that I

My tricksy washing machine.

could pull up directions if I got lost in the city - wasn't working on the used phone I'd bought. Or on any of the other phones the vendor had, no matter how new or old. Within a few hours I went from having my biggest high living in China to my biggest low.

But then I got back to my beautiful apartment complex, exhausted from an afternoon spent walking in incredibly painful shoes and trying not to get tossed around like a rag doll on the bus - I've had manic bus drivers, but they take things to a whole new level here! - and realized that the little convenience store on the corner of my building has both jiaozi and Harbin beer, and between that and semi-miraculously finding my way home on the bus suddenly everything was okay. And now, at five in the morning, I've finally figured out how my washing machine works! (Apparently turning the water on does the trick - oops!) No more using t-shirts as towels! Such a profound sense of victory, once again. It really is the little things!