Thanked Jan for his help last night. He seemed fine – he could understand it was a bit scary at the time as we had no idea what was going on – great to know that just a noisy air-conditioner causing the problem – they are fixing it today apparantly – its freezing in here, and we are a bit scared to turn the aircon back on (it runs heat). We will be here for a month, so will buy extra heaters as well.
Chongqing is a crazy sprawling city – yesterday we made our way into the center via a chinese subway map (and made it to our destination!) – the subway is actually an overground skytrain – really amazing flying through the city and over the rivers – but Chongqing is so polluted – it feels like your traveling in a bubble of grayness. You get a sense your traveling into nothingness, and you sort of lose your stomach when huge buildings suddenly appear out of the pollution. Apparently yesterday was a good day! And it was – there was a touch of blue in the sky, the dampness wasn’t there. But living in a bubble of grayness is a bit disconcerting.
We met up with Matt Nemeyer, who lives here. I went to school with him in North Queensland – and I just realised he lived here via facebook. His partner, Ling, is from Chongqing. He took us on a long drive out to the country side to a friends’ BBQ celebration – incredible! We went to a big warehouse with BBQ lamb on spit. Everyone was given gloves, and you just dive in and pull the lamb apart – and then move onto big soup filled with vegetables and god knows what else. We then moved onto Karaoke – late night, but lots of fun and met some lovely people. Pablo had a ball at Karaoke – playing with everyone. You hire a room and then buy the alcohol, and then singing for hours. We got back in the wee hours of the morning.
Gosh, the food here has been an experience – an absolute highlight. China is quite amazing.
Going to meet She today – in about half an hour – to talk about work. mmm. Will be interesting to see where this goes. She seems to have been given the job as my assistant/translator, as well as the lovely Strawberry – who has been working out a power, internet, DVD, and TV request.
And we now have a TV that works, and a DVD, so Pablo is content with a few DVD’s. Matt spent the morning putting some artwork up on the walls. Settling in well. Bought Pablo a soccer ball so matt and pablo can spend some time at the Arts Academy football field. I have been told there is a kids park around here as well – so that will be nice to find.
