It’s been a busy month.
Last weekend, we went to CS to visit friends, and were amazed at how much CS had changed. It’s a lot cleaner than CZ. The old computer that was nearly brand new 4 years ago is now a shopping center with Pizza Hut and KFC. But the big change was the roads. They were a lot wider and nicer, and people actually obeyed the rules of the road for the most part.
We took the slow train there, but bumped up to the soft seats which gave us a pretty empty car to ride in. To come back, though, we took the fast train. It took us 4 hours to get to CS, and one hour to get back. The downside is that the train stations are far away from the city, and in CZ the taxis want Y60/cab to drive you into the city. The buses only cost Y2, so guess which one we took.
While in CS, went to Metro to get some western food such as bacon and cheese, and the ever popular cereal.
We had a nice couple of days there, then came back home to wet and cold CZ.
Then on Friday, I flew up to X to look for a new apartment.
X is a fantastic city.
It’s full of foreigners, so I ended up eating shepherds pie, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, and chicken enchiladas, plus some really good Chinese food. Not only that, XN has an import store, so before flying out yesterday morning I stopped in and bought some macaroni and cheese for N, Doritos, Jell-o, and taco seasoning. So this for lunch today, we enjoyed some burritos. I ate better this past week than I have since we’ve been in China.
X is totally different from CZ. CZ is wet and humid, while X is cool and dry. CZ is crowded (4,559,600 people, or 611.3 people/sq mi), while X is spacious (2,177,900 or 76.5/sq mi). The people in CZ are pretty rough, while the people in X seem to be more laid back.
We weren’t able to find an apartment, but did find a place to stay until we can find out own place.
I was also told that there are a number of foreign doctors in XN, including an American pediatrician, and a number of foreign midwives, which will come in handy in October when number 4 shows up.
With the good report of how great X is compared to CZ, we are all looking forward to moving to X in April.