February 26th: Cleaning and Pizza Hut

I spent the morning cleaning. Some steel wool and Mr. Muscle did wonders with the kitchen. I don’t think anyone’s ever cleaned the vent over the stove—it was sticky with grease.

In the afternoon, I met up with Roanne, Lindsay, Keith, and Jason, and we went next door to meet another new American teachers who had just arrived, Sean. All of us plus one of the Japanese teachers, Tiami (I’m not sure how you spell it) went to Shashi. Shashi (pronounced Shah-sure) was once a separate town, but now is part of Jingzhou, and it is where many of the modern shopping centers and such are. Our campus is between that area and the old center of Jingzhou.

We got out of our taxis near a square where all the American imports are crammed together—the Pizza Hut and KFC are across the street from the McDonalds and the Wal-mart. These are some of the more expensive restaurants here in China—Pizza Hut, especially, is the kind of fancy place where people go on special occasions. We were surprised to find, on a Friday night, that the wait for a table was only fifteen minutes; Keith assured us that it is usually longer. The menu was a bit more extensive than the Pizza Huts in the states. The waitress said that they were out of large pizzas (???), so we ordered several mediums. I think the pizza was better here than at home—I normally don’t care for Pizza Hut’s too-sweet sauce, but they didn’t have too much on these.

After we ate, we of course went to Wal-mart. It’s not exactly like a Wal-mart in the states, but it’s not bad. I got more things for my apartment—I finally found some picture frames, and a pot and skillet for the kitchen, and a second towel, etc.