The view from our built in balconey - yes, it really is as warm as it looks. Oh and we found out that the massive building in the middle of this shot is actually the school library and computer labs. Pretty cool huh? We might explore it later - the lovely weather isn't exactly conducive to..giving a shit :)
Toasty to the max.
This morning I woke up feeling cold again. We had been running the dimplex heater in the bedroom on some nights which keeps the air at least warm. The warmth of the air makes a considerable difference around here. Because the apartments have zero insulation - they're just concrete blocks basically, you heat the air, it stays warm while its being heated, then slowly cools down. I can see my breath again while typing this, and yes I am back in my goddamned ski jacket.
We are having some issues with our heater. It has a large touch-pad on the LCD display, and a remote control. We have no real idea what we are doing to configure it as it's in chinese - funny that, being in China and all.
The lower section has images, one is animated, like snowflakes - we stay away from him. The next is of what looks like a water jug half-filled - i think this might be a humidifier function. The next is of an animated blowing fan, and the final one is what looks to be a glowing sun, with little heat rays animated out from it. So we stick it on sun, then adjust the fan to medium, but the top half of the fan is blowing out cool air, whilst the bottom is blowing out warmth. It hasnt been higher than around 17 degrees this morning.
I think we might have changed it slightly from it's original configuration or it might be broken or something as it doesnt seem to be getting as hot as when we first had it installed, and when you sit in front of it you feel more cool air with a tinge of warm rather than straight out warmth. In fact the first night it went in, I was sitting on the couching typing on my laptop and had to turn the damned thing off as it was actually too warm and making me feel stuffy.
We had to give the dimplex heater back last night unfortunately. The school principle, Mr Sen - or it might be Shen, Mr Pan's pronounciation changes I swear to god - anyway he lent it to us - which was lovely of him. So he needed it back. I went with Mr Pan to take it back and was surprised to see that the principle also lives in the dormitory style apartments which surround us. I held the umbrella over Mr Pan and myself while he carried it as it was pissing down and freezing cold.
When Mr Sen saw me in the hallway, he quickly invited me in and bid me sit down and watch some Chinese TV(woohoo!) while he finished his dinner. He introduced me to his wife and his wife's mother, and his apartment was positively toasty. I think about how toasty it was while I type this and I get sad.
So after a cup of tea with Mr Pan, we return to our apartment and Mr Pan has launched into some impromptu chinese lessons which he printed out from the internet. The guy is a crackup and so random, and his english is getting better the more he speaks. We learnt how to say key things such as, "That pen belongs to me!" Zhe shi wo de be!
"That cat belongs to her!" Zhe shi ta de mou!
Riveting!
So yeah, we'll buy another dimplex, or rather i think the school will get one. We totally missed it in the bedroom overnight, and its a freaking gem in the bathroom. It makes the bathrooms icy air warm, and stops all the megatons of steam that come from the shower when the air is arctic.
Today is our second day of teaching - we will likely write something later to detail our first day which was hillarious. It's so good being on the second day, as the anticipation of day 1 was a killer.
On a final note, when I woke up this morning and walked to the window to see what it was like outside, i saw snowflakes falling...or probably more accurately, little chunks of ice, there was nothing gracious about them. No wonder we're bloody cold, jeez!
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