I slept like a baby that first night. I don't know what I dreamt that night, but I'm sure that my mind replayed the drive from Shanghai to Suzhou. The architecture was uniquely different from what I'd seen before. That's what stuck in my mind the most.
My mind's geographic radar was in play when I woke up the next day. I had arrived at Chateau Regency in the dark, so when I got up I immediately went to the balcony of my new apartment and took in the view. It was time to see exactly where I was.
I was on the 16th floor of a building with 22 stories. My view out the window: Straight down and out about 50 yards was a broad boulevard. It ran east and west with four lanes on each side of the street with boxwood and other shrubs immaculately kept. To the west (left) was another broad boulevard crossing this first boulevard at 90 degrees. The four lanes on each side were bordered by another grouping of shrubs and trees placed exactly 10 paces apart (I measured it later....exactly) outside this strip was a bike path on each side of the street 10 feet wide.
Straight across from me was a large building which took up the entire block. It was the same height as my building, but a little bit fancier.
Off to my right (east) I could see another street which looked exactly the same as my street and between the buildings I saw in the distance, perhaps 1/2 miles, a lake, which I discovered later as called Jinji Lake.
Over all this view hung a smog that was a bit grey and dulled what I hoped would be a clear picture.
It was mid-morning now on this first day and Linda appeared with yet another helper. We finished the project of inventorying the entire apartment and then we made plans for going to get basic food stuffs and necessities that I might need. Before we got out the door, however, the elementary principal of my school stopped by to greet me. He gave me an interesting item. He had what looked like a playing card deck with a metal ring holding the cards together. These were direction giving cheat cards to help me get around Suzhou. In Mandarin and English was written important name places, such as the supermarkets, banks, hospital, etc, etc. The idea would be to show the appropriate card to the taxi driver who could then take me to any given place without the aid of Mandarin.
My principal told me he'd be by again tomorrow, Saturday, to take me to the school to get acquainted. Then Linda, her helper, and I jumped into a taxi and set out for a gigantic grocery store, Auchon a short taxi drive away. I do remember being taken with the look of SIP, with its wide and well landscaped avenues. It was midday by now and we went into a Chinese fast food restaurant in the Auchon complex and the two women ordered food which I readily ate. With this and other food which I would be eating I discovered that Chinese food had much more variety than appeared on most American Chinese restaurant menus. But, that would be expected.
We then went into Auchon and I began trying to communicate my needs to these two women. They had a fun time trying to understand and interpret my needs and find them within the store. Both of these women's English skills were rather low so we did a lot of wandering around for quite a while. In the process I got to see the store and generally where different types of items might be, so the next time I could find most things by myself.
This was also the first time that I got to use Chinese currency. The exchange rate kept going through my head as I read the prices of the groceries that I was about to buy. But, I hadn't really dealt with trying to make a recipe that I would have made in Guam. So, hunting for specific hard to find items was still to come.
The help of Linda from the relocation agency was to important to me in these first days. I will be forever thankful to her and her company's helpers. She created a list of things which I might need in the near future. However, what must be remembered is that I had arrived to this school after the beginning of the school year, by nearly two months. So, the other new teachers had been dealt with in early August. I was their only customer now.
We would go out again on Saturday and take care of connecting my apartment to the Internet and setting up my television. But, that was another day.
As the afternoon wore on Linda suggested that I join her and her colleague for dinner. She gave me the address written in Mandarin on the back of her business card and I had my first lone taxi ride as I found my way to the restaurant at Singa Plaza. Singa Plaza I appreciated that she had kept the distance rather close so even I wouldn't get lost. The three of us had dinner together and after Linda flagged down a taxi and gave the driver directions for dropping me off.
I got home rather early and set about making the bed so that this evening I could sleep in a "real" bed and not just drop on the bed and pass out as I had the night before. This had been the end of my first full day in Suzhou.
Tomorrow: SSIS
My mind's geographic radar was in play when I woke up the next day. I had arrived at Chateau Regency in the dark, so when I got up I immediately went to the balcony of my new apartment and took in the view. It was time to see exactly where I was.
I was on the 16th floor of a building with 22 stories. My view out the window: Straight down and out about 50 yards was a broad boulevard. It ran east and west with four lanes on each side of the street with boxwood and other shrubs immaculately kept. To the west (left) was another broad boulevard crossing this first boulevard at 90 degrees. The four lanes on each side were bordered by another grouping of shrubs and trees placed exactly 10 paces apart (I measured it later....exactly) outside this strip was a bike path on each side of the street 10 feet wide.
Straight across from me was a large building which took up the entire block. It was the same height as my building, but a little bit fancier.
Off to my right (east) I could see another street which looked exactly the same as my street and between the buildings I saw in the distance, perhaps 1/2 miles, a lake, which I discovered later as called Jinji Lake.
Over all this view hung a smog that was a bit grey and dulled what I hoped would be a clear picture.
It was mid-morning now on this first day and Linda appeared with yet another helper. We finished the project of inventorying the entire apartment and then we made plans for going to get basic food stuffs and necessities that I might need. Before we got out the door, however, the elementary principal of my school stopped by to greet me. He gave me an interesting item. He had what looked like a playing card deck with a metal ring holding the cards together. These were direction giving cheat cards to help me get around Suzhou. In Mandarin and English was written important name places, such as the supermarkets, banks, hospital, etc, etc. The idea would be to show the appropriate card to the taxi driver who could then take me to any given place without the aid of Mandarin.My principal told me he'd be by again tomorrow, Saturday, to take me to the school to get acquainted. Then Linda, her helper, and I jumped into a taxi and set out for a gigantic grocery store, Auchon a short taxi drive away. I do remember being taken with the look of SIP, with its wide and well landscaped avenues. It was midday by now and we went into a Chinese fast food restaurant in the Auchon complex and the two women ordered food which I readily ate. With this and other food which I would be eating I discovered that Chinese food had much more variety than appeared on most American Chinese restaurant menus. But, that would be expected.
This was also the first time that I got to use Chinese currency. The exchange rate kept going through my head as I read the prices of the groceries that I was about to buy. But, I hadn't really dealt with trying to make a recipe that I would have made in Guam. So, hunting for specific hard to find items was still to come.
The help of Linda from the relocation agency was to important to me in these first days. I will be forever thankful to her and her company's helpers. She created a list of things which I might need in the near future. However, what must be remembered is that I had arrived to this school after the beginning of the school year, by nearly two months. So, the other new teachers had been dealt with in early August. I was their only customer now.
We would go out again on Saturday and take care of connecting my apartment to the Internet and setting up my television. But, that was another day.
As the afternoon wore on Linda suggested that I join her and her colleague for dinner. She gave me the address written in Mandarin on the back of her business card and I had my first lone taxi ride as I found my way to the restaurant at Singa Plaza. Singa Plaza I appreciated that she had kept the distance rather close so even I wouldn't get lost. The three of us had dinner together and after Linda flagged down a taxi and gave the driver directions for dropping me off.
I got home rather early and set about making the bed so that this evening I could sleep in a "real" bed and not just drop on the bed and pass out as I had the night before. This had been the end of my first full day in Suzhou.
Tomorrow: SSIS
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