So I’m on holiday for 7 days.  

The move is complete! Finally took 6 strong men about 5 minutes flat to move everything from the 6th floor to a blue three-wheeler pick-up truck parked outside the gate to my apartment complex.  It’s quite amazing watching the guys lift the heavy bags onto their backs, strapping them together with ropes and using gravity to keep the bags from falling.  It really makes sense when carrying heavy things to use your back, you can carry a lot more and the load is more spread across the body.  Cost only 80元 and I got a free ride in the back of their open truck.

The problem is that for the next week or so I no longer have internet access and when they finally do get around to turning it on, I will be on the dreaded campus network connection.

   Unlike at a UK university the internet connection on campus is pretty slow and most foreign websites are firewalled. I might buy a new keyboard as the F5 (refresh) key is in for a hammering!   However if I go down the road to my local internet cafe, the connection is fast and 99% of stuff I want is available!   I believe it’s a question of the universities simply saving cash, spending it elsewhere on more important things  – luncheons, banquets, gifts etc… 

Maybe that’s a little cynical but I think it’s not too far from the truth.  Anyway I now live in a place that I previously said I would never live in – a ‘Foreign Expert’s Apartment’.  It’s a nice enough apartment, has everything that one would want except any sort of cooking equipment!  They expect me to buy it for myself which is no problem as I already have the stuff from my last place. The biggest advantage of living in such a place is that there is a never ending supply of hot water – the 30 minute shower is no longer a thing of the past!

The downer is that my movements in and out of the building are probably monitored and that they close the doors at 10.30.  If i want to come back later I have to wake-up the man downstairs.  It seems to be okay though.  The guy downstairs is pretty relaxed about things, and I think that as long as I don’t hold an all-night rave or something, there should be no problem.  

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