The Kunming Experience: Part I

  So this is my first blog...ever!  I have been living in Kunming, China for about 5 months now, so I will do a brief overview of my time here to get us caught up to this point!  I came to Kunming  to meet my major's study abroad requirement, and of course to learn Chinese better!  Along the way, I have made some wonderful friends and fun experiences!  One thing I didn't realize before I got here was how awful my Chinese was!  Needless to say, I had a lot of improving to do...and hopefully I have done the best I could in these 5 months.

This is our Chinese class: we have people from all over the place.  America, Korea, Germany, Czech Republic, Thailand, Laos, France, Italy and Bangladesh.

After I arrived in China, I lived in a campus hotel for about 2 weeks while waiting for confirmation to move to the dorms.  Finally my friend Sam was told there were no beds left in the boy's dorms, and they told me there was 1 bed remaining, and that it was in a room with two Vietnamese girls and there was a Vietnamese girl on the waiting list.  Sam and I made the decision to look for a two bedroom apartment instead of the dorm idea.  Its a little cheaper, with more freedom, and I would be able to speak to my roommate. lol  We searched all day for places, and finally found an ad for an apartment.  We contacted the landlord and visited it...needless to say, it looked uninhabitable.  So we asked if he had other apartments we could see, and he showed us the one in the pictures below.  The apartment has wonderful location, however it's contents do not fair as well as its location.  It was much cleaner than the first place, and had a kitchen and bathroom and all.  Well, after we moved it, it turns out it does have a few issues, however overall its been a sufficient place.

One of the hardest things to get used to was this, however not a big deal now:

Here's my roommate Sam flushing our squatty potty with a water hose connected to a pipe.  Turns out, this is so out of date that even when we have Chinese people over they have to ask us how to flush the toilet. lol

 

 This is my bedroom...I put pictures up, and of course my beloved Maggie who was my first gift from my boyfriend. :)

Ok, the kitchen.  The brown spot is rust caked with grease.  I really don't think this place had ever been cleaned before we moved in. lol

Here's the rest of the kitchen: washer, sink, and bathroom entrance.  Just an update, the sink and washer have broken in our time here!  (Its really wonderful to deal with.)

Sam's room didn't have a closet, so he built one out of some tent poles we found in one of the cabinets in the living room.

After settling in, I have had the opportunity to do lots of fun things here!

Here is a photo of Kunming from a mountain we hiked:

My friends from English Corner...we help them practice speaking their English every Friday!

 I was really excited about this! My friend gave me a ride home on his bike one day after English Corner...I have always wanted to do this!  It was really fun!

Bye guys! :)