Sam’s Club & trip to School
Got an invite from the Moen clan (Tia, Jeremy, and Alyssa) to hit Sam’s Club in Hangzhou. There are three of them here, but they wanted to hit the big one a bit farther away. The bought an electric car. It’s made here in China. Fairly inexpensive and a nice car. There are lots of Chinese electric cars in the road. The Sam’s Club felt just like the Costco in Bellingham down to the exact departments and layout of those departments. Enter the building and see all the TVs, electronics, and appliances. Giant rows of prepackaged foods, snacks, assorted items. A bakery section with cookies, breads, and cakes. A meats area with beef, pork, etc. However, there were lots of foods that you don’t see in Bellingham. Ox tail? Fish heads? Pork tongues? Combinations of freeze dried seafood and exotic mushrooms? That said, they had plenty of foods that were used to seeing in the states. I bought a backpack (for when I ride on my bike), a bottle of Baileys Red Velvet Cupcake, laundry pods, pistachios, and a bag of cinnamon churro penne straws based on a bill recommendation from Alyssa. OMG, so good.
Yeah, I screwed up and didn't take any pics today. Dang. So, this is what you get. I guess it means that I was wrapped up in what I was involved with and just didn't think about pictures. That's a good thing, right? The Moens bought a giant pizza (just like the ones you can get at Costco). It was fun to listen to their traveling stories and hear about Alyssa's upcoming adventure as a college student in Japan.
Jeremy and I are planning a bike ride to the new campus in the morning. I just want to drop off some items in my new classroom. Calculators, scratch and sniffs, and of course the emotional support chicken. Being a math in high school involves a good amount of therapy. Well, it felt that way back at Meridian High School. I'm super curious to see what this new student population is like. The tuition is a bit steep at this new school, so I would expect a lower percentage of students that have tons of extra challenges at home. We'll see. I still expect at least some percentage of students that struggle with math and will need to be reassured that it doesn't make them less of a person.
Trip to school completed. Had a small problem with my new bike. Twice I’ve hit a bump of some sort and the battery fell out. Crud. Jeremy is getting the same bike delivered here tomorrow. They are going to bring me a new battery and check it out. Hopefully it won’t be a problem going forward.
Meeting a bunch of teachers at 4:00pm tonight at the subway station to learn about all that. Plan is to head up to West Lake and either eat or shop. We’ll see how that goes. Hope to meet some more new teachers. Will be curious to watch the Chinese folk and their sense of being in line. I hear it’s quite a show. Will report back.
Had a fun moment at lunch when Jeremy and I went to my favorite buffet place. There was a little boy making faces at me. Wish I would have taken a picture. More evidence that kids are kids on the other side of the planet.
Interesting pics I had to take because I knew Moira would love them. A car and some food. And yes, that brand of car puts the face on all of their models. The food item is a rice flour puff with a cooked egg yolk inside. A bit bland, but solid breakfast food if you don’t mind it staring back at you.