Harder Than it Looks

I'm learning quickly that things over here are just plain harder.

Example 1: ordering dinner.  One night my teammate and I decided that we were going to take a night off and go get some "die zo" (the phonetic spelling for the word "take out").  So, we looked up all the words we needed and wrote down each of the dishes in pinyin (spelled out format of the characters).  We arrived confident with paper in hand and after a few minutes of confusion I finally drew a picture of a piece of broccolli and we were set!  We did get everything we wanted and it was delicious, but difficult.  On other occasions I have just played Charades.

Example 2: plumbing.  As you may have seen in my last post, our "toilet" is nothing more than a hole in the floor under out shower.  Unfortunately, the guys that stayed here before us accidently dropped their shampoo bottle down the hole on their last day.  Pictured here is one of the guys I'm working with (who doesn't even live with us) burying his arm down the hole trying to reach it.  This caused me to ask myself, would I stick my arm down someones toilet I have only known a week?  What about my whole life?  Would you?  Just some food for thought.  Anyways, back to the story.  After being unable to reach it with our kitchen tongs (which will never be used in the kitchen now) we decided on plan B.  We would flood it!  The thought behind it, "if we could get enough water down the hole quick enough maybe we could flood it and the bottle would float out."

*Note: He is equipped with my super awesome headlamp, thanks Megan Ulmer!

So, armed with our two drinking jugs and large cooking bowls (nasty to think how many of our kitchen items made it into our bathroom) we turned on the shower, held down the flush on the toilet, and started the sink (which all drain into the toilet).  All at once the deluge of water began...and the hole just took it ALL no problem.  Defeat... The next day I went with my original plan and bought a wire hanger that I heated red hot, melted a hole in the bottle, flushed the toilet to cool it, then pulled the bottle out.  The battle was over and we now have a working toilet.

Example 3: rugby.  My volunteer plumber (pictured above) and I joined a rugby team in an effort to meet some local and foreign guys.  This is a picture of his leg; because during our first practice in an effort to score he dove for the endzone.  He did score, but the surface we were playing on was turf with gravel in it...so he left some skin behind.  This is three days and colors later.  It was only a "touch" practice, the contact practices take place on grass.  After he dove on the ground a second time one of the British guy we were playing with said to me (in a heavy accent)  "he doesn't like his skin does he?"  Well...we at least won some respect for passion.

*Note: This is not blood smeared blood.  This is one giant scab.

Example 4: riding a bike.  Unfortunately, I will be missing the next couple of rubgy practices.  While riding my bike full speed (which is pretty much the only speed you can without getting hit by a car not obeying the traffic lights) through an intersection my chain popped sending me full speed into the concrete on my left shoulder.  Thankfully plently of adrenaline was pumping and I was able to jump out of the way of cars coming.  I survived but my bike did not.  This just happened yesterday so stay tuned to find out the extend of my injury...