Continued From Last Week: "We Will Get an Apartment"

Last Thursday we moved into an apartment complex.

It has around sixty buildings in it. Each building has six stories (no elevators). 

We live on the second floor of building forty one. 

The door is usually locked on the bottom level so you press the button with the number of your apartment on it. The wire in the door leads to a phone at the door of the apartment. There is a button on the phone that unlocks the bottom door. Our apartment is small and cozy and full of light.

The sidewalks are perfect for skateboarding, and there's a convenience store and fruit stand right outside the complex. We plan to get some bikes later but we're still working on that.

There are cats everywhere and in the weirdest places. I saw a little kitten sleeping  on a motorcycle as if it was dreaming about riding it. The person below us has close to fifteen cats. The black one likes to hang out on the roof of the building next to us. Others prefer the hedge and several like the bushes under the shady pomegranate tree.

SNAP BANG

ratatataatatatatattatatatatattatatatatatattaatat

We didn’t mind the sound. We had heard it all before. It just meant something like a wedding was happening and they were setting off firecrackers. The locals acted like they didn’t even hear it. It turned out to be a Laundromat across the street that was having its grand opening.

(The reason I recognized the sound: the day we moved in I was skating around the complex, turned a corner, and saw the biggest firecracker show in my life about to go off two centimeters in front of me. I skated home and told mom and dad to cover their ears and sure enough there was a BOOM BANG snip snap snip snap crackle BOOM ratatatatatatatattatatatatatatatatat.)

The firecrackers stopped popping just before we got to the street. All that was left was red paper remains. 

We were headed to the market near our house. The market had a strong smell of tobacco because lots of the people there smoked cigarettes. They sold fish and plants, as well as little antiques and flutes and knifes and crickets and some plain old boring things like hoses and belts.

The market is located along a sidewalk. The vendors usually come and roll out mats and then place their items on them. 

Customers squat down to look.

 

Some vendors prefer tables.

Or motorbikes.

We decided to look around at bonsai trees.

Bonsais are basically miniature trees and sure enough we got two of them. One was a miniature boxwood. The other was a miniature juniper. The man who sold us the bonsais was very nice. His smiling face behind a small boxwood bonsai reminded me of a sweet cup of oolong tea.

The day we moved into the complex I made my first friend. He was new, his age was fourteen and his name was Xu (pronounced like "Shoe").

He had a Playstation Two like most of my friends and apparently we both like the same video game such as Burn Out 3, Ace Combat, Metal Gear Solid and grandtheftauto. We plan to hang out on Saturdays. He speaks good English but I still have to say some things slowly to him. I am reassured and don't get as homesick as before BUT THAT DOSEN'T MEAN I DON'T MISS YOU AND CAN'T WAIT TO GET HOME.           

signed

Parker

broadcasting live from Shanghai China