[L]: Wow, we can't believe it's already late November and almost Thanksgiving! Where did the time go? I feel like I ask this question a lot. The last online entry we made was 2-3 weeks ago--it's been awhile since we've written, hasn't it! Our internet recently broke down -- for longer time period than normal. In fact, not only did our internet break down, some other things started malfunctioning around here as well...
One early morning, we heard someone banging on our front door. It took us awhile to figure out that it was really OUR front door because we hear noises here all the time. (For instance, we can now sleep through the regular jackhammer & construction noise that goes on from the floors above and below us. We can now also sleep through firecrackers that gets set off at random times, signaling that someone is about to move into their apartment. Supposedly, the loud noise of exploding firecrackers brings good luck to the new household, except unlike New Years, this happens almost weekly.)
So, it was a wonder that we heard the knocks on the door at all, as we've been accustomed to tune everything out -- except to the shrill of our alarm clock. After realizing that it was OUR front door that was being knocked on, I peeked out of our peephole and saw 4 people (3 guys and 1 lady). Having no idea who they were, and not comfortable with using my elementary language skills, I called for Edwin to come look to decide if we should open the door or not. Edwin decided to open the door and to see what they wanted.
To our bewilderment, they started making their way inside. Talking rapidly, loudly and abruptly, they started walking into our apartment. We started getting frustrated because, had we been in America, except for ill-intended home invaders, no one walk themselves into people's homes (however small or big) unless invited to do so. Not only so, they started examining different parts of our apartment. So, except for a few words that Edwin could utter or understand, all we could do is try to get in their way to block them, still trying to figure out, "WHO are these people?!"
After 5-10 minutes (though it felt longer) of now growing frustrations on both sides (them and us), they finally stopped talking long enough to realize that we weren't understanding very much of what they were saying. Finally! After some more awkward moments of us and them playing charades, we called our foreign friend to translate over the phone...and realized that our bathroom had been leaking down to their floor! No wonder they were wanting to examine our apartment (Sheesh! What a strange and abrupt way to meet our neighbors!) But boy, the language and culture barrier is something we hope to overcome -- that means more motivation to study harder in our language classes (since we haven't learned words like "leaking" and "broken" yet)!
And we also quickly learned that the definition of "privacy" and "personal space" is debatable here.
So recently, aside from the internet going down, bathroom leaking, and also the pipes on the bottom of the kitchen sink fell off (another story for another day), not much else is going on except that we've been pretty busy and the weather is getting... COLD. Brrrrrh!
Riding our bikes have been countered with cold wind blowing against us. Our local friends tell us that the approaching winter will just be more bitter and harsh. Not only so, the classrooms (made of pure concrete with windows) at our university have no air conditioning or heat. So, we have started wearing our coats and mittens, while sitting in class. The trick we're hoping to master soon is how do we take notes when we are wearing such thick gloves? Well, we'll just have to deal with our bad handwriting later... As for now, we'll just try to stay warm.
And of course, the next thing on our agenda: Figure out ways to celebrate Thanksgiving here. =) From what we heard so far, our foreign friends managed to find a place to buy a turkey for this coming Thursday!! Yeah! (Our back-up plan would have been maybe to cook a duck!) We have a lot to be thankful for.
