shunde, not shenzhen

whoops! when the man who i am working for told me over the phone that i would be going to shenzhen, i was very excited, especially after doing a little research online about the city. suspicions were raised when i stepped off of a plane in guangzhou, but i figured i was just going to be driven to shenzhen and that they had gotten a deal on a flight from bangkok or something of that nature. when the driver stopped in shunde, i was a little frightened but have learned to go with the flow while in asia. shunde is a relatively small and very quiet city where i have yet to find a bar and all the restaurants shut around eight in the evening - not really my scene, but it will be good for me.

i arrived at the office where i am working, a very nice construction company here in shunde and waited for a couple of hours to be taken to a restaurant by the brother of my boss who owns "the clubhouse." he was extremely proud of himself for having produced a bottle of budweiser for me. he went on to order some food and i knew getting into the adventure that is china that this would probably be the worst part, but the apartment they put me in made the food look like prime rib. the first plate of food that arrive was full of really nice stir fried vegetables and squid. ok, i can handle that - except the squid was still moving. the next plate that came was a small bird that i would have pegged as some kind of pheasant and i am still hoping that it was because the head on the plate looked remarkably like that of a pigeon. next came a really nice stew with what looked like beef and some water chestnuts. it was very good until halfway through eating the entire plate, my boss, who speaks english, sat down at the table and said, you like cow stomach lining? he then ordered some really nice friend noodles and dumplings and spring rolls. i was conveniently too full of cow stomach to enjoy the nice stuff.

after the food adventure came the apartment adventure. up four flights of stairs and into what looked like an average american apartment. i met my chinese housemate, a man in his fifties who works for the company where i work. spoke no english but seemed nice enough. i then saw my "room," literally six feet square, which means i am unable to lay down. the bed had a "mattress" that might as well have been a sheet of plywood. i can deal with all of this, but when i saw the "bathroom," i almost came unglued. i had to restrain myself from screaming as to avoid insulting my hosts. the toilet is a hole in the ground, which is fine, but the hole leads to nowhere - what a convenience - an inhouse outhouse! upon further inspection i realized that this hole also doubles as the shower drain, which means that yes, when you take a shower you are standing in, well, you get the picture.

i went to see a new apartment today which i will be moving into tomorrow.