Potpourri

We live in a serviced apartment. Now, the housing folks in the Consulate decided that we didn't need to actually have our apartments serviced (like a hotel) every week, but there are still perks to living here. If (when) we have something break, we can call the front desk and they send someone up to fix it. There is a spa, a gym, a children's playroom, and several weekly classes like tai chi and yoga. Kevin frequents the gym, I have intentions of someday going to the tai chi class-- once I can see my feet again-- and the children's playroom is Penny's favorite place in the building. She loves the ball pit and the little playhouse. The name, though, is a misnomer: it should be called the child's playroom, as Penny is the only child in the building between the ages of 1 month and 15 years. It's a good thing Penny likes me so much, because there aren't many little friends around for her to play with.

But my favorite perk of our building is that there is a breakfast provided every morning. There are omelets, French toast, yoghurt, cereal, bacon, fresh-squeezed juice, and tons of fruit. The food is the same every day and usually only slightly above luke-warm. But it is a great place to meet the other people living in our building. There is a great group of women who meet sometimes for breakfast, and they've been gracious in including me in their group. It's great to be around such friendly people-- even if we don't speak the same language. See, I thought I was set: I'm in China and I speak Chinese. But no, apparently I should have studied German, too.

Shenyang is one of those glamorous places where no one really goes unless they have a good reason to be there. Seriously, I spent 5 years in college studying Chinese, lived in China 3 separate times, and still never heard of Shenyang. It is one of the top 10 biggest cities in China, kind of like how Detroit is in the US, minus Motown.

We do have car plants, though, and that's how my German neighbors fit in. BMW has several plants here, and so does Rolls Royce. I asked, and the BMW employees drive BMWs, but the Rolls Royce ones do not-- they're here to manufacture airplane engines rather than luxury cars. I say that's a bum deal. Michelin tires also has many employees here, many of them French but some German as well. And many of those Europeans live in my building.

And to ensure the randomness of this post, here are a few pictures:

Penny wouldn't take her nap earlier this week, so I brought her to my room while I was not sleeping either.

And I'm happy to say that I've finally outgrown my impulse to buy hideous trinkets. A few years ago, the following would have been mine: