As much as I disliked living here before, these days I’m finding it pretty sweet. In fact, unless I’m forgetting something, I haven’t left Jinyang in nearly a month.
In addition to the availability of Western-style fast food (as previously mentioned…many times), there are better grocery stores here now, plus several farmers’ market-type places and a convenience store that’s open until midnight. There’s also a bar that has karaoke, although I haven’t been there in some time. I think the last time I was there with some of the other teachers, we exhausted all the English songs they have that we know.
Come to think of it…having not left Jinyang in a whole month, that probably means that I have also not used any motorized form of transportation for a whole month (including elevators). That’s got to be pretty healthy and green. Or it would be healthy if I wasn’t eating huge amounts of fast food chicken and ramen noodles all the time…maybe it’s a wash overall.
It didn’t start out that way, but life has actually become pretty good here, and there are a lot of people and things I’ll miss.