I know the title sounds creepy – like that movie The Village. Our village is not at all like that village, thank goodness, although it does feel very alien to me. I have no idea what its name is yet, everyone just refers to it as the village.
Today the DH and I ventured to the “village.” Just take the dirt path at the end of the main airport road, pass through some cornfields, and there you are. The village is really not much more than a stretch of road with shops along both sides, for about a quarter-mile. The shops sell things like bicycles, food, alcohol, industrial stuff, clothes, etc. It is very dusty and sandy and doesn’t have any charm at all. This is no-nonsense life. But the villagers were very friendly. Everyone kept calling out “hello” to us, which is might be their only English. Again, we were the morning entertainment/spectacle. We each bought a bicycle, from separate stores so we could kind of “spread the wealth.” Mine is maroon. Nothing special about it except it has an extra suspension spring. The bikes are like paper and we are worried about even riding over a rock with them, lest they fall to pieces. Quality does leave a lot to be desired here. Still, they will get us around just fine, and for a total of $25 you can’t complain. (Although that is a fortune to the villagers.)
Tonight we ate at the academy canteen. We had rice, a stir-fry with pork, red bell peppers and celery, and a pear, all for 50 cents. It is so unreal!! (I have to admit that although very cheap, the canteen food is not all that great. We are going to try more restaurants around the airport to see if they are any better.)
I hope to have a link up to some pictures soon. Back in Toronto, I broke the LCD display on our digital camera, so we were unable to use the menu or see pictures after we took them. We found an authorized Canon repair shop in Shijiazhuang and discovered that the repair and labor costs would come to about $50, so we are getting it fixed. I can’t wait to get the camera back so we can take lots of pictures.
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