Day 2

Okay, here is an update from yesterday. Sorry I am about a day off!

Yesterday my roommate and I did some adventuring around town. Our day started by sleeping in until about 10:30 in the morning which felt really good! We had a nice a relaxed breakfast in our apartment and then decided to head to the McDonalds below our building to get some coffee and then go to the bank. Well, as soon as we got to McDonalds, we found out that they only accept Macau MOP, no visas, American money, or Taiwan money. With that information, we decided we really needed to exchange some money and headed to the bank across the street. Unfortunately, we could not exchange our American money here. The teller said that they could not accept traveler’s checks or the USD because it was not the current USD. This was really confusing because we were using the same money that we had just used at SeaTac a few days prior. So we left that bank and decided we wanted something to eat so we walked around and found a Portuguese restraint that said there was free wifi. We went in and asked the owner some questions about the internet. After learning that we could bring our laptops down and have lunch here we happily went back to our apartment to get them. That was the first time we were able to connect to the internet since we have been in Taipa!

After our lunch, we decided we wanted to head back to the school and ask the director some questions about meeting times, where we could exchange our American money, and when we will be able to connect to wifi in our apartment. While we were talking with her, she directed us to a casino near the Taipa hotel that would exchange our money and gave us the code to connect to the wifi. On our way to the casino, we wandered outside the main part of town and found that less and less people spoke English. This made asking for directions a little difficult. We also found that since the air is so much more polluted here it is a lot more difficult to breath. Since we both have asthma, we can feel our bodies working much harder to breathe. Because of this we had to stop a few times to catch our breath and look at our surroundings. When we finally arrived at the hotel I was carded when going into the casino, they thought I was only 18. I guess I should get used to it!

Once I received our money in Macau MOP we made our way back to town and headed into a bakery shop which we had passed many times. It smelled SO good we had to go in! I ended up buying some multigrain bread, a cranberry muffin, and a pastry. They are delicious! The next stop on our way home was at a frozen yogurt place we had passed earlier. I got a small bowl with strawberries. It was pretty good but not as good as Utopia J

When we got back to where our apartment is we ate our yogurt in a lovely zen-like park which was very calming. After that we dropped everything off at our apartment and then went to the store near our apartment and picked up some stuff for dinner and a few necessities such as saran wrap and dish towels. Since we were so exhausted after walking around all day we decided to have dinner and just relax. Later that evening, we discovered that there is about 4 minutes worth of hot water then it turns cold. My roommate came up with an efficient way to shower; we have to rinse our hair over a bucket so the hot water goes into the bucket. Then we turn off the water and shampoo our hair and then rinse it with the water that collected in the bucket. Then we rinse it under the shower quickly and the shut it off and condition it. And then rinse one last time before it turns to cold water. It is definitely very different than showering back home! I am sure it will take some getting used to the technique so there is enough hot water.

Even though this was my second day in Tiapa, I was still really jet-lagged so I went to bed pretty early, around 9:30pm. Now on to continue my journey in this new and beautiful country!