buy bathtub in China - check!

I don't feel like getting into the nitty gritty details of my day, but the bottom line is that there is a brand new spankin' RED bathtub in our bathroom! Shouldn't get too giddy since we aren't supposed to use it until the day after tomorrow when the cement dries, and so i'm not sure if the tub will work (ie. hold the weight, not leak). But in any case, it looks good, and looking the part means a mark of 95% already in China. Have i already ranted about bad Chinese quality? Yes, i beleive so.

The humongous outlet store in Urumqi is about a ten minute walk from home (i can see it from where i am right now actually) and it literally has anything and everything you could ever want or need to redecorate or completely furnish a new house. Makes me seriously think how fun, not to mention cheap, it would be to just get an empty apartment and go wild and implement all the crazy ideas that i could think of, which are probably not too far off from 'regular decor' in China.

There are several huge Russian-looking buildings with multiple levels of kitchen ware, hardware, sofas, dining room sets, heart-shaped beds with built in tv/radio, heavy beige ceiling-to-floor curtains with laced edges, cast-iron everything, and so much plastic it hurts. Outside in front and in the back, there is a mini Timber City, where you can get wood in any size or shape imagineable; Bathroom Alley with taps, sinks, tubs, jacuzzis, hoses, etc; Paint Lane, which reeks of paint fumes; Vehicle Maintenance Blvd, bursting with tires, wrenches, hubcaps, nuts and bolts and other gizmos i have no idea what they would be used for, and so on. It's like this delightful feast for the eyes, you get the picture huh?

You can buy whatever you desire and then hire a man and his tricycle to transport it. I paid the equivalent of $1.50 CDN to have my man and his tricycle bring the red bathtub, two heavy bags of cement, two big shovels, the worker's tools, my new wok and cutting board to the apartment. He's one strong man indeed, and he was probably in his 60's.

The mountains were clearly visible today for the WHOLE day, the heating is slowly being turned off so it seems (April 15th is the cut-off date, ack still gotta buy a heater), the sun was bright and warm on the skin, I got to tune one of my friend's newly-bought violin (mine's coming in 6 days, YAY!), I wrote my grandma a letter in chinese all by myself, with help from Matt and the handy dictionary. I was so proud of it, but upon reading it, it looks/sounds like a little kid writing about her daily events, very very elementary. Literally, i was saying "There was a big snowstorm two days ago. It has melted. Today is beautiful out. Mom, dad and little sister are coming on Sunday. I am very excited. We will visit many beautiful places in Xinjiang." She'll probably wonder why my life has suddenly turned into a series of run-on events and why on earth my level of writing has plumetted.