shopping update

Am taking a rest now after walking for an hour and a half. Matthew and I went out to look for a small heater. But we both are really getting old. Both of us are now exhausted after this walk, which was all flat land; no hills at all. He said that it's not like before when we could walk for hours (he was my classmate 2 years back during our Master's degree programme).

Well we found several small heaters for sale at the shops along Salahaddin Street. Here they're called "hot air fans", and a "heater" means a "radiator". For 100 shekels (HK$200) each, we bought one that suited our rooms. That means no more cold cold mornings (especially in the bathroom because that's where everyone is putting their "hot air fans").

We both forgot to bring our shopping lists - and we laughed alot because it goes to show how old we're getting; so we walked around to see if we could remember what else to buy. I remembered to buy a metal frame to dry my clothes after washing. it was big but light, and was on sale for 69 shekels so I quickly snapped up the last one. And I also bought washing powder of course (almost forgot that one!). And I got a small vacuum cleaner for 100 shekels too. It's pretty powerful and noisy but it'll settle the dust problem at least. Brooms are useless, believe me; and now my asthma problem can be greatly reduced. Anyway I told Matthew he could borrow all my stuff. He's a good guy, and very smart - he speaks very good german.

Now that I've come back, I checked my shopping list and found out I needed to buy a table lamp so that I can study when it gets dark (about 4pm here). The ceiling light is too high (over 16 feet up) and is not sufficient for reading.

You must be thinking why we're buying so many of these things - well, think university dorm. Although this is a monastery, we're here as foreign students and must provide most things for oueselves. The monastery is simply too big for the friars to supply everything for the students free. In fact we have to pay for our room and board; it's not much (US$15 a day plus extra for telephone calls and Internet use) and we're grateful to the Franciscan Custody for keeping it like this for us. So we supply for ourselves other smaller needs.

OK got to study now. That's what Matthew said before entering his room - "Time to start on the thesis!" Not so simple though because we need to come to an agreement with our directors about the topic and method of research. Lots of bargaining, believe me! But I'll leave that for another blog!