The Fire

About a week and a half ago, on a Saturday morning, I was awakened by someone frantically pounding on our front door. I got up and as soon as I opened the door, I saw that the house across the street was on fire. The lady who works downstairs excitedly told me something that I didn't understand, but I just repeated it like I understood and she ran upstairs to tell them too. I called my friend to see what she had said. He said that she had told me to turn off the electricity. So I did that and then watched the fire. It was interesting but sad. Some observations: The fire trucks showed up just in time... The first house started on fire somehow (I've heard a couple different reasons), but then it started the one next to it on fire. This second house is a place that sells wood (as you can see in the pictures). The wood had caught on fire and would have been quite a blaze if the fire trucks hadn't shown up just in time. There aren't fire hydrants here that I have ever seen. I'd never thought about it until they were necessary. They were pumping water from some trucks into ones that were closer to the fire. Even when the firemen showed up, civilians and firemen just worked alongside each other to fight the fire. I think they must have just handed the hose up to the guy who is putting out the fire from the pulled back roof. I could feel the heat from the fire, even across the street. (Sorry, the pictures are kind of out of order.)

I'm Dreaming of a "Hot" Christmas

One of the worst ideas we've ever had

There were a couple of lights out in our house and they are too tall for us to change. To change them you have to have a pretty high ladder. Our landlord (who lives one floor below us) had taken care of one light like this before without too much difficulty. So, we decided to ask him to fix a couple more. That has proven to be one of the worst ideas we ever had. We have survived without those lights just fine, but figured it would be nice if they worked. We thought it would simply mean he brings his ladder and changes out the bulbs. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. We think the reason the light wasn't working before was because there wasn't enough power going to it. He sort of fixed that by re-routing power from somewhere else. Unfortunately the result was that if we took a shower, the combination of the water heater plus bathroom light flipped the breaker for the bathroom and you were suddenly showering in the dark in cold water. This was never a problem before. Also, a new development in the problem is that the kitchen socket can no longer provide enough energy to run the fridge plus any other appliance at the same time. We have burnt out 2 power strips to discover this. The kitchen was never a problem before. We told him that there was a new problem and he sort of came to fix it some more. Now the outlet for our water cooler no longer works. This was never a problem before. Overall, asking him to fix our lights is one of the worst ideas we have ever had as it has resulted in problems that never existed before. Here is a picture of the new fuse box. I was going to post more pictures, but they won't post for some reason.

Waterfall

A few pictures from our trip to the waterfall. It was a really gorgeous place and it was nice to be out of the city and away from the noise and pollution from all the traffic. The picture of our group setting out on the hike does not do the trail justice. It got a lot rockier and a bit steeper a while later. (Mom, check out the UCLA hat on that student! I have no idea where he got that.)

Sleepover

We just finished a 3 day holiday here. For one of the nights we invited some friends over to all make dinner together and then spend the night. We cooked and ate and then played games for a few hours. Then Dave and I went to bed sometime after 1:30am and they continued playing video games until about 4am (or so I was told) and were back on the PlayStation2 before 8am. We all had fun.

Family, thanks for visiting!

So, it's been a few months now, but my mom and sister came to this side of the world in August. We all traveled together on a tour in China and then they came and saw where I live and work. We had a great time. Here's a few pictures.

Friends, thanks for visiting!

Last month, a couple friends came all the way from America just to visit and encourage us. It was a real blessing. Here's a few pictures.