I finally finished one of the two baby sweaters I've been knitting for the little baby boom that has been going on in my world. My brother and a good friend from college are both having babies this summer so I decided to knit them
baby bear sweaters. It was just supposed to take two months, but I wanted them to look awesome AND I was super busy in the US so they bled into a third month. They also required me to seam which I've never done on such a large project but I found an excellent online guide at
Studio Knits.
Also yesterday I went to get an oil change, all by myself. Now, you might be thinking to yourself "so what, getting an oil change is no big deal" But you'd be wrong. First of all, they are doing construction up and down the airport expressway so while the Toyota dealership is only 15 minutes away, it took me over 2 hours to find the place. I could see it almost the whole time, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to get there. I kept getting closer and further away, closer and further away.... When I finally did make it there it was during lunch time and all the front office people kept trying to get me to go get lunch. But I told them, in my toddler Chinese, that it took me forever to find the place so I would just wait because I wasn't leaving. Now onto the second problem.... How much do you know about what they are talking about when you get an oil change? I know that there's a filter involved, and oil, but that's about it. Now, imagine trying to conduct this business in a language you barely speak. None of my Chinese involves anything to do with cars. Basically I told them, Change Oil, and if they asked me anything, I said just Change Oil. They tried to sell me the expensive oil (I think) and I said, no, just the common oil, and then they asked something else, and I said Change Oil. I'm sure they thought I was none too bright.
On the bright side, they took pity on the poor lost foreigner and fed me lunch at the Toyota Employee cafeteria. The food was pretty good. It didn't look great (Chinese food served buffet style almost never does) but it tasted pretty yummy. And they washed the car. So I got the signature Toyota service oil change, lunch, and a car wash for about $50 US. Not cheap, but I found it myself, got it done-in Chinese, and made it back in one piece. All in all a successful trip!
