life essentials?

Someone asked me what I do all day long.

I sip beer and sleep, and do nothing. Not quite! There are endless household chores. The life essentials in America don't really exist here.

I clean a lot, because it's a small place so if I don't cleanup, it gets cluttered.
Other things I do everyday is shopping for living essentials.
Things that we get used to and they don't have here. The apt has
nothing other than furniture. So I bought hangers, dish drainer,
lots of cleaning products. Everyday I need something so I go buy
them, as long as they are not too expensive. The washing machine
doesn't have a dryer (they do have combo units in China) so we have no
where to dry our clothes. The rack is kinda expensive and I can't
take it with me. I've bought lots of stuff for the apt that I can't
take with me. Today I bought two empty broom poles and put them up between the open closet doors and between a chair and the window to make hanging racks.

One of my cousins from Toronto just got married and they came to China and Thailand for their honeymoon. They decided to hop on the plane to come visit us. We made two "beds" by pulling down the couch cushions on the floor. I don't think they slept very well but we had a grand time getting to know each other. We went hiking yesterday in the hot weather, and went through some really cool caves. Some people were curious where my cousin is from because he doesn't speak Chinese much. They have a strategy - when they bargain prices they tell them they are Koreans (my cousin looks Korean to a lot of people even in Canada), but when they need help, they say they are Canadians! When they were in Xi'an and were looking for the bus that goes to the Terracotta Warriors, they asked a police. The police asked "what kind of person are you?", he replied Canadian. The police gave them a ride to the bus stop!

There are 100,000 Koreans in Qingdao and they melt into the Chinese society. Most of them speak Chinese fluently and send their kids to Chinese schools. So they are expected to be able to help themselves, I think. On the other hand, my friend here told me that Koreans are not too well regarded by the locals. Many factory owners exploit the local workers, and many open up "businesses" that lure young women into prostitution. Maybe I have work to do here, and not need to go to Thailand. I need to investigate.