My 4th floor neighbors

Our foreign faculty apartment building is a little enclave of non-Chinese speaking folks that has three apartments on each of its four levels. The building stairs terminate at our fourth floor doors. The three of us--my fourth floor neighbors--teach with me in the same department but we all teach different subjects and hail from different parts of the world.

On my right, Katy, is my wonderful neighbor who introduced me to the West Campus cafeteria--forget the first level since we don't speak Chinese, go to the 2nd level where you can see and pick up plates of food. A Canadian from the Niagara Falls area, this is Katy's first experience teaching English as second language after her post grad studies. Following my electrical issue earlier in the week she was also my saving grace when it came to heating my bedroom.

Hearing her climb the granite steps at 8:30 that evening, I popped out and inquired if she could figure out how to get my bedroom heater to work, since the temperature was dropping and I was considering my options for sleeping on the floor of my office (where the other heater is). This is where not knowing Chinese is a problem since all the buttons on the remote control make zero sense to us. Since we couldn't figure it out, she descended the stairs to Tyler's appt on the 3rd floor and borrowed his extra space heater. What a life saver...both of them!

My neighbor on the left is Serge. He and his family immigrated from Russia to America when he was 9. He's teaching International Economics and MIS. He is the final person who was key in gaining my Internet access, after we finally got a cable he sat down and configured my lap top with the IP info so I could gain access. He also confirmed the reason I couldn't reach my Comcast email.

Without the help and support of my neighbors on the 4th floor--and the 3rd and 2nd--my life Here would be so very, very different and much more difficult.

Thank you neighbors!

Tyler #402