No, that's not an oven.

I started my 3 month stay at my apartment in China last Friday. I'm slowly settling in and one of the things about moving into the new place is getting familiar with the appliances.

The stove seems simple enough. Turn the knob and eventually the gas is ignited and a flame starts. Perfect.

The washer and dryer seem a bit more complicated. A bunch of buttons in Chinese, but fortunately there is a print out that's given to me that translates each of the buttons. After playing with it a few minutes, I get the hang of it, to prove that its broken and doesn't work at all. Not even the rinse cycle.

The best part was trying to understand how the oven works. I had the lady, who is essentially the manager of the apartment, show me how it works. We both take turns pressing the buttons and the LCD display doesn't make any sense to me. She then started gesturing the action of washing the dishes and eventually putting them into what I understood was the oven! I then responded,

"Oh that's not an oven?"

"Oh no, that's just where you put the dishes!"

We both laughed out loud.