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| Here's the street my apartment is on. |
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| your typical trash collector |
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| The courtyard surrounded by my building. The signs says "Welcome Home!" everywhere! :) |
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| My door, decorated with Chinese New Year signs! |
On the left is a small bookshelf. Above it is a map of the Summer Palace in Beijing. It's pretty and artsy so I put it up. Next to it is my armoire/closet. I don't think I've ever seen a walk-in closet in China. Mostly they have things like this, or wooden portable cabinets that they use. This one is made of a canvas-like fabric help together by wooden poles. I actually think it's going to be quite strong, and so far has been very useful. And what do you do if you're having company over and don't want them to see your clothes, just roll down the canvas flaps and voila, a subtle, understated blue, purple, yellow, pink, and green striped box in your living room!
Why is my closet in my living room? My bedroom isn't big enough so when I get dressed I wonder all over the apartment because all my stuff is spread out. It's not that big, and I live by myself so it's not too much of a hassle so far. Then there's my desk where I do my makeup and store my jewelery. And do work I guess (haven't done much of that yet). My desk window looks directly into the neighboring Hilton Hotel (so when you all come visit me you have a nearby 5 star hotel to stay at!), which is maybe 100 feet across from my window. And now one of my prized treasures, my jewelery organizers, which I bought at Muji, and they cost half the price of my furniture itself. Check out how beautiful this drawer is:
And now on to the other half of the living room. Another lovely feature of my apartment is the pink velour floral couch (you can't really see the pattern in the picture). Above that are some postcards I bought in Beijing that are artsy looking. To the right is my new coat rack and shoe rack (again, more beautiful organization).
From the living room, the bathroom is a 3 foot walk on your left. Here you can see the nice sink and mirror (the mirror is big enough that if you stand back a bit, it's full-length! YES!). And of course, a western toilet, duh. And I can flush the toilet paper! :) I even got a nice towel rack above the toilet.
And now for one of my favorite features, THE SHOWER! Most showers in China are not mounted on the wall, and definitely NOT enclosed by a curtain or anything else. But check this out:
Yes, that's right- a mounted shower head enclosed by glass walls!!! The shower is hot, and there's great pressure, AND you don't flood the bathroom everytime you shower (even the THs at Vassar can't boast that!). It's beautiful. Also we have washing machine (that's the big white thing) which spins so intensely that all my clothes come out much longer that they started, but also means they're almost dry, which is nice since I don't have a dryer (no one does in China). Get ready to be jealous, AGAIN: My washing machine drains into a specific pipe and doesn't flood the floor!!! Isn't that amazing?! Normally in China, the washing machine is in the bathroom because it drains all the water straight onto the floor so you need to have a drain to collect it all. But at my new swanky place, the water drains into a pipe just like in America! :) #smallvictories
And here's the kitchen. I have a nice window that looks onto the courtyard (see first pics). You can't see it, but in the far right corner of the kitchen, I have a TOASTER OVEN! Yes, that's right, a toaster oven in CHINA! Ovens here are not common because everything is usually stir-fried, steamed, or boiled, not baked. So the toaster oven is really exciting because it means I can bake! Of course it's tiny so it means I would be baking like 6 cookies at a time, but that's ok. I'm very excited.
And finally, my bedroom, which is literally JUST my bed. The bed is kinda crazy- the entire thing lifts up to reveal an enormous storage space under the bed that is currently housing my 2 giant suitcases. Very useful. Because the bottom is storage, the mattress stands up really tall onto of the bed. Then on the right is a small bedside table. On the left is a little nook (like what my desk is in in the living room) where I can hang laundry to dry on that sketchy, thin, little pink string. My bedroom window looks onto the courtyard.
And here is just a funny photo of what my 4 giant suitcases that I shipped from Beijing look like. They put all the suitcases in individual bamboo woven bags, and then taped them into weird handles and stuff. And all of this (probably over 100KG) only cost me 430rmb (about 60USD)!! And came in 3 days! So amazing.
Well, I guess that's it. Isn't it great?! Seriously a huge step up from my apartment in Beijing (minus the fact that I lived with my lovely bestie Zan in Beijing). So far that landlord has been amazing. Yesterday she heard me coughing on the phone so she brought me a homemade dinner! So sweet! And then we discussed Chinese TV shows that I should watch for awhile. The landlord is actually the niece of the woman who actually owns the apartment, and the niece just manages it for her since the aunt doesn't live in Xi'an.The niece is 24 so we're basically the same age. Oh ya, and the rent is only 1750rmb/month (278USD)!!!! Cheaper than Blue House in Poughkeepsie! And so much nicer! So far I'm very happy with new place. It's a good size, very functional, and surrounded by cute/hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants (always the best), and shops, etc. Come visit me!!! :)
And now I have to rant for a minute, sorry- So as part of moving into my new place, I had to go to the local police station to do the temporary residence foreigner registration, even though I already did an official residence permit. This one is supposed to be at the specific police station that oversees the district you live in or something. So I head over this morning at 11:30am, and they tell me they're closing at 12 for lunch so I have to come back later...because a half hour isn't enough? They basically only work like 5 hours a day- open at 9, then close for lunch at noon, then reopen at 2:30 (after a 2.5 hr lunch break!) and close at 4pm. Ridiculous. So I come back at 2:30pm and only 1 guy has returned from lunch. Like a good foreigner, I wait behind the person he's currently helping until I am rudely reminded that waiting in line will get you no where as 2 parties of Chinese people come in, push past me, and nudge the woman being helped at the desk out of way. So after that (I'd already been waiting about 15 minutes), I push my way to the desk and throw my paperwork in the face of the one police officer. (It kinda feels like when you're trying to get a drink at a crowded bar, expect that being a foreign woman here has no advantage) Finally the guy talks to me and then meanders leisurely over to give me a form to fill out. After I'm done with that, he says, "Where's your photo?" So then I have to go next door to take passport photos, which takes another 10 minutes. I come back and he tells me to wait for the girl that does foreigner registration to come back. So I wait another 10 minutes until she arrives, but before she can help me, she has to brush her hair, wash her hands, put on lotion, and make fresh tea. Then she taked my paperwork and says, "Where are your passport and visa copies?" So then I go next door again to make more copies. I come back and she says she has to enter my info on the computer but it's being used so more waiting. Then as we're doing the registration, she tells me that I don't know how to write numbers and can't read anything I wrote so I have to read her all the numbers on my form. She also keeps confusing my visa and my residence permit, and finally asks why I have both and what the difference is...HELLO?! YOU'RE THE POLICE, AND YOU'RE THE ONES FORCING ME TO DO THIS STUPID PAPERWORK. HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE?! So once we establish that no one understands why I have to do this paperwork, she then questions me on every single thing I wrote on the form, even though it's written there, in my passport, and on my passport copies. SUCH AN IDIOT. Seriously, this is the most inefficient system imaginable. The poor lady next to me had to put her form in this binder that was held together with string and it took her 20 minutes to re-string all the pages into the binder. GET A MODERN BINDER WITH RINGS. IT'S NOT THAT HARD. I don't get it. So after 1.5 hrs of hanging and waiting, I finally left the police office with registration in hand. Just a wonderful example of the efficiency of Chinese bureaucracy!
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