Let's talk apartment hunting...
First things first! If you decide you want to up and move to China - pack your patience! A lot of it. Had the company that I went to work for not put us in touch with bilingual agents to help an apartment search, I'm not sure I wouldn't still be hanging out at the Timmy Hotel rather than writing this from my new room in our 14th floor apartment at the British Apartment Hotel. I am sure, however, that we could not have picked a place with a name that is any less Chinese than the British Apartment Hotel. Despite it's name, I am in fact living in China.
Apartment hunting began on a Saturday at 10 in the morning...and ended four exhausting days later after I'm quite positive we had walked 25 miles around the city. I promise I'm not exaggerating. Joining me in the search were my two new roommates: Pascal from Toronto and Dave from southern California. They, too, are new English teachers here in Guangzhou working for the same company, although we all teach at different schools. We spent around 8 hours each day walking (sometimes it was more of an awkward walk/run...our agent Sophia liked to book it) and taking the metro from place to place in search of an apartment that would suite our budgets, lifestyles, and commutes to and from work. We saw some very nice places for some very high prices and we saw some places that were not so nice for a much more appealingly price. I won't comment on the state of our new apartment when I first saw it... I will just say that after viewing all of the apartments here, I think that the standard of "clean" here differs from at home. No worries though, I have a great momma that taught me how to clean! And, now that it's clean its slowly beginning to feel more like a home and less like a random apartment where I'm keeping all of my things.
Now a word on signing the contract. There was a copy of the lease in English of course but it was still a process where I was sitting and really questioning my life and wondering if I wasn't in a weird foreign movie. Our landlord and his wife are both retired officers from the Chinese Army. He showed us pictures. He sat in his business suit with his briefcase by his side and talked and talked and talked...to us...in Chinese...like we understood a word of what he was saying. And every few minutes he would stop and just laugh. Like a loud obnoxious belly laugh. Who knows what was so funny? I guess we will never know. Our agent translated what was needed. We asked the necessary questions, signed our lives away for the next year and then proceeded to count out our deposits and first month's rent money on the coffee table. In cash. Using large amounts of cash is super common here...rather than checks or transfers or the like, everyone carries a lot of cash. But still, it looked more like we were handling a drug deal than paying for an apartment. He collected his fat wad of cash, counted it like how I would imagine a drug dealer would (but again we were just getting an apartment), handed us our copy of the lease and the keys and was on his way. His name is Mr. Tim...Mr. Tam? I'm still not sure. Whatever his name is...we were all just happy that our apartment search was over.
Apartment hunting began on a Saturday at 10 in the morning...and ended four exhausting days later after I'm quite positive we had walked 25 miles around the city. I promise I'm not exaggerating. Joining me in the search were my two new roommates: Pascal from Toronto and Dave from southern California. They, too, are new English teachers here in Guangzhou working for the same company, although we all teach at different schools. We spent around 8 hours each day walking (sometimes it was more of an awkward walk/run...our agent Sophia liked to book it) and taking the metro from place to place in search of an apartment that would suite our budgets, lifestyles, and commutes to and from work. We saw some very nice places for some very high prices and we saw some places that were not so nice for a much more appealingly price. I won't comment on the state of our new apartment when I first saw it... I will just say that after viewing all of the apartments here, I think that the standard of "clean" here differs from at home. No worries though, I have a great momma that taught me how to clean! And, now that it's clean its slowly beginning to feel more like a home and less like a random apartment where I'm keeping all of my things.
Now a word on signing the contract. There was a copy of the lease in English of course but it was still a process where I was sitting and really questioning my life and wondering if I wasn't in a weird foreign movie. Our landlord and his wife are both retired officers from the Chinese Army. He showed us pictures. He sat in his business suit with his briefcase by his side and talked and talked and talked...to us...in Chinese...like we understood a word of what he was saying. And every few minutes he would stop and just laugh. Like a loud obnoxious belly laugh. Who knows what was so funny? I guess we will never know. Our agent translated what was needed. We asked the necessary questions, signed our lives away for the next year and then proceeded to count out our deposits and first month's rent money on the coffee table. In cash. Using large amounts of cash is super common here...rather than checks or transfers or the like, everyone carries a lot of cash. But still, it looked more like we were handling a drug deal than paying for an apartment. He collected his fat wad of cash, counted it like how I would imagine a drug dealer would (but again we were just getting an apartment), handed us our copy of the lease and the keys and was on his way. His name is Mr. Tim...Mr. Tam? I'm still not sure. Whatever his name is...we were all just happy that our apartment search was over.
18,000 ¥
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Same picture as above but without the writing covering half the picture...
New room!
The view from my new room...I'm living in a concrete jungle!
Our living room that desperately needs something on the white walls...it will all come together eventually!
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