Some bricks now baby
Let’s build a home
-The White Stripes
Obtaining a job at a university teaching English has some
benefits. One is that a Z Visa, or work visa, comes with the job. A Z visa
means we can live and work here legally. Another major benefit is that the
university provides us a home. It saves us a headache from dealing with
landlords in another language, setting up internet and figuring out how to pay
for electricity and water.
Our apartment is on the 7th story of a 10-story
residential building. Half the building is devoted to student dorms, and the
other half is for foreign teachers. The apartment comes with furniture, a
private bathroom, and two rooms. Maid service is provided every day during
non-holidays. The apartment lacks a full kitchen, only having a microwave, a
water boiler, and a mini-refrigerator. There is shared kitchen (which is just a
room with sinks, no stove) at the opposite end of our floor. A laundry room
with a washer and dryer (only partially dries) is immediately adjacent to our
apartment.
At first, maid service and lacking a full kitchen majorly
concerned us. What if they are nosy
maids? How will we eat? We have to eat out all the time? Do we have to feel
like we live in a hotel? Maybe we should look for something off campus? Before making any hasty decisions, we weighed the pros and cons.
Cons
- Someone comes in our apartment every day. Potential invasion of privacy.
- We have to make sure we leave the apartment neat every day.
- No kitchen and really small refrigerator.
- Hot water is provided only from 7 – 9 am, 3 - 5 pm, and 8 pm – 12 am every day. We have to schedule showers accordingly.
- birdMAN has to be dressed if the maids come when he is home.
Pros
- Our apartment is neat every day.
- Daily someone else cleans the toilet, mops the floors, makes our bed, and wipes the counters. Weekly someone else washes and changes the linens.
- Short commute, less than 10 minutes by bike. Major plus during cold weather.
- Free internet, water, electricity, and toilet paper.
- We live on a beautiful campus that looks like a park.
We weighed the pros and cons, and we decided to stay. We
bought a single burner induction stove and a rice cooker from a nice lady in an outdoor market. We have even had a
few guests for dinner. I cooked what I thought was plain tofu (actually egg
flavored tofu – couldn’t read the package and the picture was misleading) along
with greens and mushrooms over rice. Cooking was a success!
So overall we are quite happy in our new home.
Chinese word of the blog: 电饭煲 diàn fàn bāo (literally, electric rice pot)
English translation:
rice cooker
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| On this rare occasion, we could see mountains! |
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| The new neighborhood |
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| The view from the laundry room |
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| Home sweet home |
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| If you are wondering, this bed is hard. Fortunately, we don't mind an extra extra firm mattress. |
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| Buying the rice cooker and stove |
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| Outdoor market near our home |
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| Cooking dinner |
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| No table? No problem. |
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| Even guests don't mind not having a table |
