Moving in Day: October 1

Wednesday, October 1

Our moving in day was scheduled for the National Holiday day, which somewhat surprised me. Both our driver and our Maxxelli [relocation] agent, Anthony, assured us that they were scheduled to work the day and had no problem with it.

The Waterfront complex has front and back entrances with security guards. Zhang not only had to press his Waterfront card against a post, but a guard inside the guard house had to see him and press a button for the security bar to rise so we could drive into the underground parking garage. The garage is a maze serving all six of the Waterfront highrises; it is to one side of them rather than directly below them. Anthony met us in the small lounge area on the first floor. He is young, neatly dressed, with short, moussed hair - almost punk, but in China it appears to be a style that is mainstream fashionable. (Though fashion is not one of my areas of expertise).

In the apartment, Anthony went over the operation of the washing machine (Mark had him stick English translations on some of the buttons), air conditioner remotes, internet, microwave, and oven (though I doubt he has ever used an oven; most Chinese do not bake, and it was an item we had to have put in specially for us). He was about to leave on a 12-day holiday - his first in many months - so he was trying to balance showing us the apartment with downloading things onto his computer and answering multiple phone calls. Anthony will continue to be our agent to help us with things that go wrong; he's pleasant and capable, but Mark and I both breathed a sigh of relief when he finally left and the energy level in the room receeded to a more manageable level.

Since we're not supposed to drink the tap water, Maxxelli has provided us with a water cooler, with spigots for hot and cold water. There was no outlet in the kitchen in the are where we could place the water cooler, so Anthony and Zhang had moved it temporarily into the dining room. It's plastic and adds nothing to the ambience there, so it will be going back into the kitchen, especially since the hot water function is not working. I've looked over the cooler, and the only knob to set is a 30 minute timer - and I'm not sure what needs timing on a water cooler. I tried setting it, but it did not seem to affect the water temperature.

We had the option of staying in the hotel until everything was working perfectly (the theory being that the landlord won't deliver anything after we're already moved in), but I was ready to get out of the hotel. Since we had already missed the check-out time for the day, we decided to spend one last night at the Shangri-La and have supper and breakfast there. We were up in the lounge for three hours that evening talking with Colin and Calvin and other friends. Colin told Mark to stop by the office sometime to see a picture of his "next job".

October 2
Zhang picked us up in the morning at the Shangri-La, and we took the last of our things over to the apartment. We spent the rest of the morning putting things away, making the bed, putting together the lamps, and doing laundry. The standard bedding arrangement here appears to be a bottom sheet and a matching duvet cover. This is what we had at the Shangri-La, and our landlord has provided us with a sheet, duvet cover, pillow covers, and a duvet for each of our two beds. Mark and I both like a top sheet - the duvet is way too warm in this weather, so we are using the sheet from the guest bedroom. (Both are flat sheets - fitted sheets are not standard here.)

The washer seems to work OK, but the programmed settings are a little different from what I'm used to. The only cold water one is linked with "delicate", and the clothes come out of the rinse steamy hot. I'll need to figure out how to program for my normal dark setting of cold water, normal speed, cold rinse. Also, the water heater vents into the laundry room. A note has been attached to it that the window must be kept open for it to vent. However, even with the window as open as we can make it (half glass, half screen), the room becomes a sauna whenever the water heater goes on. I had asked for a ceiling rod for hanging clothes (we've seen some fancing ones that revolve and go up to the ceiling when not in use; it's a common sight to seen balconies full of hanging clothes.), but the landlord said there wasn't room, so he provided me with a clothes rack instead. It's too small to open completely in the laundry room - which is any case is a terrible place to try to dry clothes when it's in its sauna phase - so for the time being I'm using the rack in the kitchen. Mark says that the vent problem should be fixed by attaching a hose that leads to the outside. I think the best solution to the hanging problem is to put a rod on the living room balcony, and just not do laundry on the days we have company.

In the afternoon we had Zhang take us to Auchan, a large department store, to buy things for the house. He insisted on coming in with us to help. As he had parked in a handicapped spot just after letting us out, we felt somewhat pressured to hurry. I had hoped for a more leisurely time for exploring the store. We ended up buying a rice cooker (instructions all in Chinese, but Mark found English ones on the internet), rice, and iron and ironing board, a mop and bucket, and two bowls and a mug - the latter cheap ones to tide us over until our air shipment arrives.

Zhang has planned a two-day trip for us to the Leshan giant Buddha and to Mt. Emei - popular tourist spots to the south - so we dismissed him early in the afternoon. by mid-afternoon we were tired of working on the apartment, so we decided to go for a walk. We first stopped by Mark's office; although it is officially closed for the week, a handful of people were there working, including Colin. Colin showed us his "next job" - a picture of him dressed up as a Chinese emperor sitting on a throne! He said that it cost all of 10 yuan to rent the clothes and get the picture taken. He is guarding it very carefully - he doesn't want it to get on the internet!

We were hungry, so we walked on to the $5 restaurant (I must find the real name for it). Since it was 3:30, between meal times, they were closed (the front door was open, but the hostess was sleeping face down on her desk, and the waiters were playing cards. We decided to walk on for a while, northeast along the Jin Jiang River, then northwest towards Times Square. We were pleased to find the Shinhua Bookstore again. It was just as crowded as the first time - there's something nice about seeing so many people eager to browse at books. We went back to the third floor to browse at books. There were a fair number of books we recognized - the name was in both Chinese and English, though the text was entirely Chinese. Sometime I'll want to buy a book I'll know to compare the text, but I've got a long ways to go yet. We saw the Harry Potter books - all of which would have a lot of vocabulary which would not be relevant to modern day living.

Mark looked at the maps again. They were down to only three of the Cultural Sites maps, so Mark bought them all. (Our first one already has tears along the folds.) I looked at the learning Chinese section, and picked out some flash cards (200 characters) and two beginning books, one in business Chinese. After we checked out, we were pointed to a booth where we were to pick up the audio CDs that go along with the books. The woman at the desk couldn't find them. she said something to me which I took to be "I can't find them here; please wait.", so we smiled and waited. Nearly 10 minutes later she finally came back with the CDs.

After this Mark and I walked down to the Times Square mall, which he had yet to see. It was almost a carnival atmospher; the mall was filled with people, and there were lines of stalls selling various foods and trinkets. The food looked good - and we were very hungry by this time - but the lines were long and we didn't feel up to trying to order things. Instead, we walked back to the $5 restaurant, which had reopened, and ordered dinner. The menu there is in Chinese, but has pictures, which are not always as helpful as they could be. We couldn't figure out how to order rice. The beef dish I picked turned out to be half sliced green and red chillies. The tomato and beef soup came in a boat-shaped platter with no serving ladle, so we had to use our spoons. We still have a long ways to go in knowing what to order.

We were so tired by the time we got back to the apartment that we slept very well for our first night in a new apartment.