Getting An Apartment

Well, back to the grind. Chinese New Year is all but over except for a few nightly firework diehards.
Steve is pushing pretty hard for me to move out of the hotel and into the apartment, so I used some of the holiday weekend to begin that process.
It is the “Shanghai Gardens”. An area that is being designed to cater to the foreign resident. Pretty neat area of town. Close to many restaurants, stores, etc. My unit is located on the 11th floor of the building and is a fully furnished 2 BR, 2 full bath, LR/DR, Kitchen. It has big screen TV, satellite dish and DVD player, and DSL internet connection. I will actually get about 20 English channels including, 3 sports channels, 3 movie channels, Discovery Channel – and Turner Classic Movies (I watched Casablanca). The company provides a housekeeper called an Ayi (pronounced “I E”) will come in 3 days/week and clean, do laundry, etc. Where is Mr. French when you need him? Hope she can starch shirts; else I have to find a cleaners.
I photographed the control panels for the HVAC, TV remotes, etc and had them translated so now I can operate those. Finally got the heat on, and after several days, it is beginning to be warm inside (the heat is pretty wimpy, I have to admit. Running full blast and it is barley 64 degrees F).
Anyway, despite being more or less fully furnished, it still needed items, and I spent the holiday weekend going back and forth to the store to get the additional items. I had to make several small trips because I walk, and that limits the quantity of stuff I can buy and then carry at one time (what? no big American gas guzzler SUV in the parking lot to haul mega stuff right up to my front door?). My back pack comes in handy for carrying items. So things are beginning to shape up.
There is a dish sanitizer for (duh) sanitizing dishes after washing, but I have no idea how it works – the buttons are all Chinese, of course (missed that with my initial photo session). I pushed a bunch of buttons, but nothing happened. Then I pulled it out of the cabinet slot (no, it’s not screwed in place) and discovered it is only electric, so I really don’t know how it works. I assumed sanitization would include steam which means water, but apparently, that’s not the case; heating element only I guess. I’ll get instructions from someone at work.
The hot water heater is very fast, but small, so should be interesting during shower time when there are two people staying there.
I needed a king size blanket and bought duvet. Since they were all boxed up, I wasn’t sure how to read King vs. Queen, etc. I pulled a piece of paper (always take blank paper with you to a store for writing words and drawing pictures). I drew three rectangles of different sizes to indicate single, queen and king bed. I drew one stick man in the single bed, 2 stick-men in queen size, and 3 stick-men in king size. I showed this to the lady working in the store, who smiled, and showed me how to read the sizes. Bingo. One blanket in the shopping cart. Now I needed a duvet cover. How to draw that? Hmmmm. No idea. So I showed her a pillow case and pointed to the blanket. She caught on, showed me where they were and I selected a white one. Bingo. All set. Found other little things I needed and am getting close to moving in.
I still need to find some kitchen towels that actually absorb water. I probably will look for some sort of Afghan (sp?) for the sofa, a big floor rug (desperately need that), and other items as I discover them. You know – shopping like a guy…no plan – just wait till the emergency and then go get it.
And then came the food part.
It was the weekend, and our work translator wasn’t around, so how do you draw a picture of butter or salt or pepper? I formulated plan B.
I went to dinner at the Café Firenze where my friend, Tang Su (the UNC Graduate), runs the place and asked her to translate my food list into Chinese. So while I ate dinner, she translated. She also gave me pointers on food shopping; where to go, where not go, etc. We also had a great conversation on American-Sino cultural differences, politics, economics, clean tap water (she said Americans were pampered. I agreed – we are, but I make no apologies for it).
So, in return for her helpfulness, here’s a free advertisement and shout out for TJ! If any of you readers find yourself in Chengdu, stop and eat there…the tomato soup is simply delicious, as is the entire menu (Italian/French Cuisine) and if you don’t mind her dog scampering about, the conversation can be quite entertaining as well! She is always surfing the web and has found my blog, so maybe she is reading this?

So, I guess I am close to being an apartment dweller. I slept there one night – gotta get new mattresses. The ones provided are hard as a rock. It was like camping; which is fine if you ARE camping, otherwise … well, I think we can do better. I ended up on the sofa (see, we are pampered).
As I was leaving, there was a family coming in from the grocery store (I don't think it was a Publix or Harris Teeter). They were unloading the trunk of their car. The husband had his little plastic bags of food. The son had his little plastic bags of food. And the wife had her little plastic bags of food including one bag containing not one, but two, live chickens with their little heads sticking out and looking around. Wonder what's for dinner?

Wish me luck!