Home Sweet Home

After 15 long days living in our dodgy little hotel we have finally moved into our new apartment!  I can't say I'm sad to be moved out of Su Yoo Business Hotel,  remember the close call with the glass wall of immodesty? Apart from the lack of kitchen and washing machine, the sporadic water supply, and the rarely functioning and painfully slow internet, there is one other key thing that I definitely won't be missing...
I don't know how familiar you are with the Chinese spitting custom, it's certainly not something that I was prepared for when I arrived even though I'd heard about it. And fair warning, this could get graphic,  so if you don't like graphic just skip the next paragraph.

Now...to whoever actually wants to hear about excessive spitting. Basically, the Chinese like to spit. No, not spit, really hock and phlegm. The pavements glisten with little pools of spit and its pretty much like dodging bullets walking down the street. Admittedly this habit is most prevalent amongst the older male population and thank god it's not more widespread, its very very hard ignore and something completely alien to Westerners. The longer we're here we're also beginning to notice a large number of people projectile snotting too, but the less said about that the better! Back to hocking up phlegm, mmmm. There is a gentleman who's been staying in the room next to us and he phelgms and hocks more than I ever knew was possible for a single person. I honestly know how anyone could have so much stuff to spit up.  But still, somehow this man manages to make awful, very loud noises for most of the evening right next to my head when I'm in bed. This is deeply upsetting on so many levels,  and no I don't think I'm being overly dramatic! I know living in a different country you have to accept and often embrace the differences between cultures, and I can actually get past the hocking up phlegm...just not when it's in my ear for hours every night! I gladly bid good riddance to Mr Phlegm and hope to never have to endure anything like his noises ever again! 

Our block that we now call home!

So on that note, so long Su Yoo Business Hotel and helloooo apartment! And our apartment is pretty nice! All around the city you will see these towering blocks of flats in little gated communities, we are now part of one of these communities in a 6th floor flat. I'm not sure what the area we live in is called, let alone our address but I can tell you this, it's ridiculously near to our favourite local market and has lots of green spaces and trees. Perfect for relaxing in the summer. 

 Our apartment itself is bigger than we were expecting and, although it's a bit retro with the wooden panelling on the walls and faux mahogany furniture, it is a huge upgrade from living in a hotel. Three double bedrooms, a pretty big living and dining room for entertaining (when we actually make any friends), kitchen, bathroom...everything you'd want and need in an apartment. 

Of course being China everything didn't go exactly to plan. At first everything was great! Yay, we have an apartment. Yay, we have a kitchen and washing machine! Oh...boo, one of the beds doesn't actually have a mattress and is just a wooden board covered in fabric. Oh, and I've drawn the short straw. This is definitely not a bed to flop onto. This is a don't sit down too quickly or you'll break your tail bone bed, but we were warned about beds like these. I just count myself lucky that I actually like sleeping on hard surfaces and for now it's okay; maybe after a couple weeks my back will protest and I'll have to splash out on a mattress or something to make the bed slightly softer! 

My delightful room

So, that isn't ideal...but at least we have a shower that stays hot for more than 10 minutes! Maybe two people will be able to shower without having to wait hours for the water to heat up!
Ah! The shower doesn't drain and floods the bathroom when you use it. Hmmm...
We thought this could be a temporary problem so left the over-flowing shower alone and got on with our lives. Out of sight out of mind and all that. We cooked our first house meal, chicken stir fry for those interested, and somehow completely messed up cooking rice. It was so good to be back in a kitchen cooking and nice to all sit down together in a place we could call home. After dinner we got all dressed up headed out to make a second attempt at finding the elusive bar area. This was a fairly eventful night in itself, at one point we found ourselves in a brothel very thinly disguised as a bar, but that's a story for another time.

When we woke up the next morning to the sound of some kind of explosion,  I'm guessing demolition,  we found the shower still hadn't gone down at all. Damn. My hair was in desperate need of a washing so I decided to take the plunge and wash it over the conservatory sink with its freezing cold water supply, my little head was so very, very cold. But the job was done. A few hours later I got a text from Jonas, that thing that looks like the drain is in fact a plug, the drain should just be a hole in the ground. Obviously.  A lot of prising and jiggling with a knife later the plug finally came out and, hallelujah,  the shower drained leaving only the mucky hairs behind.

So retro, so cool...

But despite the initial hiccups we now have a functioning apartment! We even had internet installed for us before we arrived so no more expensive starbucks visits just to get on facebook or check emails. Internet shouldn't excite me this much but it does. Coming from a world in the UK where my internet access is uncensored and available 24 hours, it was an adjustment having to search out internet rather than having it right there. Some people enjoy this 'being off the grid' malarkey but I find it frustrating, I want to keep in touch with people and home and be able to use facebook and youtube freely. Maybe I should be more like Jonas, who hasn't been on facebook at all since he arrived in China nearly 2 months ago and is fully embracing youku, China's answer to youtube, and good on him! Sometimes its nice to be fully where you are, without the distractions of social media, but without all our social media where would this blog be?! For now I'm happy to be firmly on the grid and to happily settle down with my tablet to finally skype and (more importantly) catch up on British TV to my hearts content. It really is the little things that make all the difference...