To give you all a recap, I've been living in a hotel/apartment complex near the city center since last Thursday with the promise each day that we would be able to move in the next day. To be in downtown Hangzhou was nice--especially since it was right by the old Wenyi campus where I had stayed when I visited Rachel last year--but we got to know an area of the city that we really weren't going to be spending too much time in. Eh... it is what it is...
Thanks to Rachel's advice, I did snap a few photo of the apartment and the surrounding area:
I suppose it wasn't so bad staying there (other than the cleaning ladies who ignored the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door every morning at 8am and the cockroach that I shared the room with) but after traveling thousands of miles away from home, all you want to do is snuggle in and get to know your new home. Instead, I had to live in a (somewhat nasty) hotel on a bed that wasn't nearly as comfortable as a table with every day, the promise of "Maybe you can move into your apartment tomorrow."
Now, they claimed that the apartments just weren't ready (to be specific, it was the hot water). My initial thought was, I asked you when I should be here and you said the 28th. My flight got delayed, I got here a day later than originally planned, and you're still not ready for me? And then desperation began to set in and I was willing to move in without the hot water being hooked up (it is summer here in China afterall and I am basically taking cold showers anyway). But instead of letting the people who have traveled so far move into their new homes, they wanted to put us up and make sure everything was in order before unleashing us on the apartments. Very Chinese. They never really went along with that idea which got me thinking that it was probably something more than just the hot water.
Finally, after five days of living in the hotel, we got the OK to move into our apartments on the Cangqian campus of HNU. Going in, I knew that the size was less than desirable (and so does the school--we are actually getting paid an extra $200 a month to live in these apartments) so I wasn't too disappointed when we arrived.
I live on the top floor (penthouse baby!!) with two rooms to call my own. We have a bedroom and a "study." The study is basically a big empty room with two tables in it. I was hoping that it would have a couch to maybe put people up if they ever decided to come visit (so if you do come, be prepared to snuggle in my bed). The only saving grace in that room is that there is a huge fridge (I say huge like I am comparing it to the fridge I had in my dorm room in college). The bedroom is nice in comparison to the "study." It has a bed that is twice as big as my bed back at home, a flat screen TV, a wardrobe and shelves that cover an entire wall, private bathroom complete with Western toilet (thank God), and (even though it is only a glorified dryer, I shall use it as) a balcony! On a sunny (aka: low pollution) day, you can see the mountains in the distance.
My "study"... a bit lacking, I would say...
BEFORE
My bedroom... definitely can't complain about the size of that bed!!
AFTER
I'm proud of my little corner of happiness!
The view from my room... dig through the pollution--you might see the mountains...
At first, I was a bit disappointed that the campus is so far away from the city (a 30 minute bus ride will hopefully get you to downtown Hangzhou) but then I ventured into the nearby town and I fell madly in love. There are tons of little restaurants (Muslim noodle place, FTW!!), fruit markets, hair salons (no seriously, there are probably more than a dozen on just the one street), and the friendliest people I have ever met. Where the people in the city would see that you're a foreigner and just stare, the people of Cangqian will either say, "Ni hao!" or (even better) "Hello!" I eat that up!!
A nightly routine with the guys of Cangqian--Adam, DH, and Adam (I feel like that should be the name of a TV show or something) is to go out into the streets of Cangqian and try the street food. I wish I had gotten decent photos of this--basically you sit on little kid lawn chairs at tiny tables, pick out your food (chicken [we think], veggies, delicious rice patty thingys [both spicy and sweet], bread, and peppers), and the people cook it for you while you sit either in the street or right on the sidewalk... at one point they used a hair dryer to cook some of the food. Every night, there are locals lurking around these delicious tables and every night we are attempting to communicate through broken Chinese, even more broken English, and charades, toasts are being made, and photos are being taken by the locals who are just so excited to see a foreigner in their town... at their favorite restaurant!
Just today as I was walking along the street with Adam Squared, I saw a grandmother holding (what I assumed to be) her grandson. I heard the word laowai 老外(which is one of the many words the Chinese have for "foreigner"), followed by some rushed Chinese, and then "Hallo!" I couldn't resist turning around and waving to the little boy who started to giggle right away.
These are the types of encounters I have dreamed of and I feel so blessed to have been put into a community like this. It's like a tiny, hidden miracle that slowly revealed itself--at first I was so sad to be so far away from the city but since I've been out here in the "country," I think that I couldn't be happier.
So happy I've finally found a place in China to call home.
Until Next Time,
Amanda
I did not think there was that much flatness anywhere near Hangzhou, lol
ReplyDeleteHi Hi =)
ReplyDeleteHey hey hey!!!!! <3 <3
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