apartment moving madness

---

Wow. We are far too busy for me to spend time blogging--but I gotta. I just gotta. It's part of the story and I must tell it all. I have been documenting our every move for over a year and so as we are getting the new apartment, signing the lease, moving...all I can think is "I gotta write this down!". So in an attempt at speedy reporting, from the scene, I will give a few updates.

The apartment search was amazingly quick. I started looking on Sunday and we had a place on Tuesday. Our current landlady helped us connect with her agent--the guy that represented her when we rented the first apartment in Shanghai. Everyone has been so kind and helpful. We started off in that typical on the defensive, don't want to get taken mode but soon realized we were dealing with really kind, honest people.

The agent helped us find an apartment in our complex for much lower rent (a requirement of ours). We saw one other place in the same budget range before we met Terry (the new agent) and it was a little ick. We could have done it, but this complex is so nice, we know the area, etc. So we were thrilled to get into a similar place for lower rent.

Terry speaks almost know English. He's obviously learning, but he is a bit shy about trying (as I can be about trying to speak Chinese). I heard him say a few words in English and then looked at me for a reaction. I realized I do the same thing with Chinese. It's funny to see that behavior in reverse. When I say something comprehensible in Chinese, I expect praise and applause wouldn't hurt. I appreciated his efforts.

Terry brought a friend, Joanna (my Chinese Joanna!) who is a super nice, helpful and English speaking woman. She is the translator for our real estate issues. We've been able to arrange our tv, internet, and all sorts of other move related items with Joanna's help. I really like her and we talked about helping each other with our language studies. I hope that happens.

On Friday, we met at Mark's office to sign the lease and that was no big deal. The few questions we had were resolved easily enough and then we met with the new landlady that afternoon to do the rest. We didn't have the cash for the deposit so we worked out a very complicated arrangement with Terry, our current landlady, and the new landlady. In the end, we were able to use our deposit on the current place to pay the deposit on the new place. I have to say, this type of help is rare. In China, or anywhere. Terry had a HUGE stack of RMB 100 bills. He pushed the stack to me, like a high stakes poker game and told me to give the money to the new landlady. I carefully picked it up--many inches high--and gave it to the new landlady with both hands. I so wanted to take a picture of that pile of money but was not sure that would go over well. Sometimes my bloggaholic tendencies need to be tamed.

The move was grueling but we did it. Many, many, many trips with carts, suitcases and bins of our "kit" as English Joanna would call it. We started Friday evening and made a minor dent. Then on Saturday after a hasty breakfast, we moved until 1pm, stopped for some Japanese noodles and sushi for lunch and then returned to the hauling. Terry helped arrange for movers to come get Nathan's bed. Again, awesome previous landlady lent us the bed, since her new tenant won't need it.We were pretty much done by about 6pm. Done, of course, means most of our stuff was in the new place. We went to dinner with some friends and then came home and passed out.

Today, Sunday, it was odd to wake up in the new apartment but it felt familiar. One big advantage is the layout is the same as the old place, so nobody will get lost in the night trying to find the bathroom. Plus, we have a king sized bed this time and it is much better since we tend to sleep four in a bed many nights of the week. I tuck the kids into their own beds each and every night but sure enough, come morning, there we all are! Like magic. Our blankets and sheets are not for the larger bed, but we are just making it work. I don't want to buy any more things that we have to purge later.

Other perks of the new pad, besides the lower cost, are: better fridge/freezer, really nice sectional couch that has space for two adults to lie down comfortably. At a couple apartments, decorated in more traditional Chinese furniture, the couches were very stiff and mostly wooden with some very thin cushions. Mark was immediately turned off. His couch sleeping ritual is very important to him. The tv/stereo setup is better at the new place. We can watch movies in surround sound and I'm sure we will.
There seem to be more kids in this building. This is exciting since in our year at the other building we met few people and made no in-building friends (unless you count the lady I said hello too in the elevator on a regular basis. I don't really count that).

The cons: horrifying microwave that shoots off sparks when I tried to melt butter today. That will need to be replaced. No dressers for the master bedroom or Nathan's room. Nathan has no storage of any kind besides desk drawers. There is no land line, but this might be a plus since now I won't have to say "wo ting bu dong" (I don't understand) when people call and speak rapidly in Chinese. Usually wrong numbers and I just have to hang up eventually.

Our view is not as fabulous, but we can still see the park and now out of one window we can see a lower income housing complex alleyway. It will certainly offer interesting photo opps. Yesterday, we saw the men in the street sorting the garbage--plastic bottles, glass, etc. for recycling income.

So that's a quick update. I must get back to unpacking and then packing for our trip to the US tomorrow. Of course I have to go pick up the passports at 9am Monday (visa renewals were in process and return of passports happens on Monday) and our flight is at 4pm but it should go fine. It always does.

Pictures of the new pad to follow in future post.

---