Apartment found!!!

After a week of apartment hunting we finally found one today.  We toured another 8 places today, 16 yesterday, etc, etc.  The apartment is just over $1200 USD, plus power, water, etc.  It actually has an enclosed shower, which i like (and is completely different from every other apartment we visited, the smallest kitchen in the world (the microwave and refrigerator are in the living room), a very big living room, and 2 bedrooms.  i'm going to convert one of the bedrooms into an office.  i'm going to have to replace one of the beds as it's 185 cm, and i'm 183 cm tall (6'0"), plus, i wouldn't mind actually being able to purchase a real bed.  there's actually a simmons bed store on the first level of the apartment building, and there's a few expats who are actually good guys and who rent apartments there for a total of about 6 months a year.

Mei bargained the rent down, bargained down the real estate guy, and got me a new kitchen table.  the landlord is out of town for Chinese New Years, so, we'll do the paperwork when he gets back.  i'm allowed to move in right away though, and we've already changed the locks, and deposited one month's rent into his account.  the agent didn't speak english, the owner doesn't, and that's why we got the deal that we did.

it's interesting, but being back in asia has me thinking like i did in south korea, so, i say we, constantly (you can think of it as a "royal we" if that makes it easier), and speak in backwards, broken english...oddly enough, this is helpful because they have the same sentence order as koreans.

tomorrow is the official start of Chinese New Years.  we're going to the windows of the world to the celebration there, there will be fire works, and a whole bunch of traditional chinese bands, and other cultural displays...dancing, etc.  on the 10 - 15, there's a huge party at wa chung bei, i don't know how to spell it in pinyin, and i give up.  it should be a ton of fun, there should be at least a million or two people there.  they have huge cultural displays, and everyone is excited about the Year of the Snake that begins on the 9th.

you would not believe how many stores are closed now, and how deserted the streets of Shenzhen are.  people are still rushing out of the city.

something that i haven't written about, because i keep forgetting, is the presence of the military everywhere.  you almost always see the Chinese Army guys around.  Anyone who tries to rob a bank is stupid here, there's usually 2 or 3 soldiers inside every bank.  they are also out on the streets.    they don't actually harass anyone, or anything of that nature, and i've seen them help out a lot of people, i think they are more of a comfort than anything else, and contribute to the overall feeling of safety that you have everywhere you go.

the ATM's here are interesting.  they only dispense cash in 100 RMB notes.  so, the machines constantly run out, and you never know when the ATM you want to use is going to have cash.  you have to have a chinese bank account to use 90% of the ATM's here anyway.  the others are few and hard to find.

In a lot of ways, China is an assault on your senses.  you can be walking down the street and smell the most incredibly wonderful cooking aromas, then turn the corner and walk next to a grated sewer main....there's smells of mold, mildue, everything.  some things are really good, others not so much.

at night, there's lights everywhere, the buildings all have either light displays, or even tv's going full time, my favourite building looks like a waterfall, the lights run down to simulate water.  there is always something to see, one of the buildings here is a replica of the empire state building, and the top changes colour from red to green to blue, it's beautiful.

in the daytime, there's so many interesting things going on around you.  the size of the buildings is staggering.  you can be walking past the largest building you have ever seen, turn the corner and you're in a very chinese, traditional looking marketplace.  we walked through one today, and a guy kept kicking a chicken to watch it put it's wing out and steady itself.  i think he was about to kill it, and was just playing with his food.

speaking of food, i'm going in search of dinner.....