The Big Move

When I first met my contact teacher two weeks ago, she immediately informed me that my apartment was not ready. My school was apparently unaware that they were going to have a foreign teacher this year. The Education Bureau told them it would be too difficult for the foreign teachers to get their visas due to the Olympics. We of course did get our visas. So there I was in China, ready to teach, but with no place to live. Their solution was a luxury hotel across the street from my school. I still had to live out of a suite case, but I couldn’t complain. Give me a plush robe, a mini bar, a glass shower, maid service, and a great view any day! Plus after seeing the apartments of my foreign teacher friends and hearing them complain about all of their breaking appliances, I knew I needed to enjoy every second of my hotel stay. So, even though I still felt a bit unsettled, I enjoyed the heck out of that hotel.

Upon hearing the news that my apartment was ready, I wasn’t sure if I should be excited or disappointed. I was leaving the certainty of a working shower and air conditioning for the unknown and definitely uncertain realm of the Chinese apartment. I have toured half a dozen of my friends’ apartments, and they couldn’t be more different. Some are the size of dorm rooms, while others are the size of two bedroom apartments. Some are new and clean, others are old and dingy. The only similarity is the appliances. We are guaranteed a Western style toilet in the contract, so they all had a Western toilet. Of course the contract doesn’t specify a working Western toilet, so there was a variation between apartments here. Every place I’ve seen so far has the same type of shower, which means a detachable shower head in an open tiled room with your toilet—no shower curtains, no tubs, and no glass shower doors. Also, they are all supposed to have air conditioning, but, again, that doesn’t necessarily mean a working air conditioner. Every apartment has a TV, and thus far it seems to be the most reliable appliance if you can figure out how to work the cable box and TV remotes all written in Chinese of course. Furniture is similar, but of varying quality. All have beds, a wardrobe of some type, and some sort of extra seating (chair, couch, etc.). All of this variance among the apartments left me with no clue as to how my apartment might actually look.

I figured my best clue would be to look at the apartments of the two other foreign teachers in the same neighborhood as me. One is teaching and living at the middle school, and the other is teaching at the other primary school. My middle school friend, Allison, has a great apartment, which looks relatively new with wood floors, a living room, a separate bedroom, and a decent size kitchen. My other friend, Kiki, who works at the other primary school, was not so lucky. Her school and apartment are much older and less cared for than the middle school. There is trash in every corner and cracks in every wall. As one of our other friends (who happens to live in the best apartment I’ve seen so far) put it, “Dude, you live in the ghetto!” Kiki was less then pleased with this disparity, but a few days later, after she cleaned and decorated the walls, her spirits were up despite the still broken toilet and frequent roach sightings.

These apartments gave me no clue as to what fate might have dealt me in the world of Chinese apartments, but I decided to assume the worst. My primary school is better kept than Kiki’s school, but the fact that my contact teacher told me herself to enjoy the hotel because my apartment would not be as nice did not increase my confidence.

Moving day arrived, and I had everything in my hotel packed up and ready to go so I could move in that evening after I finished teaching my classes. At lunch time, however, Elli, my contact teacher, told me that she looked at my apartment and it is not ready. I believe the words “it is still very dirty” came out of her mouth. Again, my confidence in the possibility of a nice place was crushed. What on earth could have gone on in this room that it took a week and a half to clean? Oh well, back to the luxury hotel for another night. The next day Elli told me that it would be ready the following morning.

I packed up for the second time, and the next morning the promise actually came to fruition. A few strapping men (an ironic term for Chinese men who are almost always smaller than me) and a car were sent with me to the hotel to pick up my luggage.

After a frustrating checkout where they accused me of taking some hotel wash cloths, which I clearly did not take since they were never there, I said goodbye to hotel living, especially the doorman who always insisted on pushing the elevator button for me.

Unfortunately there is no elevator in my school, but the fourth floor isn’t so bad especially when you have men to help you carry your oversized suite case up the stairs. My apartment is adjacent to the staircase, and located on the other side of the staircase are the fourth grade classrooms. This means that even if I don’t wake up to the music blasted over the loudspeakers, I will always be awakened by the fourth grade kids running and screaming down the hallway at 8 am. The location, however, was not a surprise since Elli told me I would be living on the fourth floor of the school. Also, there are about four other apartments to the right of my own, so at least I am not alone in the fourth grade chaos.

Apartment is actually a very misleading word to describe where I live. It is more like a dorm room with a kitchen the size of most bathrooms and a bathroom the size of most closets. To my relief, however, even though dorm room sized, it has plenty of room for me, and it is clean. I have a fake-wood linoleum floor, a bed, a desk, a wardrobe, a chair, a TV, a kitchen with a hot plate and a rice cooker, a dish sanitizer (not to be confused with a dish washer—only heat is involved here, not water or soap), a propane tank for hot water, a microwave, a refrigerator, a western toilet that works, a shower that works, and a washing machine that works! The air conditioner, unfortunately did not work the morning I moved in, but Elli came to the rescue and made sure I had a new one installed by that evening.

I have now spent four nights in my apartment, and my favorite aspect of the place is my kitchen/bathroom/laundry room because it is so different from living spaces in America. If I had the urge to do so, I could simultaneously sit on the toilet, take a shower, and do laundry. All three of these appliances are in the same room, which is about a four foot by four foot square. The kitchen is adjacent, and is the location of the only sink and therefore the place where I wash my dishes and brush my teeth. I also have to switch the propane tank in my kitchen on in order to get hot water in my shower. It has taken me a few days to get use to the set up, but now I appreciate the efficiency and giggle at the thought of my bewilderment the first night I moved into the apartment.

Overall, I’m happy with my set up. Right now the only inconvenience is that the hanging bar in my wardrobe broke forcing me to put all my clothes back into my suite case, but luckily no broken toilets or roaches yet, although there have been a few spiders. It may not be a luxury hotel room, but it makes me feel like I’m more at home here in China.