Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The hotel + Moving to the apartment

Here are the photos of the hotel that I think was like 200 yuan / night (~$31):

 The bed was hard as hell, but huge. There was bottled water provided in the room (left).


Now this was interesting: the electricity would be cut to the room if your card was not in this slot.


Pretty decent shower, if I do say so myself.

View to the left out the window.

And the view to the right.

Kinda like seeing an old friend...

A really cool little restaurant that was right outside the hotel. This location was directly under the overpass for the expressway, so it was sheltered; I found this fascinating for some reason but didn't get to eat there yet.



On Sunday, Feb 28th, I moved to the apartment. This was a particularly horrifying experience only because everything was so sudden.

11:30 AM: "You move to apartment today" - company
12:00 PM: This was the hotel checkout time...so that gave me 30 minutes to run back, grab my stuff and check out (way to go, guys).

Some time later we get my Chinese cell phone for 198 yuan (including 100 yuan of prepaid service over the next 5 months - not bad, I must say), and then hop in a cab to head to...somewhere. The company rep I was with had no idea where the apartment was nor seemed to really know anything about anything, for that matter; but *luckily* she had a drawn map to show the driver. By about 30 minutes later, I was really truly freaking out. Here we are suddenly leaving the only 2 people that I've gotten to hang out with to go to some unknown apartment location with some unknown apartment...etc etc...plus, the taxi cost (that I had to pay, of course) kept rising and rising and I had no idea when it would stop (nor did the rep...shocker). It ended up being 67 yuan, so like $10...so that could have been worse.

Byebye city! See you...uh...not really sure at the time of this photo! (I was literally expecting the worst case scenario of apartment, so in the back of my mind I was half-expecting to be heading back this way soon to get the hell out of here, quick)

The outside of the building - I think I started to breathe again when I saw it. I ended up being on the 16th floor in the middle of the building (the tower is 33 stories tall).

The view to the right when you walk in. Note the giant teddy bear (like you didn't notice it...). This is not mine...and nobody seemed to quite understand why it was there either. I have to admit that the word "bugged" definitely popped in my head, haha. Also, pay no attention to the ethernet cable hanging over it...I was messing around with it to see what was up with the internet...or lack thereof...

The bed; a lot softer than the hotel's mattress (or whatever it was) and also a decent size. And no, I don't sleep like you see in the picture - I was in "unpack mode" at this time! Also, you can't see it in this picture (out of frame) but there is a motion detector to the left above the art on the wall. No one seems to be able to tell me why...hmm.

The TV, the random electronic crap that was there with it, and my little American power station...

A/C unit. Not very useful when it is 40 degrees F outside...

Oh you know this was on your mind...the bathroom. The toilet is in the shower. I repeat: the toilet is in the shower. I'm not gonna comment on that. The device to the right is so you can see video of someone calling for entry downstairs. I also think the thought-police observe you through it, as well...ha.

A better view of shower-toilet. Showlet. Toiwer. Whatever. Also, the entire bathroom was wet when I got here. I thought someone took a long, hot shower right before I arrived but they told me it was the humidity...holy cow.

I didn't know inanimate objects could be assholes until I met this water heater.

The view to the North. Ignore the dirty window, but pay attention to the random crap piled up at various locations outside; they love doing that here it seems: making neat little piles of debris at random locations. I figured out later exactly what the deal was with construction sites here: they don't have dumpsters / trucks picking up these dumpsters.

The view to the South; that is the Pearl River, part of the Pear River delta, that you see. Also ignore the dirty window...

There were also a couple of other things I did not get pictures of. For example, the apartments seem to have valet and bell-hops (I say "seem to" because I'm not entirely sure what to make of it). Additionally, there were/are mosquitoes - this is another thing that would have been nice to have been warned about. Furthermore, these mosquitoes are somehow genetically engineered to harass you - I'm talking about 2 am fly-by's of your ear...over and over...I ended up just getting up, turning on all the lights, and hunting the little bastard down because of it.

1 comment:

  1. Definitely thought bugged before I finished reading that sentence. Just don't put the bear in your room before bed.

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