We are still here!

Hello everybody!! We have not given up blogging, just having difficulties getting it done. We have been on an apartment safari hunt for the past 2 weeks. We saw many strange things, apartments with rotten fruit still in the kitchen, underwear hanging in the bathroom. We visited several apartments twice. There is no rhyme or reason to the real estate agency here. You have to pick a street and go office to office asking. If you see a building you might like, there is no guarantee that the agencies underneath it have any apartments there. Chances are, they will make you walk 2 or 3 miles across the city to another building. One day we walked for ten hours, and found nothing. It seems that everyone in China has decided to move here and most purchase their apartments, so empty apartments are few and far between. Usually we just split up, hitting office after office and they would just say, mei you. We don't have anything. Not even one apartment in our range. One guy drove us out of the city away from everything to show us three apartments that were all 1000K which is pretty good. The building was brand new. We had to wait for the key so I peeped in the unfinished peep hole and saw that there were no doors framed out. When they finally opened the door, a little man jumped up from the squat toilet and ran out. "Does he live here"?, I asked. "Oh, no, no one lives here.". On the balcony I saw shoes and clothes hanging to dry on a makeshift line. In two bedrooms were mattresses and toothbrushes and clothes. "Are you sure no one lives here"? They said no again. The "best" part was that there was no western toilet, no floors, no doors and get this, no kitchen. The space was there, just an empty concrete space with pipes sticking out of the wall. When we asked them when it would be finished, they said, no 1000K was as is! What if we want doors and a toilet and ummm, a KITCHEN? They could put in the toilet and add doors but to put in a kitchen, buxing, impossible. And they would have to raise the rent a few hundred of course. When Frank tried to reason that no one could live in an unfinished place, the landlord called him cheap. It was hilarious! They refused to negotiate, except to say we could of course pay 1000 and do all the rest ourselves. As we were going downstairs, we spotted another unfinished apt. and stepped in to speak to the landlords. The unreasonable landlord quickly pointed to them, "See, they live here and look!, No kitchen!!!" But I thought no one was living in the other one. Hmmmm. She ushered us out of their place and as we descended the stairs, had a nice long discussion with the other owners to assure they would also not rent to us. It was an interesting experience and after the frustration and anger at her rudeness subsided, it was all very amusing.
We looked at apartments on all points of the compass and finally, in the rain yesterday, found one we could settle on. It has 3 bedrooms and one western bath. The living room is large, the kitchen small but workable. The sink and cabinet are rotten and collapsed when we opened the door. It has two balconies and the area has a garden. It is on the 11th floor. It is quieter and not dusty from outside construction. It is right next to a cigarette factory with the mountains even closer than this apt. It will take some cleaning and they will replace the sink cabinet before we sign a contract. But I think it will work out fine. The walking and bike riding were good exercise and we stayed hydrated since every office you visit gives you a cup of hot water and makes you sit and drink it. I had a dear friend with me too who actually enjoys the hunt. She was the engine because I was ready to give up and stay here, pay the increased rent and deal with not sleeping from the noise. "You are not giving up!" she kept telling me and look, now we have a new place. As soon as we can, I will post before pictures and after when we actually move in. Just wait for the stories we will have about getting our stuff moved!. Another adventure!
Mandy
"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home"