This and That

Since my language program ended, the days have been flying by, which I wouldn’t have predicted given that I don’t have anything I must do nowadays.

My new roommate, Ali, arrived the day after Christmas. She took a 38+ hour train ride from Beijing to get here. For real. She’s awesome: I’m so happy I have an amazing roommate for the next 10 months! Our third still-to-be-found roommate will hopefully be just as fun.

A classmate of mine got me the cutest little bear for my birthday. And let me tell you, it is no ordinary stuffed animal! Kunming doesn’t have a central heating system in any of its buildings, minus the really fancy hotels. To top it off, the insulation is horrible. So, once the sun goes down, our apartment turns into an ice box. We’ve bought heaters for our rooms but, depending on the temperature, they’re not always that effective. But this little guy:

you just fill up a rubber water bottle with steaming water, zip it into his back (zipper doubles as a tail, mind you) and, voila!, the warmest, softest, cutest thing you’ll ever snuggle up with. I’ve been sick ever since I moved in, and this little guy has been a life saver. No pneumonia this year! (I’m susceptible to it, don’t ask why.) I was going to sleep last night and, to my horror, accidentally ripped his tail off while zipping the water bottle into him. Good thing I had a sewing kit handy!

I’ve discovered the gloriousness that is torrents. I’m finally able to catch up on all the TV shows I’ve missed since September. And speaking of illegal copies of media: we found a DVD store in our complex! Ok, not that unexpected, since our complex literally has everything you need to live a basic lifestyle in a luxury apartment (grocery store; cell phone carrier shops; hair salons; clothes, boots, and bedding stores; real estate agents; Western, Chinese, and Korean restaurants; dry cleaners; pet stores…I’m honestly not using ‘literally’ wrong). BUT, the DVDs are only 5 kuai. That’s like, 75 cents. And they’re DVD quality, not filmed in a movie theatre. I love our complex.

Yesterday, I decided I wanted bangs again. I don’t know why I didn’t want them last time I got a hair cut. Anyway, I couldn’t find actual hair shears or whatever they’re officially called, so I just used regular scissors. I’ve heard that all girls learn never to cut their own hair when they’re little. Alas, I never tried back in the day. So, my little girl learning moment happened yesterday. It’s absolutely horrendous. I think I’m going to go get it fixed today at an actual salon. I’m scared of going to a Chinese hair salon because I feel like they’ll do whatever they want with my hair once I sit down, but this needs to be fixed. Seriously. And I think I’ll make up story, like I let my friend do it…without lights on…drunk…

And, lastly, my family is coming tomorrow!! I can’t believe the day is almost here. I need to start planning!

 

Merry Christmas to All

It is officially Christmas in China: Merry Christmas!! We had a big Christmas party last night, despite the fact that it wasn’t Christmas anywhere in the world yet. No matter! Jesus wasn’t even born in Winter anyway.

Qiu Qiu/Racheal (a Fulbright friend/Middlebury classmate who’s staying with me for a few weeks) and I decided it would be fun to throw a dinner party before she headed off to a wedding today. We invited a bunch of our Chinese friends, then ran off to Carrefour for some fresh veggies and imported goodness.

We started cooking at 5pm for our planned 7pm start date. Our timing proved to be a bit off, and we didn’t start eating till around 7:45pm. But it was tasty! For the most part. We had salad with lots of fruit, stir-fried veggies, chicken pasta with feta, and french bread. We couldn’t find a table cloth, so we bought some wrapping paper to cover the table with. However, once opened, we found that the wrapping paper was maybe about a foot long on every side. FAIL. Oh well, we tried.

I didn’t have a chance to immortalize our Christmas spread on film. The chaotic kitchen on the other hand….(and this is after some after-party cleaning):

After some good and bad comments about the food (all deserved), we all sat down in the living room for a card game. We decided to play Kings, seeing that there were 14 people. I had to look up what some of the cards meant and was jokingly chastised for it (I haven’t been in college for over a year, give me a break!). It started out slow, but was hilarious by the end.

Just one highlight: for “bust a rhyme,” Qiu was FINALLY the one who picked the card, so we didn’t have to play using Chinese phrases. She went easy on everyone, just saying “hay.” Our friend Molly (莫力) was next, and after some thought said, “airplane.” I think she was looking for an ‘a’ sound.

It was a great Christmas, complete with a little fake Christmas tree, Christmas music, friends, food, and wine. Thank you to all of our friends that were able to come celebrate with us! And Merry Christmas to everyone I’m not able to celebrate with this year. I miss you all terribly, but I’ll be back next year!

 

New Beginning

Today I am moving out of the home I’ve had for 3 1/2 months. The past week and a half have been a whirlwind – complete with housing troubles and a 5,000 character essay I had to write by hand – but it’s all over now! I have to admit I am happy to be out of school. After going through this language program, I’ve come to realize that I AM NOT going back to grad school for a couple years…2 at the least. But I’m going to miss the great people in my program: Kunming won’t be the same without them! (I’m also going to miss the great tan I apparently had coming into the program. More sun please, Kunming winter!)

Luckily, I got internet set up in my new apartment yesterday and not everyone is leaving just yet. Mini-housewarming party tonight! I’m going to have to buy a lot in the next few days – sheets, pillows, comforters, plates, cups, utensils, EVERYTHING! – but hopefully it will be a lot of fun. From now on, I will have hot water for showers whenever I want, a washing machine, a refrigerator, and my own room. It’s the little things that count!

 

FOUND

Yes, that’s right ladies and gentlemen, I found AND signed a contract on an apartment today.

I’m still kind of in shock. I woke up early this morning to go see an apartment that the real estate agent told me was already in talks to be rented out. I asked her why I should even go see it if the landlord was already in discussions with someone else, and her only response was “没关系.” So, I went knowing I would probably like the place but not be able to live there in the end.

And I’m not living there. But after the landlord refused to rent to me for 10 months (he wanted me to rent for a year, even though the person he was in talks with was only renting for 6 months), the real estate agent took me to a more expensive place in the same complex. 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms (both with Western toilets and 24/hr hot water!!!), 2 mini porches, fully furnished, 13th floor. I love being on high floors.

I got the monthly rent down by 500RMB, had a fridge and washing machine thrown in, and the real estate agent convinced the landlord to charge us only half a years rent all at once, instead of all 10 months. All in all, I feel very successful.

I’m meeting with the landlord on Tuesday. I move in on Saturday. I have a week of finals in between now and then. This is all happening too fast!!

 

Apartment Search Continues

Today was my last day of class. It was a bit sad because I really enjoyed my 当代话题（contemporary issues) course, and I’m going to miss the ridiculous conversations we had over the semester. I asked my 一对一 teacher out to dinner next week or the following week when I’m done with finals. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised or just didn’t want to accept…I’m thinking it was the former. We’re definitely on friendlier terms now, and I think he likes me/respects my opinion much more than before.

I spent the remainder of my afternoon and early evening looking for an apartment. Luckily, I had a classmate, Ryan, accompany me. We saw 4 apartments in about 2 1/2 or 3 hours. I’ve given in and started to rely on real estate agents to help me: looking for things myself is just too difficult! Plus, the majority of ads posted online are really real estate agents anyway.

Looking for an apartment with a real estate agent in China is not the same as in America. I had an appointment with one guy at 3:30. We arrived about 25 minutes late: 不好意思. They showed us an apartment I had found through their online post. It was nice – 2 bathrooms, 3 rooms, nice kitchen – but for some reason I just felt like it was weird. The lighting wasn’t that great and…I don’t know, it just felt weird to me. Ryan liked it, though, and I can’t really explain why I didn’t like it: it’s in a nice community, definitely safe, clean, and big. I think I’m comparing everything to the apartment I had in Beijing, which was completely new, from the beds to the humongous TV. I’m extremely spoiled, I know.

So on the walk back to the dorm, we stopped by almost every single real estate office we came across and asked them what they had. In China, you don’t just stick with one real estate agent and depend on them to show you everything in an area based on your requirements. Instead, you go from agent to agent, down the road until you find something you like. I like it because you don’t have to depend on one person to help you, but it can also be frustrating cause you’re never sure what one person has, and if you’re interested in a certain area, you’ll have to go to all the agents in the neighborhood to find out what’s available.

But I found an area – 小区 – that is absolutely amazing. The community is nicely landscaped, and the apartments are all new. And amazing inside. But there are only 2 apartments available in the whole community, and only one is furnished. I’m hopefully seeing the furnished one tomorrow. The unfurnished one I saw today was exactly like Beijing, though. I even started considering renting it and just buying all the furniture for the 10 months because I liked it so much. But that would be a ridiculous idea.

It was on the 15th floor. You could see all of Kunming and the mountains surrounding it. If you don’t think this is an absolutely amazing apartment, then you don’t want to see what I’ve been looking at this past week!!

 

A Little R&R

I’ve been feeling off for the past few days. I’m not sure how to describe what’s wrong with me, but it all accumulated this morning when I felt like I was going to throw up in class. So, I left and came back to my room to sleep for about 5 hours. Definitely a big help, but I’m still feeling a bit weird.

I actually went to visit an apartment this weekend. It was fine, but not ideal, and the Australian guy renting it was a bit odd/creepy. I loved the area, but I’m going to keep looking. Tomorrow I’m going to see a place closer to campus, and I just got an email from someone else saying I can come see their apartment whenever. I just want this process to be over! Sometimes I feel like a huge brat, but I am going to be living here for 10 months, so I feel like I have to be satisfied with what I pick. Also, a phenomenon that I did not experience in Beijing: even the nicest, most expensive apartments in Kunming have squat toilets. Makes the search a bit more difficult.

The semester is ending next Friday. I can hardly believe it! Honestly, I’m really excited for it to end: I’m tired, sick, have lost motivation to study, and I just want to start my research and set up my apartment already! And of course I’m excited for all the visitors I’ll have in January. But I will miss my classmates a lot, as well as the trips we were able to go on this semester. For example…

On Thanksgiving, a group of us went to Yuanyang 元阳. It’s famous for its rice terraces, which were built and still farmed (is that the right word?) on by the Hani ethnic minority 哈尼族. It was amazing. Not the most exciting trip ever, but I’d never seen a place like it before. Instead of going through descriptions of the long bus rides, visits to temples (all Chinese temples look the same, even Chinese people will admit that), and our side trip to Jianshui 建水 (I saw a woman with bound feet!), I’ll just let the pictures from our pre-dawn excursion on the last day tell the story. Maybe one week when I’m seriously lacking in stories, I’ll give some more detail on the whole trip. (click on the pictures to see larger versions)