Finding My Apartment

Lots of things are happening here, it is so exciting!

Oh, maybe I start from almost the beginning. The day after I arrived here, I went to the internet cafe around the corner, to do some email.
There, I met a young man, 23 years old (young), who sat in the seat one over from mine. After about 10 minutes or so, he looked over to me, and I said hello.
He replied.
So I asked him if he speaks English, and he said yes, and he was obviously delighted to find somebody to do talk to in English.

So we struck up a conversation, the usual, where are you from, what do you do, and so on. I told him what I came here for and that I lived at the hotel, but needed to find an apartment. So he said, oh, I can
help you with that, and I said, great, thanks.

So the next day, we met and he showed me where the supermarket and the post office on campus is and we looked at the resident hotel on campus, too. They were booked full already.

This morning, we met again and he found some apartment addresses to go look at. He got the number and message from a message board at the university. It turned out that the guy who left the message is a real estate agent. He waited for us at the first place. It was a one room apartment, on the 6th floor, no elevator. The building was very dirty inside and outside, too, but that is very normal in the old parts of Beijing, and in smaller cities in China all over the place.
The staircase usually needs some fresh paint real bad, and some serious cleaning, too. But in the old communist mentality, who cares about the staircase, it is not ours, the apartments are not ours, so let it
all go to hell in a hand basket!

This first place, a one room apartment, had dirty walls, a black and white checkered vinyl tile floor with some dings in it, the bath room so small and cruddy, one person had trouble standing in it, leave
alone any desire to even try ever taking a shower there!

The kitchen consisted of a half bath size space, with a small table holding a 2 burner camping cooker. End of kitchen.
Rent price for this beauty: 1,700 RMB/month, plus utilities.
Jeff thought it was half good half bad, but he said there even could be worse.
The landlord and realtor said there was a Japanese couple who wanted it, too, so I told them to let the Japanese have it.

We moved on to the next place. Jeff said the realtor told him it was very nice and would cost 3,500/month. I said no need to go look, I will only spend 2,500/month tops, and I want two bedrooms if possible.
Jeff and the agent thought that this would be hard to find.
I said I want to give it a try, we shall see....
So the agent did some phoning around on his cell phone (he had 2 cell phones!), and finally came up with 3 more addresses to go look at.


First stop, a red brick building, the long, standard type, with several entrances. Staircase classic neglected, but not the worst. 3rd floor up. Double door system, outer is a metal safety door, inner a wooden one. Everybody seems to have this kind of entrance doors or similar around here.
The apartment looks clean, white, undamaged walls, a beige marble floor, the bathroom is ... oh well... Chinese!
The toilet needs a new seat (good idea anyhow!), some serious scrubbing (which the landlady promises she will do) and a shower curtain.
It is usual in the old style apartments to just shower in the toilet room, no separate stall for the shower, so all gets wet. You can sit on the john and wash yourself, AND clean the bathroom at the same time! Now I call that efficient! I had that in Russia, too, a long time ago in 81. So I am already used to that experience, for what I can remember of it!
The kitchen is larger, but nothing like a western kitchen. Well, it is big enough for some cooking, we shall see. Eating out is not expensive at all.

The two bedrooms are fine, one larger, the other a little smaller, and a bit entrance hall way.

The landlady wants 2,700/month. I tell her, I will give her 2,500 or nothing. She and the agent hee-haw around for a while, and I just wait patiently until they are done hee-hawing.

She says she needs 2,600/month. I say, she needs me to be her renter, because she will never get a better one after that. She says, she wants a renter for a year, and I tell her, don't worry about after 6 months, now you got me, and afterwards, I will help you find a nice next renter. So, she says, ok. We are ‘go’ for 2,500/month.
Done deal. We get the contract forms out. Now, I find out there is some extra charges, not included.

The trash service.... 20 RMB/month. I look surprised and look outside the window, and ask: what trash service? the peeps who come here to put all the trash all over the place outside?
They don't get it.....
So she starts again, about the trash service. So I explain to them that when next time I get here and there is no trash anywhere, I will pay the fee, until then, NADA. Voila.
So they forget about the trash fee idea. Next point. I have to pay for the Television. 15 RMB/month. I tell her take the television away, who needs it.
Then she says, it is a government fee, and if there is no television, I have to pay ..the television fee anyways. Very funny, that one!
We agree to the TV fee, and I tell her in that case the TV stays put where it is, though. She has no problem with that. Water, gas, electric, all extra, should be 100 RMB total/month. Ok, that sounds reasonable, about 12 bucks US!
Oh, there are 2 telephones there, and I should pay for them. Ah, now that is interesting... how so? Well the landlady has 2 separate phone lines in the apartment, and one I can use, but not the other.
Very funny. I tell her, she should take out her phone lines, as I
prefer to have my own line. She says, no.
I tell her, I pay if my name is on the bill, if your name is on the bill you pay.
She gives in. End of the phone lines discussion.
I tell her I want the toilet seat fixed right away, and the ceiling light in the hallway needs a glass cover. She says she cannot fix the ceiling light cover. I ask why not. She says she does not know where
it is. I tell her get a new one. She tries to convince me that is not possible. I look her straight in the eye and tell her, you buy the dam thing and you come with a screw driver and a ladder, and I put it up for you.
Now we are talking... she gives in and her husband volunteers to fix it for me.... some serious male pride at stake, I guess... I decide I'll let him have it his way. End of that issue.
So now we are back to the toilet seat... she says she can have it fixed but not right away. Why not? Because it takes time...
What is it that takes time? Oh well, it is difficult to get the old seat off and the new one on, that takes time. I look the husband in the eyes again and say: you just bring your screw driver, and I show you how fast I can take that seat off and put a new one on, I have experience in it.
He looks back at me and decides, he now can do it tomorrow. Thanks, that would be fine.
End of the toilet seat discussion, wheeew!
So, now we sit down and get the contract out. Jeff helps me line for line. The agent thinks that is not necessary, but I tell him I think otherwise. He rolls his eyes a little, wants to get on with it and to new customers. Well I beg to differ, he should earn his commission, right?
So here we go, line for line, sign for sign. Jeff suffers a lot with the translation, he never did any contract translating, and the terms are unfamiliar to him.
So when he describes some clause, I give him the proper terminology, so he can learn some new English words. We work our way through it.
One clause says, if I breach the contract, I have to pay the 6 months anyway. If she breaches the contract, she gives me 1o days notice and my money back. Well, that one I don't like so much. So I tell her, I
intend to stay there for the entire time, and not see how many times I can move. And she should consider the same thought. She says she will not breach the contract. So I make her write it in her own hand: I
will not breach this contract. Ok

On the extra fees, next to the TV fee, I make her write: as per government regulation, compulsory TV fee. She hesitates, but I nod, go ahead write it, so she sighs and writes it. I think it is a scam, they
always say it is the government when they want to have it their way. I just want her to be a little worried about what I am up to with this one. Those 15 RMB/month are not worth my time, really. But a girl
has to have a little fun with the locals, too...

We sign the lease, I get the keys and it is a done deal. Now we have to go pay the agent his fee at his office. That, too, was supposedly the government that says, Agents shall receive 50 % of one month rent as
fee. I know it is not so, because there are other agents that have a fixed fee. But the 16o US is not the end of the world either, and I don't feel like fighting over it. I just make him work harder to earn
it, voila, and I get even. He does not like being pushed around a little like that, but what can he do!

So, I tell the landlady, I want to move in tonight, please clean everything now, to make it ready for me, and fix the toilet seat.
She promises. We leave.
It is 3 pm and Jeff and I are really hungry, we had not had anything all day. We find a nice restaurant and celebrate my new apartment and Jeff's help with some delicious Chinese food. This meal is the most
expensive one I have had since I got here: for the 2 of us, with all the trims and plenty of dishes, we pay 75 RMB! Wow! (about 9.50 US)

It is 6 pm when we finally finish the late lunch, and with all we ate, we can easily skip dinner, lol.

We are on our way back to the apartment, because Jeff wants to show me the way from there to the university, which is really very near, walking 5 minutes across some semi-private streets or alleys gets us there in 5 minutes flat. The weather is nasty, the wind cuts our
faces like a razor blade, the government must be importing that wind straight from Siberia. And we have to lean into it at times to get moving! All the bikes are flat on the ground, all toppled over by those
nasty gushes of the Siberian storm.

We make it back to the hotel and are happy to be back in some warm place. For thanks, I hand Jeff a big American flag. He seems very happy with it, and I am very grateful. I could not have done anything this
fast without his help.

Now I will move tomorrow, that should be easy, I just have 2 suitcases and one mattress topper.

Then I will need to get some household items to make my new place livable: dishes, a pillow, towels and the like. It is going to be fun!