Hi Everybody!
yes, it's me, remember? I know, I have not written in ages...
I am busy as can be with my studies. Just imagine, as a beginner, I have to memorize between 25 and 40 new words each day, between the 2 different lessons we have. On top of that, the hanzi writing of said words, read the texts of that lesson, assimilate the grammar, and then do homework. It is more than enough!
And as much as I really enjoy writing stories every day, it takes a chunk of my time, and before I know it, the afternoon is half gone, and still homework to do! So I had to cut short on my leasure activities.
Right now, I am revising all the vocabulary of 30 lessons. We will have our final semester exams on June 29, 30 and July 1st. After that, we still have 5 days of classes. Don't ask me why, I can't figure it out, either.... that's the Chinese way. Universal explanation for just about anything....
Well, Wednesday, I had an interesting day. At about 5 pm, the phone rang, and a guy was on the line, a certain Tony, as he introduced himself. He greeted me by my name and seemed to know me somehow. He suggested we meet for dinner together with his girlfriend, Miranda.
And what would be a time suitable for me? I tried hard to recollect who the heck is Tony, how come I can't remember him? Where did I meet a Tony? Nothing at all came to mind, while I told him that I'd be delighted to have dinner with them, and yes, how about 7 pm, outside the university gates? "OK, let's meet there at 7 tonight....."
I went early and hung around the gate, a little to the side, waiting for who would show up, and hoping to finally recover my lost memory on Tony. Finally, with about 10 minutes over the time,
I saw a guy steering his path towards me, and saying "hi" and "how are you, so nice to see you". Well, seeing him did not help at all, I could simply not make out how he knew me. I was certain I had never seen his face before. Yet, somehow, he seemed familiar! If only I could grasp the missing piece of the puzzle... but nothing... it remained elusive! I decided I was not going to ask him pointblank about my lack of recollection of our previous encounter, I was going to figure this out by myself.... hopefully!
After 5 more minutes, his girlfriend Miranda also showed up, released from her afternoon classes. I was absolutely positive that I had never seen her face before, either! But both seemed congenial and nice, so I decided to just keep going.
They suggested we go to a restaurant they had discovered some weeks before, just a few hundred yards from where we were, called Homecooking.com! It sounded like a very strange and funny name for a restaurant to me.... A "dot com"!?
It turned out it is a truly charming place, nice decor, nice food! We got a table right next to a low built fish basin, with gold fish and water plants, and a pleasant, gently splashing waterfall.
Dinner went very well.
These two, Tony and his girlfriend, Miranda, are just about the brightest students I have met in China. Charming, excellent English, and very ambitious, too. If they going this way, they will end up becoming very successful, in China or else where. They told me about their studies, their lives here, their families, some cultural background of their home towns. Tony wants to become the CEO of his own future online business, and Miranda wants to be an interpreter. They asked me lots of questions about my experience in China with our business, and my life in general.
We had a wonderful time and the restaurant was a good discovery for me, a Chinese restaurant with a huge assortment of quality dishes and a very pleasant setting. And all that inside campus of the university across the street from ours! We dined til 11:30 pm and hardly saw the time fly! Needless to say, I am glad I went! We decided we will do this again.
Well, even after we parted, I still had no idea why and how I knew Tony.
I needed to sleep over it and let my on-board computer, commonly known as brain, do its job of information retrieval. It worked...
Finally, as soon as I opened my eyes the next morning, it all became clear to me. No wonder I could not remember who the heck Tony was, leave alone his girl friend, Miranda. I had never met them before!
About 3 weeks ago, somebody called me one night and said he was a student at our university. They were making a video for a TV show, on the topic of foreigners studying Chinese in Beijing, and would I be willing to participate? I agreed. So then, a few days later, I got a message, convening everybody on their candidate list for a briefing that next weekend. Said Tony was not at that briefing, he had to be only in charge of making the contact calls.
It then so turned out that I did actually not qualify for that TV session, because they only wanted fluent speakers, not beginners. I thought it was no big deal, and quite understandable, as they were not planning on providing interpreters for this show. The format does not allow that. So I did not get to participate in the interview. I went home from the briefing and forgot the whole thing.
Anyhow, then I got a call from Tony again the following day, appologizing for having bothered me to go to that meeting. He said it was a misunderstanding on his part, as he had assumed my Chinese was fluent. Some classmate of mine had given him my number and failed to also mention that I was just a beginner. All that talking between Tony and myself only occurred over the phone. And we really only talked briefly.
So, then I got the phone call yesterday, and a Tony talked to me as if we had known each other forever, and said, "Hey how about dinner tonight?" LOL
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Life’s Realities in My Face
There, now I proved it to myself: a week that starts off on the wrong foot usually will end up on the other wrong foot! (Is that already a saying, or did I just coin a new one?!)
This morning, looking out my kitchen window, I immediately noticed something was wrong down there: no red spot! Translate: My bicycle was missing! Stolen! I should have listened to my inner voice, which, by the way, is always right! But no, I had to see it for myself: they do steel bikes here! My little inner voice spoke to me yesterday, as I attached the heavy duty chain around the bike down in the public bike shed: “Look closely at this, Moneva! One hundred thousand and one dirty, black and ugly bikes, and here! - with an invisible sign attached to it: ‘hey, I’m over here! Come and get me!’ - one spanking red bike!” But no, I had to try it and get the evidence for myself! So, that’s behind me now. I am not really surprised, nor shocked, strange! I guess I wanted to really see reality of the bike thieving taking place. Late last night, when I came home, it was still standing there, at around 22:30. So, the thieves were at work between then and the early morning hours. I figure they can’t live all too far, as strangers to our place would not venture around in our courtyard at night. Oh well…
Materially speaking, it is not such a big deal, so I guess, I could just get another one and this time, stick with my “carry it up to my place” policy. Voila, that’s all there is to it!
Did I sum it all up, how this week turned out? My legs are totally sore from the Great Wall climb, my knee hurts from the fall, my eye is black and bruised from hitting that brick pillar, in class, on Friday, I really had enough of it and felt like just walking out early, to get some air. We have been in classes 4 weeks now, and we are in lesson number 10! There are about 20 to 30 new words we learn each day. The hardest part is that our teachers don’t speak much English, even when it comes to explaining the grammar… what explaining? They do not explain anything, we are supposed to figure things out on our own. Believe me when I say, it isn’t always easy!
I returned to our campus bookstore, to see what other products they carry in terms of CD based teaching materials. The answer is simple: They carry ZERO of those. Everything is still on cassettes! As I tried to explain to the store keeper that they might want to consider switching to CD support type teaching materials, as there are no cassette slots on laptops, I only got big head shaking as a response. “Meyo!” There won’t be any of that soon. The bookstore is government owned, and the old, communist mentality still reigns inside. Why should we care about selling our teaching materials, books and cassettes? We will just keep them sitting on the shelves! Take the cassettes or leave it!
Did I mention that we also will have mid-term exams, sometime in mid-April, I guess. So, I need to do a lot of writing of Chinese characters each day, to repeat the old lessons on top of the new ones. Hence, less frequent reports to you, my dears, as there are only so many hours in a day! I will try and keep everything in balance, but if push comes to shove, the Chinese must win!
This Friday, I had agreed to meet Evelyne, my new friend from the airplane to Dongguan. She called me in the morning and we agreed to meet at the subway station of Dongzhimen, and not at her offices, as we had originally intended. I just could not make myself take the subway and walk all those stairs and tunnels on my stiff, hurting legs, so I decided in favor of a taxi ride. Well prepared and armed with my dictionary, I hailed a cab and got on board. “Dongzhimen Ditie, McDonald’s” I announced to the fairly young driver. He looked at me inquisitively, so I repeated, more slowly: “Mac-Do-nald, ok? Mac-Do-nald!” He nodded, Ok, Ok, and off we went.
35 minutes later, we sighted the subway station, and right next to it, on the other side of the big plaza, though, the big Mc Do’s, with its sign dominating almost the entire neighborhood. As we sped past on the opposite, separate lanes, I pointed to it and declared “ Mac-Do-Nald! There!” Again, some nodding and some gesturing in big u-turn style movements. I interpreted that we needed to turn around somewhere so he could let me out on the other side of the street and would not have to cross the four lanes to get there. Fine with me, I thought. We turned and retraced our steps on the now correct side of the street… here comes the McDo’s. “Stop”, I say. He does not stop! “Hey, stop here! Stop!” No, he drives right past it! Swooosh!!!! I see it vanish as we now drive back where we came from. “Hey, the Mc Donald’s is over there!” I gesture backwards and try to get my message to the driver, gesturing for him to find the next exit out of these express lanes and get back to where I want to go. He gets the idea, and we do round number two. Here comes the turn around to get us back into the “good” direction…. Here comes the McDo…. Whoosh! Gone! Dammit! “Will you stop, let me out of here! There is the Mc Donalds, don’t you get it!?!” Well, by now, it dawns on him, why I am so excited by now each time we pass that particular spot by the road. And he declares, pointing back: “Mak-Done-Lao, Mak-Done-Lao”, with a strong accent which I believe he intends to be American! I am sure he repeats it so often, because he feels the need to educate me as how to properly pronounce the name of this establishment! The next time we finish the big tour, he actually stops by the curve and lets me get out of that “taxi infernal”. Communication, communication! As another valuable by-product, I realize that the supposedly international word "stop" has zero impact on a chinese cab driver. So if any of you ever want to get yours to stop, yell "ting" at him, with an uprise on the end of that mono-syllable. That will do the trick!
Once escaped from my infernal taxi, I walk over to the main entrance to the Mak-Done-Lao and look around: no Evelyne yet, I am a little early, maybe 10 minutes. The jingles from the big loudspeakers wash over the plaza: I’m loving it! The rest is Chinese… and it repeats endlessly. After about 20 more tours of “I’m loving it”, here comes Evelyne, finally and a little late. We recognize each other right away, which is not always evident, after meeting people in an airplane and then seeing them again only after several days. We cross the plaza which I now know by heart, and stir towards the subway station of line number 13, the very one that runs by my place. Evelyne lives in a condo at a subway station halfway between my station and the terminal, Dongzhimen. So, standing in front of the subway map, I point that out to her, and suggest that instead of driving all the way downtown, I could just have cut that trip in half and waited for her directly at her subway station. She laughs and says she was afraid I would get lost out there. Next time, we’ll do it my way.
We get off at her subway station, about 20 minutes later, in a suburban setting, 100 % Chinese, I believe. Little motorized rickshaws await us, on three wheels, with a little closed cabin mounted on the two back wheels. There must be at least 50 of them, a little armada of 3 wheeled boxes! The inside consists of a wooden bench with a colored fabric covering it.
We climb into one and get whisked away to a restaurant, where we will meet Evelyne’s friends for dinner. They are already waiting outside the place, and we do the introductions, all in Chinese! I am so proud of my small but nifty, new language skills. They are a not so young couple, maybe early 30s, fiancés, to be married in October. Another young girl joins us, she is maybe 20 and a student at the international Language Faculty, like me, but she studies Korean. She brought all her books, and while we chat around the table, she never lets up at looking over one more exercise and one more lesson revision. I will never be THAT studious! Her boyfriend is Korean, and she gets good practice of the language that way. I am sure that helps a lot, especially since he does not speak much Chinese, as she laughingly explains to us! The couple comes from Inner Mongolia for the woman, and Sichuan for the man. They both met in Beijing, while he was still a student. It is more and more customary in China to not get married right away, but to stay engaged longer and prepare a solid base for building a family. Now, the one child policy has been extended to a two child per family policy, but many couples still only plan on one child, as they prefer to put all their income into the education of a single child. This rule is not applied in the autonomous regions of China, where families can have as many children as they traditionally want.
We all spent a very animated and enjoyable evening together, with lots of dictionary wielding, electronic and manual ones, and lots of vocabulary trading, English-Chinese, back and forth. Evelyne tried to insist on my sleeping over at her place, but in light of her poor health condition, as she had caught a nasty cold two days earlier and was still suffering from it, I persuaded her that she needed to rest and not have to take care of a house guest this weekend. Reluctantly, and only with force persuasion on my end, she gave finally in and let me take a taxi back to my place. And that is when I saw my bike the last time, as I got home and walked past it in the yard. I promise, by tomorrow, Monday, I’ll be over my bike-mourning and not mention that pretty little thing again. Who knows, I might just get myself another one! We shall see…
This morning, looking out my kitchen window, I immediately noticed something was wrong down there: no red spot! Translate: My bicycle was missing! Stolen! I should have listened to my inner voice, which, by the way, is always right! But no, I had to see it for myself: they do steel bikes here! My little inner voice spoke to me yesterday, as I attached the heavy duty chain around the bike down in the public bike shed: “Look closely at this, Moneva! One hundred thousand and one dirty, black and ugly bikes, and here! - with an invisible sign attached to it: ‘hey, I’m over here! Come and get me!’ - one spanking red bike!” But no, I had to try it and get the evidence for myself! So, that’s behind me now. I am not really surprised, nor shocked, strange! I guess I wanted to really see reality of the bike thieving taking place. Late last night, when I came home, it was still standing there, at around 22:30. So, the thieves were at work between then and the early morning hours. I figure they can’t live all too far, as strangers to our place would not venture around in our courtyard at night. Oh well…
Materially speaking, it is not such a big deal, so I guess, I could just get another one and this time, stick with my “carry it up to my place” policy. Voila, that’s all there is to it!
Did I sum it all up, how this week turned out? My legs are totally sore from the Great Wall climb, my knee hurts from the fall, my eye is black and bruised from hitting that brick pillar, in class, on Friday, I really had enough of it and felt like just walking out early, to get some air. We have been in classes 4 weeks now, and we are in lesson number 10! There are about 20 to 30 new words we learn each day. The hardest part is that our teachers don’t speak much English, even when it comes to explaining the grammar… what explaining? They do not explain anything, we are supposed to figure things out on our own. Believe me when I say, it isn’t always easy!
I returned to our campus bookstore, to see what other products they carry in terms of CD based teaching materials. The answer is simple: They carry ZERO of those. Everything is still on cassettes! As I tried to explain to the store keeper that they might want to consider switching to CD support type teaching materials, as there are no cassette slots on laptops, I only got big head shaking as a response. “Meyo!” There won’t be any of that soon. The bookstore is government owned, and the old, communist mentality still reigns inside. Why should we care about selling our teaching materials, books and cassettes? We will just keep them sitting on the shelves! Take the cassettes or leave it!
Did I mention that we also will have mid-term exams, sometime in mid-April, I guess. So, I need to do a lot of writing of Chinese characters each day, to repeat the old lessons on top of the new ones. Hence, less frequent reports to you, my dears, as there are only so many hours in a day! I will try and keep everything in balance, but if push comes to shove, the Chinese must win!
This Friday, I had agreed to meet Evelyne, my new friend from the airplane to Dongguan. She called me in the morning and we agreed to meet at the subway station of Dongzhimen, and not at her offices, as we had originally intended. I just could not make myself take the subway and walk all those stairs and tunnels on my stiff, hurting legs, so I decided in favor of a taxi ride. Well prepared and armed with my dictionary, I hailed a cab and got on board. “Dongzhimen Ditie, McDonald’s” I announced to the fairly young driver. He looked at me inquisitively, so I repeated, more slowly: “Mac-Do-nald, ok? Mac-Do-nald!” He nodded, Ok, Ok, and off we went.
35 minutes later, we sighted the subway station, and right next to it, on the other side of the big plaza, though, the big Mc Do’s, with its sign dominating almost the entire neighborhood. As we sped past on the opposite, separate lanes, I pointed to it and declared “ Mac-Do-Nald! There!” Again, some nodding and some gesturing in big u-turn style movements. I interpreted that we needed to turn around somewhere so he could let me out on the other side of the street and would not have to cross the four lanes to get there. Fine with me, I thought. We turned and retraced our steps on the now correct side of the street… here comes the McDo’s. “Stop”, I say. He does not stop! “Hey, stop here! Stop!” No, he drives right past it! Swooosh!!!! I see it vanish as we now drive back where we came from. “Hey, the Mc Donald’s is over there!” I gesture backwards and try to get my message to the driver, gesturing for him to find the next exit out of these express lanes and get back to where I want to go. He gets the idea, and we do round number two. Here comes the turn around to get us back into the “good” direction…. Here comes the McDo…. Whoosh! Gone! Dammit! “Will you stop, let me out of here! There is the Mc Donalds, don’t you get it!?!” Well, by now, it dawns on him, why I am so excited by now each time we pass that particular spot by the road. And he declares, pointing back: “Mak-Done-Lao, Mak-Done-Lao”, with a strong accent which I believe he intends to be American! I am sure he repeats it so often, because he feels the need to educate me as how to properly pronounce the name of this establishment! The next time we finish the big tour, he actually stops by the curve and lets me get out of that “taxi infernal”. Communication, communication! As another valuable by-product, I realize that the supposedly international word "stop" has zero impact on a chinese cab driver. So if any of you ever want to get yours to stop, yell "ting" at him, with an uprise on the end of that mono-syllable. That will do the trick!
Once escaped from my infernal taxi, I walk over to the main entrance to the Mak-Done-Lao and look around: no Evelyne yet, I am a little early, maybe 10 minutes. The jingles from the big loudspeakers wash over the plaza: I’m loving it! The rest is Chinese… and it repeats endlessly. After about 20 more tours of “I’m loving it”, here comes Evelyne, finally and a little late. We recognize each other right away, which is not always evident, after meeting people in an airplane and then seeing them again only after several days. We cross the plaza which I now know by heart, and stir towards the subway station of line number 13, the very one that runs by my place. Evelyne lives in a condo at a subway station halfway between my station and the terminal, Dongzhimen. So, standing in front of the subway map, I point that out to her, and suggest that instead of driving all the way downtown, I could just have cut that trip in half and waited for her directly at her subway station. She laughs and says she was afraid I would get lost out there. Next time, we’ll do it my way.
We get off at her subway station, about 20 minutes later, in a suburban setting, 100 % Chinese, I believe. Little motorized rickshaws await us, on three wheels, with a little closed cabin mounted on the two back wheels. There must be at least 50 of them, a little armada of 3 wheeled boxes! The inside consists of a wooden bench with a colored fabric covering it.
We climb into one and get whisked away to a restaurant, where we will meet Evelyne’s friends for dinner. They are already waiting outside the place, and we do the introductions, all in Chinese! I am so proud of my small but nifty, new language skills. They are a not so young couple, maybe early 30s, fiancés, to be married in October. Another young girl joins us, she is maybe 20 and a student at the international Language Faculty, like me, but she studies Korean. She brought all her books, and while we chat around the table, she never lets up at looking over one more exercise and one more lesson revision. I will never be THAT studious! Her boyfriend is Korean, and she gets good practice of the language that way. I am sure that helps a lot, especially since he does not speak much Chinese, as she laughingly explains to us! The couple comes from Inner Mongolia for the woman, and Sichuan for the man. They both met in Beijing, while he was still a student. It is more and more customary in China to not get married right away, but to stay engaged longer and prepare a solid base for building a family. Now, the one child policy has been extended to a two child per family policy, but many couples still only plan on one child, as they prefer to put all their income into the education of a single child. This rule is not applied in the autonomous regions of China, where families can have as many children as they traditionally want.
We all spent a very animated and enjoyable evening together, with lots of dictionary wielding, electronic and manual ones, and lots of vocabulary trading, English-Chinese, back and forth. Evelyne tried to insist on my sleeping over at her place, but in light of her poor health condition, as she had caught a nasty cold two days earlier and was still suffering from it, I persuaded her that she needed to rest and not have to take care of a house guest this weekend. Reluctantly, and only with force persuasion on my end, she gave finally in and let me take a taxi back to my place. And that is when I saw my bike the last time, as I got home and walked past it in the yard. I promise, by tomorrow, Monday, I’ll be over my bike-mourning and not mention that pretty little thing again. Who knows, I might just get myself another one! We shall see…
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
My first Report from Beijing
All is well so far, I am making progress at installing myself in the land of the “Mandarines”. Let's see: in 2 days, I have managed to meet 3 guys who promise to help me: one on the plane over. His name is Pengsheng, or Paul by his American name. He is a professor of economic studies, at the University of Oklahoma, where he is doing 5 years, then back to China, to a city about 2 hours by train from Beijing, called Zibo.
He told me all his buddies from his old Beijing University now have important political positions in the Beijing government. If I need any help, I can call or write him, and he will do his best to help me out. Paul and I spent most of our time on the flight over discussing political and cultural issues. The one that got most heated, at least on Paul’s part, was the topic of the relationship between Taiwan and China. This is a very touchy subject for the Chinese, and they take anybody’s position about it very personal. They feel that Taiwan should and will be reintegrated into the People’s Republic, whether the Taiwanese like it or not. I beg to differ, at least as far as the methods of accomplishing this go.
Then, this morning in the internet cafe, I met Fey Yu, AKA Jeffery, a young student of Chinese, just graduating in his bachelor's degree, and he is assistant professor in the Language Institute, the very same one I will be a student in, too. He will help me find an apartment; he has also mobilized his buddies to that task. I'll meet him tomorrow morning, to set up a master plan for organizing the search. While staying at the MengXi Hotel, I corrected some erroneous English documents for them, unsolicited of course, brochures and such, which I found in the room’s informational folder. I took them to the assistant hotel manager, a young guy whose name is Water (don't ask me why, I have no clue, either). He was very happy about the good work I did for him, so he lowered my room rate considerably, to about 25 $ US/night, and he also promised to help me with finding an apartment.
Last night, as I could not manage to get online in my room, the technical manager came around and helped me with that. He brought his assistant along, and it took them til midnight to get me online. We had a good time chatting of this and that while they worked out the connection bugs. I must have been busy these 2 days, considering all I already accomplished or initiated here! And of course, my sweet friend Olivia, whom I have known over the internet, maybe short of 2 years ago, will help me this weekend, too, to go and look at available places she will have identified before then. And apart from all of the above, I have already managed to buy myself a cell phone, I know where the post office is, and I have done extensive shopping, all by myself, in the local supermarket. As you can see, I am not sitting around waiting for somebody to come and tell me what to do! More tomorrow! Be well y’all!
He told me all his buddies from his old Beijing University now have important political positions in the Beijing government. If I need any help, I can call or write him, and he will do his best to help me out. Paul and I spent most of our time on the flight over discussing political and cultural issues. The one that got most heated, at least on Paul’s part, was the topic of the relationship between Taiwan and China. This is a very touchy subject for the Chinese, and they take anybody’s position about it very personal. They feel that Taiwan should and will be reintegrated into the People’s Republic, whether the Taiwanese like it or not. I beg to differ, at least as far as the methods of accomplishing this go.
Then, this morning in the internet cafe, I met Fey Yu, AKA Jeffery, a young student of Chinese, just graduating in his bachelor's degree, and he is assistant professor in the Language Institute, the very same one I will be a student in, too. He will help me find an apartment; he has also mobilized his buddies to that task. I'll meet him tomorrow morning, to set up a master plan for organizing the search. While staying at the MengXi Hotel, I corrected some erroneous English documents for them, unsolicited of course, brochures and such, which I found in the room’s informational folder. I took them to the assistant hotel manager, a young guy whose name is Water (don't ask me why, I have no clue, either). He was very happy about the good work I did for him, so he lowered my room rate considerably, to about 25 $ US/night, and he also promised to help me with finding an apartment.
Last night, as I could not manage to get online in my room, the technical manager came around and helped me with that. He brought his assistant along, and it took them til midnight to get me online. We had a good time chatting of this and that while they worked out the connection bugs. I must have been busy these 2 days, considering all I already accomplished or initiated here! And of course, my sweet friend Olivia, whom I have known over the internet, maybe short of 2 years ago, will help me this weekend, too, to go and look at available places she will have identified before then. And apart from all of the above, I have already managed to buy myself a cell phone, I know where the post office is, and I have done extensive shopping, all by myself, in the local supermarket. As you can see, I am not sitting around waiting for somebody to come and tell me what to do! More tomorrow! Be well y’all!
Sunday, February 20, 2005
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!
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!
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Getting Organized, looking for an 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 is, and the post office on campus, 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 itall 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, leavealone 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 Iprefer 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 whereit 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, Iintend 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: Iwill 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, theyalways 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 girlhas 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 asfee. 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 earnit, 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 mostexpensive 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 ourfaces 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 thosenasty 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 thisfast 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!
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 is, and the post office on campus, 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 itall 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, leavealone 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 Iprefer 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 whereit 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, Iintend 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: Iwill 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, theyalways 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 girlhas 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 asfee. 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 earnit, 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 mostexpensive 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 ourfaces 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 thosenasty 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 thisfast 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!
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