Our apartment

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Patt and I have an apartment here in China, well actually Matt has two and one he is managing for us.  All we do is show up, all the bills paid, internet hooked up, hot water and furniture.  Well actually we paid the bills, but they were paid and are being paid for us.

That is our apartment building in the middle of the picture, the second gray like building from the right.  Photo is taken from the roof of one of Matt and Laura’s friends apartments in the same complex as Matt and Laura showing an oft walked between our apartment and theirs.

This is the oriental garden/park that our balcony looks down on.  It is quite pretty , not so functional, but pretty.  New construction is just off photo to left. 

Inside is new, and quite nice, two bedrooms, this is the guest bedroom.  You are invited to come visit.  That is your closet.  If you come, we will go ride on the big web-wow bus and go to Tien Fu square, and other places.

The bath and kitchen are not spacious, heck, they are not big, they are downright tiny- but typical.  The refrigerator, slightly larger than dorm sized is just off the kitchen photo to the left in a most cramped even more tiny space.  Sharing the bathroom with guests is just what we will have to do.

Our master bedroom has been shown before, but here is the main room that opens to the balcony as does the master bedroom.

I do not spend a lot of time on the balcony,   though I do on occasion go out just to check out the day.  There are not a lot of my neighbors out either though some come out in the morning to do exercises and stretches.  I took the following with my telephoto just to give you an idea of what my neighbors are doing with their balcony. 

Lots of them have plants,

Most are used for storage of some sort.

And this one gets the I need another closet award.  Of course there are no closets in the units.  

This is my front door, it is a card security entry. This is opposite from the side that my apartment looks over.   

 And this is my apartment from the little garden/ park thingee.  My balcony is on the 12^th of 17 floors.  It is one of the second column in from the right.

 Down on street level this is a common sight, an old man walking stiff legged with his hands behind his back – this guy is still looking up as I am not sure he understood my efforts at telling him which one was mine and that I was taking a picture of it.

 Also there are lots of grandmothers with babies.  Julianna took this photo.  There are very few little children or teenagers in the complex.  As the complex is a new one and has mostly new families and grandparents.   Also the kids if they older than three or four are in school.

This is the playground, yeah it is not much.  These "exercise machines seen here are incredibly common, mostly unused and pretty useless.  Julianna and Lydia do play on them a bit though.

 There is little evidence of the advertised tennis court, fishing lake,  or golf course as shown on the advertising that covers a construction wall.  The “theme” or motto or something of the complex is “Choosing because we love the land and all the gift (sic) we received  We will tell a story about the original style of life"  I am not so sure about the story to be told as the billboard about the river front district is replete with English and French looking names- and no little old men or grandmothers at all.

When finished there is supposed to be a riverfront shopping - dining district on the lower level of the buildings that face the river.  Having retail, service, and dining  activities on the ground floor of the exterior buildings of an apartment complex is the norm.  the complexes are quite large, gated, walled and NUMEROUS.  Our building alone has between 250 and 300 units in it. 

 At 2.5 * persons per unit there will be a lot of people.  There will be approximately 20 buildings when the construction is complete, so we have lots and friends and neighbors.  The population of this apartment complex could easily be 12,000.-- Just this complex.  And it is not a terribly large one as apartment complexes go.  Have you heard, China has a lot of people.

(*The source for the 2.5 p/u is field observation-  and as most of us know, if you use a decimal in your calculations, you have an aura of accuracy and people will think you now what you are talking about.) 

A Big Weh-wow bus

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A – A-  A   A big weh-wow bus.  And I have understated the excitement of discovered communication that is present when Isaac talks about the bus I ride into town for my Mandarin lessons.   Isaac is really into the stage of identifying and classifying things.  His excitement when he is on target and wanting to communicate is a hoot.  And the letter "L" appears to be endearingly difficult for him.  Initial "R"s aren't so easy either.  His favorite color is bwou but he has considerable  interest in wed, when seen as a color for cars.

 The “Three hundred” is another name for the bus and it is quite nice as far as busses go.  I have never been on it when it was not full or at extreme capacity. 

 I have sat in the very front seat – great view and exciting game of just how close can we come to that whatever it is that is in front of you- , along side row seats,  the very back row and even stood for a while too.

 The commute is between 45 and 55 minutes and is accompanied by regular blowing of horn and hollering by the bus attendant.  If you like quiet, best not spend a lot of time in a Chinese city.  And aggressive driving!   Apparently road rage is not an issue here though I sure would have it unless I did some serious culturifying.  Cut off the other guy seems to be the way to go.  Just never ever make contact with your front bumper to another anything.  That is how the guilty party is identified.  Seems to work.  Not nearly as many bent or banged up cars that you would see in most North Carolina cities.

And the roads are really quite extensive.  Of course there are upwards of 10 million or so people, give or take a couple of million in the metro area—and it is metro.  Sometimes on my commute we are on the elevated highway but most times on the lower level.  Elevated highways seem to be the norm.  

Also  here English is the second language on many signs, the recordings on subways, on airlines, and so on.  Sometimes the results are “interesting”

Line one reads " Appropriate storage of article on one's person"
Line two reads "Take care of the environment of the bus.  No smoking"
Line three reads  "Give your seat to the old, weak,  ill, disabled, and pregnant activity."

one one occasion I was offered a seat.  I took it under the assumption there was another classification - that being the foreigner sighted that day.  The other admonitions as far as I can tell are somewhat ignored.

As is obvious, there is more information than those that is available.  It is however unintelligible to me.  (Again, my Mandarin teacher's fault )

and you probably would find things on the road that you would not see in most North Carolina towns.

another sleep over afternoon activity.

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Yesterday, Wednesday afternoon, the girls came to my apartment for a sleep-over.  We went out to take some pictures, the girls like to use my little “point and shoot” camera, and since film (sic) is so cheap we take dozens of pictures put them on the computer and laugh and delete and actually keep a few.

So here are photos, shot by the one absent from the picture.

 Lydia and I are in a little oriental (surprised you with that one huh?) park/garden that is in the court yard of my apartment building that my deck looks down on.

 And here Julianna and I are in a pavilion in another little oriental park/garden in the courtyard of the next building over.  (Each building has its own courtyard  or looks down on a  courtyard.- so there are lots of them)

 And here are the girls posing when I took a picture.  It is obvious they have seen lots of Chinese young people pose.  They copied the gestures and actions perfectly.

 And here is on of me having one of my ears removed.  I did have ample opportunity to learn about a lot of things. 

 Actually I did have a few moments of just walking, and had a wonderful companion as these last two suggest.  Julianna documented most of the afternoon.

We had a great evening too.   The three of us cooked in my and Patt's apartment, scrambled eggs – done by Julianna in a wok, and grilled cheese done by Lydia on a George Forman type grill.  The dinner was quite good, the company excellent and we even Skyped to Patt who was preparing for work back in the US of A.

more construction watching

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This afternoon, the kids and I went for a walk to check out the construction site.  As is obvious, it did not disappoint.  We were enthralled.  

 We watched a long time.  There was of course discussion and speculation regarding the progress being made.

 The tear down of the scaffolding was taking place right in front of us.  For a while we interrupted progress as these guys stopped and looked at us.  Upon the kids waving, they waved back which thrilled the kids.  And gave us more to talk about.

 It really was interesting, watching the workers take loose a piece of piping, and then throw or let it fall to the ground in a more or less guided fashion.  Had some good sound effects too as they landed on an a growing pile of them. 

 Though  we  were relatively unbothered by spectators, -- people watching us, not the workers, there were these two women who wanted to confirm which building I lived in.  

 My ability to speak Mandarin Chinese, is still not up to full time conversations, (my teacher’s fault )  but Julianna managed the discussion for us. 

 And we had to have a group photo after becoming such good friends.  Julianna was the photographer.  Something she really likes to do.  Of course I indulge her.  

Tien Fu square

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Today after  Mandarin Class – I think I like saying that—I stayed downtown again and went to TienFu, the main square in town, replete with monstrous  statute of “the Chairman”.  I of course got someone to take my picture and then sat on a curb along with a host of others and did some serious people watching.  

 We have your grandfather and grandmother taking some pictures of grandchild.  This went on for quite a while.  Mom, just almost out of the picture seemed tired.

 We had happy groups, this photo may be entered into a contest as I think it may be the only one in existance taken with in the past several years of a group of young Chinese on an outing where there is not even one person doing the “peace” sign of two fingers held up palm out and thumb over the little two fingers. 

 I really liked Mr. Cool here, he was really doing some serious movie star poses and though I was in his direct line of sight, never saw me taking pictures of them.

 And discovering a “Coke” bag in one of my photos of people taking pictures of the Chairman was just to poetic.  Of course the Cartier, Louis Vitton, Burberry, Armani stores surrounding the square in the lower floors of the big hotels were a bit over the top.  And then the Porsches, Lexus, and big Buicks sorta set the stage too,  Whatever must the Chairman think -- and these people too.  


Before I forget--  when the dancing water features started playing, there was some syrupy music being played on loudspeakers all across the park.  I can not remember the artist but he was one from several years ago that many people made fun of because his saxophone - violin - piano music was so sappy.  Nice but sappy.  If you say his name - I will know it.  I asked one of the foreigners there whose music we were hearing and they recognized it but also could not recall the artist.

 Next week is the “National Day” celebrating the Communist Victory over the Kuomintang and flower things were being built around the square.  This one in the middle of a road is done.  It was not hard to get someone to take a photo.  There were numbers of people taking photos.  Oh and I saw a few other loaweis today in the TienFu square area too. ( Leave a tourist area and you are alone.)  

 And just a couple of blocks away at a “Peoples Park” we have the peasant soldier.  It seems they are all "Peoples Park"  Mr. Peoples must have really like funding all these parks.  And how did  I know this soldier was a peasant?  One I have read history and know all the soldiers were peasants and their cause was just.  Also he had one of those conical straw hats on his back held there by a strap around his neck.  Oh and this is not the first peasant soldier in bold pose I have seen either.