My living sitch

Yesterday was National Day, and in honor of it, we get a couple days off.

For those wondering, I have access to my own money again! I celebrated by taking part in the National Day sale at the department store-- by buying the pair of shoes that started it all.

But since we're just sort of sitting on our butts today, I felt it was time to tell you a little about my happy home here in Baotou. As I may have mentioned, it's a comfortable two-bedroom. It was very clean when I got here, all except for a sketchy black film coating the floors of both the washroom and the WC, which are separate rooms, and separated by... another room. It's hard sort of to identify what these rooms would be called, because of the way the kitchen is fragmented into these disparate parts, trisected by doors. But anyway, the front door opens into the living room facing south. Across from that is a little sun room in which there are a few dying plants and two cacti... one of which was long dead when we got here. This is the room where laundry gets hung and you can look out onto the street sort of from fenced windows. The living room is furnished with a coat rack/shoe rack/mirror, a wooden couch and two wooden chairs, (polished wood with cushions), and facing those is a TV stand and two matching short cabinets (upon one of which my laptop now rests), which I just opened for the first time (I didn't think they opened!). I type on the right cabinet, and next to me is a wonderful fridge.

On the same wall as the front door, next to the rack, is the door to the... hall/dining room/ breakfast nook. It's not really any of those things. On the left are the two bedrooms and the washroom. Straight ahead is the WC. And to the right is a card table where our snacks and water filter are. At a right angle to the WC is the kitchen proper. This is where the sink is, and also a roomy counter where all of our dishes are. There were no chopsticks when we moved in and we keep forgetting to pilfer them. I brush my teeth and wash my face in this room, because the first day it was just less sketchy than the washroom. At the end of the long kitchen is another sun room type thing with the stovetop. There's a small window near the ceiling that opens into the WC and it freaked me out the first time that I noticed it. I was all like... "why are those sounds so distinct??" Cooking sounds.

Um, so then the WC is just a toilet. A radiator. And some eye-level shelves (when you're standing, that is). There's a Chinese book on the radiator, and on top of that is where we keep the current roll of toilet paper. A note on toilet paper: here, certain brands have a remarkable elasticity that does wonders for efficiency but it sucks to tear.

As for our rooms, picture 3 walls making an open square. On the middle wall, you get the washroom. There's another sink in here, two-tap just like last year's in Muping. The shower is the same set-up as in Muping (the first apartment), with the water heating tank suspended high on the wall, only the shower doesn't spray directly into the toilet because there is no toilet. Again, it must be unplugged before use to avoid crispy circumstances. The shower head extents from a tap near the floor, which can be used to fill basins if necessary. The tank takes a little longer to heat if you forget to plug it in, which has happened once because I dislike plugging it right back after a shower because I just imagine myself completing a circuit what with the wet floor and all, and the wire's a bit frayed right next to the plug. And the outlet plate isn't really secured. My first shower there was sooo uncomfortable because the town was cold in those days. But it's gotten better and as far as I know, there's heating in the winter. The water temp can still be finicky though, a la Class of 1918, only the changes aren't as regular though more extreme.

Exiting the washroom, my room is on the right. I took the bigger one because I thought I'd eventually be living here alone. The bed's bigger. There's a weird mildewy smell sometimes, though I can't locate it. I've smelled most things in the room directly, and haven't discovered it yet.

Now, if you've been wondering who I mean when I say "we," and also who the other room belongs to, and if you haven't quite understoos who this Alice person is that I keep mentioning (no, I don't talk to an imaginary Alice Hsu and picture her leaving the apartment without me and leading me around the city for lunch and shopping)... let's amalgamate these ideas. The other room belongs to Alice, Mr. Liu's niece, a history masters student on her 3rd year at Inner Mongolia U. She doesn't have to be present at school this year, so that means she can hang around here and help her uncle out. I thought she was, like, working for him, but apparently she's not actually getting paid. Which seems not right, cuz she does a ton. Anyway, because this apartment is newly rented-- none of the English teachers have ever lived here before, and Russ got the apartment next-door to Mr. Liu's, which is 2 blocks west, they thought I'd feel safer and adjust better if they assigned Alice to live with me for a while. It really has been nice, I was really worried I'd never meet anyone my age to talk to, and her English is great. So we watch movies and Friends, shop, and chat, and it's fun. She's way better to hang out with than Russ, shhhh.

That's it for the apartment. It's on the 5th floor of the building, no elevators, duh (visitors tend to be breathing heavily, and sadly, so do we), and the entrance is like the closest to the exit gate of the living district.

If you're still making fun of me for using the word "sitch," whatever, I've been wanting to use that somewhere ever since I saw School of Rock the first time.

Time to find diversions!