Apartment Hunting

Apartment hunting was quite an experience. With the help of the school’s HR person and an agent I saw five apartments on my only free day between training and starting to teach. The first place we went to was a common old style Chinese apartment but with Western touches like a flush toilet and small washer. You entered a small village like area off a main road. They were basically rows of one story buildings and the “street” was all paved. We entered into the apartment through a covered outdoor area with a utility sink where people may do laundry or some food preparations when it’s hot. Then you walk into the building which was one room with a bathroom. The place was pretty rundown, lighting was awful and there was a large wardrobe and a mattress on the floor. Another door leads to the shared kitchen which looked in dire need of some scrubbing cleanser. With this as my first place to see I didn’t feel very hopeful. Honestly, I’ve lived in squalor in my life but in a foreign city adjustment to this way of living seems a bit more difficult. I was prepared to live in small quarters here but was hoping for more updated amenities. So I figured the agent was just really good at his job by showing me the really bad places first and building up to the more expensive, nicer places. At the next apartment building I almost had a break down as we headed to the unit. It was a high rise building and once you entered the lobby area, it resembled the projects in Chicago. Cold concrete walls, paint flaking away, dirt and grim everywhere, things just were run down, dilapidated and not maintained. I kept thinking about the horror my mom and aunt would experience if they walked into this building. Walking into the apartment was completely different from the exterior surroundings. Everything was rehabbed and new. The kitchen was spotless. There was new flooring throughout, new paint on the walls and it was fully furnished mostly from Ikea. There was a great balcony with a very intricate clothes drying system that the landlord loved to demonstrate. The place was more than I was hoping to pay but I figured the places were getting better so pushed on to the other three. I quickly realized I had seen the best. One was so dirty I couldn’t believe the landlord didn't take some time to at least flush the cigarette butts in the toilet. The second was on the 5th floor of a more traditional building that had accumulated years of junk and had some rather large holes in the walls. The last was another high rise building but more eerie with horribly cold, fluorescent lighting and a dingy, grey apartment. By the end I was having a mild panic attack and I knew I had to jump on the Ikea apartment but when we called the landlord said someone came who was going to pay more and it was gone. Not wanting to take any of the others the three of us stood on the street while the agent tried to scrounge up some more places. To my delight the Ikea apartment landlord called back to say she wanted to rent to a foreigner and upped the price a few hundred RMB. We went back to check it out and I decided I could get past the condition of the general areas. We spent several hours negotiating, preparing and signing the lease. My landlord does not speak English but her daughter speaks a little. They’ve been really great and have helped me out with Internet and getting familiar with the area. I kind of feel like I have a Chinese “mom” watching over me. Here are some photos of my Shanghai apartment.