A First Day or Amazing Grace

Our first morning in Beijing... 

After sharing a coffee, Paul goes to work, and leaves me with Noam in an empty apartement. Very empty since it is very large (over 250 sq m). I have my son, my cell phone with a supposedly functionning card, and a few suitcases. All the essential things prepared for today are still transiting from DC instead of being here with us, in that misplaced bag. The taxi guide, the maps, the essential guidebook about all the vital places to know in Beijing, and what else. So I have to figure it all by myself... with the help of Grace!  

Grace is this superwoman, very hyper and very efficient, all ready to make sure everything is correct and organized. She is our real estate agent, and she has been helping us finding our super flat. She has now as a mission to fix all the little loose ends to our installation. It is too bad she is not in charge of moving our stuff because she is so efficient that it would be already unpacked (we know it arrived in Tianjin today). 

So my first day is spent doing a load of small things with her, namely some administrative things related to our lease, getting our phone line set up (but the phones are not quite properly installed yet), setting up our 2 TVs and DVDs (included in our rent), setting up the internet, (after 2 technician visits, it is kind of half working... hence the delay in blogging and emails), getting some administrative papers with the building management and going to the Police to register oursleves (required within 24 hours of arrival), selecting curtain fabrics (not my activity of choice but got all done except for the bathroom, so we still give daily shows to our neighbourghs!), selecting our guest bedroom bed (also included in the rent, and also felt like such an irrelevant thing to do on a first day here!).  I have to admit that my sense of interior decoration was quite affected by jet lag, fatigue and a Noam busy "exploring" (read making a mess)... I am not sure of what things will look once installed.

After such intense day, finding and "exploring" the nearest grocery store was a breeze.