It has arrived... finally!

Yes today was the day! Our container, our furniture, our stufffffff arrived! Fini le camping! Enfin!

The movers came in at 9h30 this morning, and very professionally covered our floors with cardboard, and every wall corner, to protect everything. Then the flow of boxes started to come in, one after another. My role was to direct traffic. After verifying the box number and identifying its content from a list, I would direct it to a potentially relevant destination. After a considerable amount of boxes, the movers started to unpack. That is when the real fun started. I had to run around the apartment, determining where the stuff should be stored. Of course, all the built-in shelves we had in Washington did not follow, so consequently, a number of our things now have no home. I let the movers go around 5h00PM, unable to see what I could do with a number of unopened boxes. Tomorrow I will have a better look!

But in essence, it feels good. It is all finally all here. 

At the same time, I will be scratching my head for a few days, wondering how and where to fit everything in here!

De Movers 09-nov-2008

Home or Camping in the Middle of a Big City

Have you ever done some camping in the middle of a very large city? You should try it, it is fun!!! I woke up today with a nice morning light filtering between buildings and shinning down below. We live in Central Park, in Beijing.  

We are high above the ground, in an empty cube. Our shipment arrived in China a day after us, now the question is to know when it will be delivered. Papers, bureaucracy and customs are all involved. It leaves us with a vague idea of a delivery date. So in the meantime we are camping. 

We live with a mattress (and sheets and really thin pillows), a baby bed (schlepped our first trip), a high chair and a comfy chair with its foot stool, a kid table and two kids size chairs (all from Eedjee-ah), a few toys, one pot and one pan, a couple plastic plates and cups. And our 6 suitcases. We also have 4 TVs! They came with the place. There are two miniature TV inserted in cupboards, one for the kitchen, one in our washroom. And to Paul's request, we have 2 giant ones.

De home in beijing

De home in beijing

De home in beijing

Our place is great and big, probably about 250 sq m (or 2500 sq ft). We have 3 bedrooms and a den (eventually will become a TV room). You get the hint? Come and visit us! There is plenty of room!!! We live on the 18th floor, a lucky number for the Chinese. But today while taking the elevator, I realized that there are no 2nd, no 4th, no 13th neither 14th floor. It is probably all due to superstitions - both Asian and Western - so in fact we live on the 14th floor. Don't worry, I am not going to believe it is bad luck as I am not Chinese!

De home in beijing

Just like everywhere else in China, we are surrounded by several others. The towers are arranged in circles, and in middle there are gardens. A larger park has been created over a street, and will unit another set of towers that are currently under construction.

De home in beijing

De home in beijing

De home in beijing

In fact, our complex size is at the scale of the city: composed of 25 buildings, it makes only one city bloc!

De home in beijing

In other words, it is easy to get fooled by a map if you see that we are only 6 blocs from Tienanmen. In fact, one bloc can take 20 minutes to walk, and Tienanmen is not really near by. Once again, I am amazed by how L A R G E Beijing is.

Whirling Fun - or One Exemple of How Simple Things Can Be Complicated...

As a good "queen of the household", I am trying to do all things required to make the house "function"... I already mentioned some of the things accomplished over the last day or two. One of them was doing the laundry. No big deal you will say. Well, this is where the real fun started! See the picture below! 

De Whirling Fun

My real estate agent Grace had already found the English manual for the machine. After a good half hour of reading and even of labelling my machine, I can now use this wonderful piece of technology... I can wash AND dry without even opening the door! All in one! and it makes a cute song at the end of the cycle. Noam however, who usually loves washing machine, is a bit less fond of it. He even looked afraid by it... I am not sure why?

A Visit to the Police!

On our arrival, the Chinese Governement requires our registration to the Police. Without this, impossible to get our resident visa.

De a visit to the police

Sounds easy but Grace was key (again) to get this done on time. We needed to get some papers from the property management confirming our residence in their premisses. Photos. Then getting to the station. Getting the papers done by the clerck.
While I was waiting, I noticed that a set of bifocal glasses were attached by a string to the counter. A nice attention to the elderly...

De a visit to the police

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.