In the house

Technically it is an apartment but you know what we mean. After all of the headaches and consternation over the past 10 days, we have moved into a new apartment at Landmark Skylight. By new, I mean new to us because it is definitely not a new place. However, all-in-all, things could be much worse and we are thankful to have a roof over our heads.

This has been my third move since arriving in Suzhou. First it was at the Chateau Regency. There I lived in three different units, one by myself and then two after the family arrived. It wasn’t a bad place but much of the luster was lost when the people working there started to depart. Much of the experience there depended on how much you were willing to adapt to the constantly changing environment and uncertainty of what would happen tomorrow. We stayed for several months before asking for the option to leave (the revolving door of prostitutes in the area sealed the deal). Then we moved into Horizon. Our landlady seemed very nice until the day we signed the contract. From that moment, it was a struggle to get anything fixed in the apartment. The final straw came with the air conditioner unit that would leak gallons of water (sorry, liters) a day from the ceiling. It was causing issues (although the drip bucket on the floor really went well with our “ourdoor living” motif) and she didn’t want to get it fixed. When all was said and done (and I’ve edited myself here to stop with the long-winded explanation of the issue…hey, no need to thank me) it was a relatively easy fix but it took several months and several dozen AC guys to “look at the problem” before it was fixed. [This seems to be a Chinese thing, whenever there is a problem they always go to the extreme as the solution. There is no logical process to the problem solving, it’s jump to a conclusion and ride it out.] And now, here we are in Landmark Skylight. We hope this will be the last move we have to make in China but many other Expats move every year so you can never say never.

We packed the stuff ourselves. We had them drop off 15 boxes early in the week and each night we would try to fill a couple of boxes. Clothes are easy; it’s all the breakables that create the challenge. We’re not professionals and didn’t have all the paper and stuff used to place between places, bowls, glasses, etc. So we had to improvise. We placed underwear between the plates and bowls to provide the cushion and prevent the breakage. Then it was just a matter of getting the glasses wrapped up. Okay, I’m joking, we didn’t use underwear to keep the plate separated. After all everyone knows that you use underwear to wrap up the utensils, you use socks for the glasses (still joking!). Anyhow, we filled all of our suitcases plus the 15 boxes and still had some left over that we used bags and other things we had around to load. The biggest concern we had was our framed artwork.

The “3 guys and a truck” moving company showed up a little later than planned. The cops were called while they were trying to enter the complex so we’re not sure what happened there but we were worried that the husband had once again decided to stir the pot. Thankfully the “situation” was resolved and when they reached the apartment we showed them all of the stuff (and it was a lot more than I would have imagined) and they began to move the boxes. None of the guys were young but they grabbed the boxes and began to load the elevator. They would take the stuff off of the elevator and then place them on a large sled (like the ones at Home Depot that you push around) and roll the boxes out of the complex to their truck (about 100 meters, maybe more on the winding walking paths). It was a mid-size flatbed truck with “raised sides” so it wasn’t the standard US moving van. They had tarps in case of rain (of course who knows how many holes were in those tarps) so they were ready although the weather was pretty darned nice for a move. They moved very fast and got the first load out within about 20 minutes. They made me package the pictures after they provided me with a box and some thin Styrofoam strips to cover the glass. It wasn’t what I would call “heavy duty protection”, I would’ve had more protection if I wrapped the pictures in a paper towel (or perhaps my underwear). At least they made an effort. I actually used the stuff and placed pillows around the pictures since the box was way too big for the pictures. Tammy and our real estate agent went over to the new apartment to meet with the landlady while Jacob and I stayed put to watch them pack (and by watch I mean Jacob was sprawled out on the couch playing his Nintendo DS). Warren was at band practice (he was the lucky one) at school so he escaped all the stuff. The guy came back into the apartment and said something to me but I didn’t know what he said. I asked Jacob to pay attention while he said it again (of course by pay attention Jacob actually moved slightly but didn’t take his eyes off the screen). He was telling us that the truck had taken the first load over and he would take everything down to the first floor and wait for them. I didn’t figure this out, Jacob told me what he said (which makes it even more annoying that I’ve been taking these Chinese classes for over a year now and still can’t get it. I’ve know much more useful things like how to ask to have my hair dyed at the beauty salon…sheesh! This is why I don’t speak much Chinese, I’m afraid they’ll ask me something and I’ll tell them that I like their new hairdo.). At about that time, in comes the satellite guy to take our box to the new place. I would tell you how he had it hooked up but you wouldn’t believe me anyhow (there goes Scott embellishing another China experience again). It only took about 90 minutes to get all of the stuff out. I was surprised, they moved very fast and didn’t break anything despite our fears (you see, the underwear worked, and you thought I was crazy!). The most surprising thing is the cost. It was 150 RMB per truckload of stuff. 150 RMB! For those keeping score at home, that’s about $22. It seems like a lot of work for a very little bit of money but it’s what they do. The more they move, the more they make. Come back later and I’ll tell you more about the new place.