Yey! We have arrived in China! After a twenty hour trip (give or take.... probably give) we arrived safely at our new apartment. The very first apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Leverkus (aka the Leverki). There is plenty of room for the two of us and once we start filling up the walls with pictures it will look quite lovely (it will also help hide the flaking paint). Peter says "it is our little piece of Heaven on Earth", but only because I just asked him now and he was preoccupied talking to his sister on Facebook.
We took some pictures to give you an idea of what the apartment is like! First of all we have Peter sitting proudly on our couch. It is the nicest piece of furniture we have! He is sitting in his favorite spot which is right underneath the AC (It has been in the high 90s ever since we got here and is supposed to continue to be this warm until October).
Just another view of the living room.
The kitchen is nice and spacious and came fully equipped with everything we need, including two butcher knives! We figured out how to use the gas stove by day three and have been making most of our meals here, such as noodles, pork dumplings, seafood dumplings (that left both of us with an upset stomach), a funky rice cake wok, and yesterday morning I even made pancakes! We invited our Chinese assistant to join us for breakfast, but I'm not sure what he thought of traditional American pancakes. Peter thinks he liked it. And I hope Peter is right. I was kind of afraid I was poisoning him because most Asians can't drink milk, and there was a cup of it in the pancake batter. He seemed fine the whole day though so I am guessing he was fine with it.
When we don't feel like making anything fancy we make Ramen.
The toilet... not much to say, except that I am grateful it is western style and not a squatter. I've already tried out a handful of those. Luckily my days in the Norwegian forest have prepared me. I guess I should be grateful that I get to use real toilet paper instead of moss. Peter has yet to experience the joy of a squatter, but he promises to tell you all what he thinks when he does.
Finally, a picture of one of the views from our apartment. One thing we love here is how green it is! Hopefully we will have pictures up soon of the campus and the landscaping here. There are some beautiful little parks on campus with traditional Chinese architecture. Notice the man riding the scooter. That is an electric bike, Peter and I got one with the apartment and it is great!
