Home Sweet Hotel Room

As some of you know, Ben and I got these jobs here in Kaifeng via our connection with Dr. Carolyn Dirksen, who taught at this same university back in the eighties. When she and her husband were here, they lived in the building referred to as the Foreign Experts Residence. This is where Ben and I expected to be living when we got here, but, because A. there were not enough apartments for everyone and B. we are married, we have the luxury of lodging in an on-campus hotel. Ours is a much newer (and honestly, much nicer) building, with most of the comforts of home, minus a decent mattress. When you walk through the door, the first thing you see is...yourself! There's a large mirror with a small cabinet for our shoes. Behind this is our kitchen, which consists of a few cabinets, small counters, a sink, and a hot plate and microwave/oven/grill, courtesy of the International Affairs Office.

Our living room is really quite spacious. They've given us a sofa and comfy chair with cushions that are much softer than our bed. :P We also have a coffee table, where we eat our breakfast every morning...yummy egg and veggie pita... Plus, we have a sweet flatscreen tv! There is a channel that plays English language movies, which is great and highly entertaining, seeing as I'll never get to know what movie I could be watching at any given moment. Today, I've caught snippets of Princess Diaries 2, Goodfellas, and Zodiac. Finally, we have the wonderful air conditioner and fridge. The AC is covered in Chinese, so I just push the + and - buttons to change the temperature, which is measured in Celsius, of course. Our fridge is about the size of the one I had in my dorm room with the added freezer on the bottom, and, like almost everything else in China, it has a funky smell. We're working on finding some baking soda.

In our boudoir, you will find the cement block, I mean bed, a wardrobe, two bedside tables, and a desk (on which I am typing this very blog post). I get first dibs on the desk because I'm actually teaching a couple of classes with grades and stuff (explanation to come later). There's really not much to tell about this room other than we like it and have been spending a ridiculous amount of time in here the past few days since we've been sleeping more than we've been awake.

And, of course, I've saved the best for last... our bathroom! First thing on the left is our sink, then comes the itty bitty, but greatly appreciated, washing machine, followed by the Western (hallelujah!) toilet, ending with the "shower." We don't actually have a shower. There's just some extra space on the other side of the toilet with a shower head above and a drain on the floor. So, the whole bathroom floor is wet for the majority of everyday, but, truth be told, showering is a lot more entertaining than it has ever been.

So far, our apartment has proven to be quite the safe haven for us. Plus, I change into pajama pants right when I come through the door, so I think, in time, it will start to feel like our home.

Oh, and all our floors are tile. Cold feet! And lots of sweeping (thanks, Ben!).

:)