After a very cramped ride from the airport to the apartments, we're led to our rooms and we meet landlord who is there to check us in. One thing that I had noticed before, was that there was a great language barrier between me and the people here. This situation was no different. Our hostess had to translate everything for us when we arrived. Our first surprise, of the many that would come, was that we had to pay a 500y deposit for the apartment and then 200y for the utilities. Having just gone to Beijing and being a college student, I didn't have the money to pay for this. We were all also under the impression that it would be taken care of by the time that we got here. But after a stressful night and a lot of diligent work from our contact at UC, everything was worked out.
I'll take this time to describe the apartment. These apartments are bleak. A huge part of living in China is dealing with energy conservation. Since I'm living south of the Yangtze, none of the buildings have central heating. Because of this, all of the rooms have individual heaters in them. There's only one issue with the heaters, they're only in Chinese. So figuring out how to heat a room is quite a struggle. Another result of the energy saving effort of the country is that there are little to no dryers and all of the lights are fluorescent. These two things aren't a huge issue, they're only a small inconvenience. But upon arrival, the rooms were very minimal and the furniture was the same. At first, I was a little creeped out by the room. The hallways outside the room are noise activated so it leaves some creepy dark areas during the night. If it wasn't for how tired I was the first night, I probably wouldn't have gotten much sleep. But I've started to come around to the rooms and I'm enjoying it.
But as I went through the room, I noticed more things that were missing or wrong. The place didn't have hot water running, internet, and a bathroom light that worked. It took awhile, but I eventually got everything working and operational.
I'll take this time to describe the apartment. These apartments are bleak. A huge part of living in China is dealing with energy conservation. Since I'm living south of the Yangtze, none of the buildings have central heating. Because of this, all of the rooms have individual heaters in them. There's only one issue with the heaters, they're only in Chinese. So figuring out how to heat a room is quite a struggle. Another result of the energy saving effort of the country is that there are little to no dryers and all of the lights are fluorescent. These two things aren't a huge issue, they're only a small inconvenience. But upon arrival, the rooms were very minimal and the furniture was the same. At first, I was a little creeped out by the room. The hallways outside the room are noise activated so it leaves some creepy dark areas during the night. If it wasn't for how tired I was the first night, I probably wouldn't have gotten much sleep. But I've started to come around to the rooms and I'm enjoying it.
But as I went through the room, I noticed more things that were missing or wrong. The place didn't have hot water running, internet, and a bathroom light that worked. It took awhile, but I eventually got everything working and operational.
Up until this point, I've just talked about how things haven't been working out well in Chongqing, and I want to make it clear, I really like it here. It was have had a rough start, but it's great here. The area is beautiful and the people are great. Our first day here, we were taken out to lunch with the Dean here and then taken to a large supermarket for supplies. We walked to the supermarket and went through an amazing shopping district.
From what I've seen from Chongqing, I can't wait to see more.