The entrance to my complex. The little store in the front right is like a convenience store but smaller. It's gone now and there's a gambling parlor in its place. Now I have to walk a little farther for little things.
Standing in my front door when I first moved in. According to feng shui, mirrors should not be directly facing your door or all the good luck will bounce back out. I thought everyone in China knew that; guess not.
My refrigerator... in the "hall". Kitchens are tiny here, just enough room to stand and cook. Table, fridge, other big things (sometimes microwave, etc.) have to go in the dining area.
I LOVE the bathrooms here. They are SO easy to CLEAN. Everything can get wet, no wood, no tub or separate shower area on the floor. Just scrub everything down, then use the shower hose to rinse it all down the floor drain. (I bought a suction cup holder for the showerhead but it never stuck; hence the matching blue wire hanger thingy. I made it have two heights. {also a hanger-shelf hidden there})
hard to read; made this for someone last year who was intrigued and asked. Start with the pink constellation and follow it; it's fun. The white washing machine hose needed to be stuck onto a faucet when you want to wash clothes. I LOVE that kind of water heater. Incredibly economical and safe. It's only used when you actually turn the water faucet on. Never waste gas, can't die in your sleep.
the small bedroom
This is how I attached the clothesline (out on the roof) to the house. Yep. It's very innovative. That hole in the wall was from an air conditioner. I'd have preferred a piece of 2x4 but the ice cube tray sufficed; I could turn it to "reel in" the line and make it tighter if needed.The bottle was merely a weight to keep the ice cube tray from unturning. Unlike 99% of the rest of the neighborhood, *I* had an outdoor clothesline! Ha. Laugh. (I didn't choose the curtains)
People before me taped pictures of chinese pop-stars EVERYWHERE. This was my bedroom, the "big room".
From the big room, climbing out the window. That building you see is curvy at the bottom, remember that, it's coming again soon.
From the roof outside. Notice there are two layers of windows, they put the newer sliding ones inside. See the spool of phone wire on the AC? I ended up using that at another time. And I thought it was garbage. Nothing is garbage in China.
Those cage things are supposed to go over my windows to protect me from burglars. Helicopter burglars, I imagine. I'm glad they were down, so I could go out on the roof. Note the smokestack, you'll see it again soon like the curvy building.
I did taiji (tai chi) here, among other exercises. And New Year's fireworks TWICE. Yes, twice, as in two years. It's like.... it's like I lived there. I miss it. :(
There's the smokestack, for reference. If you saw the 2008 New Year's pics, the friend I called to ask if he could see our shadows lived in that big flat building.
This is across the street.
I took this for a reason, don't remember.
My street. This was winter, when I first moved in. Keep it in mind.... summer's coming....
Same as last shot but summer. I love my street. When you're lower than those trees it's like a cozy neighborhood, not like a big city at all.
Again, upon moving in at Chinese New Year 2007. Covered thing is subway. Shiny long thing across middle is a "river". It's the dead end of a river, which means it's sometimes dry, or sometimes it's just smelly stagnant green stuff.
Building to right is exactly like mine. Next shot is same but summer....
See what I mean? It's not like a big cold noisy city; it's like a nice neighborhood. I really like it here. Bottom left square is where I twittered from (or after) about the roses after a walk.
Curvy building. Summer's next...
My corner. Beijing is such a big, dirty, noisy, overcrowded, full of traffic, cold-hearted CITY, isn't it?
Well, we are. Cabs like to nap on my street because they won't be bothered.
This really was my FIRST MORNING in my new apt. Sunrise. Not sure why I woke up, but I'm glad I did. I know it may be ugly to you, but it was a nice morning. Imagine going out on the roof to stretch...
Some random night the sky was super-purple. Of course the photo doesn't nearly grasp it, but I tried. You can see mountains in the distance. This was toward me moving out, so it goes sadly well with the previous picture. Hey, it's morning and night even! :(
Jump to May 2008, earthquake time. This is my favorite of the 3 elevator ladies and my least favorite of the door guards. The board you see is neighbors who donated. (see blog of that time for details) The main entrance of my building.
I wrote that on the board. It's my chinese name. It's pretty crappy handwriting, I know. But I'm proud because my writing used to look like a 7-8 yr old's and now I was told it looks like a middle schooler's, so I've improved. :D
old washer downstairs - left side's for washing, right side's for spinning. Manually turn on water faucet and watch to see how high you want it, turn timer for swishing effect, etc...
No big thing in the middle; that bottom disk just agitates. Not particularly effective, but the stuff did move a bit. I often helped it along with a giant spoon.
New washer! Hooray! Maybe. Looks futuristic, doesn't it? Hehehe.... not so. :(
Problem is where it hooks to faucet; you need to turn the faucet on & off every time the washer demands it (which is a LOT of times!) otherwise water will drip, pour, and otherwise gush out from where hose meets faucet. I don't know what kind of faucet the hose was made for, but it wasn't these.
Inside. Much nicer agitator; fun-looking even. Like a little baby toy with spinny things and a honking button in the middle. And when you press those buttons on top it makes different sounds. This one swooshes heartily, no spoon required.
