Tag Archives: apartment

Moving Chinglish

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As I look back upon my years, I notice that I’ve moved a lot. About every year. I don’t know why this is so. I’ve lived with roommates, I’ve lived by myself, and in my time in Shenzhen and Guangzhou since 2009 I have moved about ten times. Still, for some reason, my previous apartment held a record for me: I stayed there for two whole years.

But then the lease ran out. I opted not to renew. At the same time, my girlfriend’s lease ran out and her landlord insisted on taking back the apartment. We proceeded to look for a new apartment. It wasn’t easy, but after a month of searching we finally found the perfect place. As the real estate bubble in China ever grows, prices have been going up and it’s not like it was back in the day. The tricky part is to find a good-sized clean place that’s not too far from the city center yet affordable.

Moving always sucks, but we made do. Moving two people into one house sucks twice as much, but I can make do. I actually find unpacking kind of fun. Organized books, collectibles, clothes. I am not the kinda expat who lives out of my suitcase, I like a lived in home.

And now I have made that major step. We live together. Without further ado, I present the Chinglish from my snazzy new apartment complex…

 

 

There you are. Here’s how the apartment actually looks by the way, while I’m Instagram sharing:

 

Also had a housewarming party last weekend that was awesome (pictures don’t do justice, take my word), it was quite the Shenzhen scene gathering if I do say so myself.

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#Party at my house, woooo!

A post shared by Ray (@raelianautopsy) on

 

So, I hope you would like to come visit sometime! There’s a guest bedroom and everything. We want visitors.

 

Wish you luck on your next move as well 🙂

Dating – Back to Shenzhen, China!

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SAM_1062A symbolically-numbered birthday, lookin lame. Note long hair at the time

 

In February of 2012 I had been living in the megacity of Guangzhou (Canton) for one year. My search for companionship had yielded mixed results. I had a bit of fun, sure. But nothing ever seemed to turn substantial, and I was getting lonely.

That, and my favorite bar had closed down. In no hurry to leave China whatsoever – I’m still here for the long haul – I decided that the path of least resistance was to go back to Shenzhen. It was the city I knew best, the city I had people in, the city that’s next to Hong Kong (while simultaneously still a Mandarin-speaking insanely developing mainland locale). I just wanted to go back.

I went over and spent a day apartment-hunting. First I had some bad results from online recommendations, then I simply utilized those real estate office guys you see around, and I found the perfect flat in the middle of the city. I soon met the landlord, signed the lease, and went back to GZ that very night and moved in a week later.

It was the best apartment I’ve ever lived in. I stayed there are year-and-a-half, which is quite long for me. For whatever reasons, I tend to move a lot. About every year I get anxious and seek out a better place to live. Yet, so far, I haven’t found anything better that that amazing apartment. Sigh, I do miss that place.

It suited me. Unlike other places I’ve lived in China, it wasn’t too glamorous. The place had character. It was, of course, cheap. It was a one-bedroom and living room, roomier than those big one-rooms. The building had no elevator, but that’s okay I lived on the first floor. It was close enough to downtown, but just a bit outwards of Futian District in the quieter Meilin neighborhood. There was a subway station nearby with a line led directly to the Lok Ma Chau border to Hong Kong. And only a 30 yuan latenight taxi ride to the obvious weekend haunts of Coco Park. It had everything going for it.

I unpacked. I redecorated. Life went on. I got a gym membership in the area, I biked around and explored and discovered my new favorite restaurants. I celebrated my birthday with a few friends. I met new people and hung out with some Couchsurfers; with my conveniently-located new apartment I could host and invited more than a few travelers to stay with me.

My writing was kinda-maybe starting to take off, and I kept myself busy freelancing. I visited Guangzhou a few times, on assignment of sorts for a magazine. Mostly, I worked on my novel and slowly but surely I was to take that more seriously. It was a productive time in my life.

Oh, and I traveled to Taiwan. (I traveled to Japan the most recent trip, by the way. I apparently skipped that part in previous writings. Well there was no hooking up to be had there. That trip to Taiwan was the last time I both stayed in a hostel and stayed at a Couchsurfer’s, with the coming of a symbolically-yeared birthday I decided I was too old for this kind of backpacking travel…)

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