pantsfarm

Now that I am a bit more settled, I thought I’d show the world my accommodations. I’m currently living in an apartment owned by some relatives of mine who live in Shanghai. As I understand it, the apartment is vacant for much of the year (normally including now), and so until I can find a better place, it is my temporary home. And so, with that said, I present to you Room 202, somewhere on West Nanjing Road (I don’t know the number) in Shanghai.

This photo is of the front door, taken from just inside it.

Here is the same space, with the door closed. You can see a slightly broken umbrella that was lent to me by my great aunt (it’s been raining since I got here), as well as some of my shoes.

Here is the kitchen. Mounted on the right above the counter is the water heater. If I want to have hot water for anything (such as doing dishes or a shower), I have to turn on the gas, and if I expect to need a lot of hot water, I have to open that window so I don’t inadvertently run out of air to breath, apparently. Honestly though I suspect this is a largely unnecessary step given how incredibly drafty the place is. Mostly I just use the microwave and the electric kettle though, in terms of feeding myself.

Here’s one angle on the bathroom, depicting the shower stall and sink.

And here’s the other angle, showing the fancy western-style toilet I am so fortunate to have. There is indeed a telephone on top of the toilet, and I’m not really sure why. Not only because it seems like a strange place for a phone, but also because there is no functioning phone line in this apartment.

Here is a picture of the bedroom, taken from the entryway. The refrigerator there doesn’t actually work, nor does the TV under my ties and a sheet on the left.

Here is a picture looking in the opposite direction, back towards the front door.

In this unfortunately blurry photo, I was going to show how there is a little balcony area where I would hang laundry to dry, if it were both not raining and not nighttime.

And finally, to give some sense as to how everything flows together, here’s a very short video clip of me walking through the apartment.

As a final note, I’d like to say how great it is to have a cell phone that not only works (much unlike the one it replaced), but also can take photos and video and so forth, and then best of all, transfer it all to my computer by way of bluetooth such that I might present it to the rest of the world like this.