Shanghai to Rural China

Enjoying a banana in the hotel room

We’ve been at our new home in Sanmen in Zhejiang Province since Tuesday afternoon. On Monday Mark did an orientation in the Shanghai office in the morning, was given a company laptop, and a pile of cash (our living stipend for the month of June and the largest bill in china is only worth $15). We were then taken on a very quick shopping trip to Carrefour (think Target) to pickup some basic supplies for our new apartment. We got our pots and pans, a rice maker (which we still haven’t been able to use since it is all in Mandarin – we’re cooking rice the old fashioned way until we have a friend tell us how to use it!), cutting boards, etc. On Monday evening we ate dinner at a hot pot restaurant (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot). Eating from a hot pot is so much fun and the food is great. Elli had a bad case of the wiggles though, so Mark and I had to take turns walking her down the sidewalk in order to get through that meal.

Elli did OK on transitioning to a new time zone until Monday (besides going to bed at 4:30 and getting up at 3am). Then that day was a disaster. She was all out of sorts. She had actually been running a fever up to that point, but it broke on Sunday so we’re not sure if there was some physical illness going on too or if she was just confused about her surroundings. She spent most of the day screaming (except when walking outside – but the smog was bad so we didn’t stay out too long), was ok for the hot pot (except for the understandable wiggles), and then started screaming again after sleeping for only about 40 minutes that night. At that point we took her outside again and walked around until she fell asleep again. She woke up two more times during the night, but they were fairly short and Mark was able to get her quiet again after only a short while. Since then she has been fine though!

Smog in Shanghai

Tuesday morning at 9AM we were picked up at our hotel in Shanghai to make the trip to Sanmen. It was a 4.5 hour drive in pouring rain. We were met at the site by the HR person from Mark’s company and brought to our new apartment where we unloaded the van (with the help of Mark’s coworkers who were called to help) and began the process of unpacking. We were pleasantly surprised to find that 1) we got to move straight into our apartment since almost everyone else has had to stay in the hotel on site for a few nights to a few weeks first, and 2) that we got a 1200 sq. ft. apartment instead of the 600 sq. feet we were told we would be living in temporarily until a bigger one opened up. Apparently the bigger one opened up right before we came!

Now, since most days are an adventure and we’re already behind in blogging we’re going to do the next few entries thematically instead of a simple linear story. To start, here is the entry on where we are living:

Guest room

Master bedroom

Home Sweet Home

Our apartment is on the third floor of a five story building. We were told to try to avoid the first and fifth floors due to mold issues, so this is just about perfect!

Study

The place is mostly furnished – it came with the living room set, the table, refrigerator, toaster oven (our only oven), washing machine, and bedroom furniture.

Living room

There are two bedrooms, a large study, two bathrooms, a small kitchen, dining area, and living room. There are also several enclosed balconies which serve as the only closet space in the apartment. All of the windows are full length and then protected with railings that a toddler finds perfect for climbing (and that also serve as clothes drying racks). The windows make the apartment very sunny even though it currently rains every day here.

Bike balcony

Laundry balcony

Living in the company housing seems a lot like being back in college – surrounded by friends. We have two of Mark’s startup coworkers in this same building. Directly across from us in the next building is another one of Mark’s coworkers, which means getting to see her in pajamas as she leans out the window to talk to people in the street as we eat breakfast.

Our apartment is only a 3 minute walk to Mark’s office. The Chinese do rigid lunch hours which means Mark gets to come home for lunch every day – he isn’t expected to bring a lunch and work while eating like he is used to.

So, that is what an apartment at a nuclear power plant construction site in China is like.

 More photos of the apartment are posted on Facebook.