Pam here again, with a few more thoughts about Shanghai apartment living.
When we get up in the morning, one of the first things we hear is the drip, drip, drip of water on metal. Someone has hung out their laundry, and it's dripping down onto the roof of our balcony. We hear that drip, drip, drip all day, along with the rush of water down the outside pipes when someone's washing machine empties.
People in Shanghai do a lot of laundry, and we have yet to see a drier. Laundry hangs all over the city, on buildings, bushes, fences, and any other likely places.
It took a while for us to figure out the washing machine on our balcony, since we couldn't read the instructions.
We figured out the left line by the pictures and the middle by trial and error (the three settings are "wash," "soak" and "rinse"). The right was a conundrum. Finally we got Xu, Parker's friend, to read the instructions into our iPhone translation app. The first came out "Standard," which made sense. The second, however, came out "Pregnant, unfortunately." He tried three times and always got the same answer.
We figured it had something to do with the length of the wash cycle, and we're sticking with what we hope is really "Standard." It can't be water temperature, because you have to hook the machine up to the outside sink, and there's only cold water.
It was also a little hard to buy cleaning products. We had to go by looking at the pictures.
The first time we tried to buy laundry detergent, we bought the bottle on the left, with the shining cat face and the pictures of nice clean shirts, socks and towels. It turned out to be bleach. Then we went with the one that had a picture of a washing machine. What do you think of the pictures? Do they look the same as the pictures on American cleaning products? How would a Chinese person who couldn't read English or Spanish figure out what to buy at an American store?
Eventually we got it all worked out, and now we hang out our laundry like everyone else.
There's a nice view from our balcony. Our complex is full of plants and trees and courtyards, and to the right of the balcony is a small, circular area that people use for exercise. The other day, we saw a young man practicing karate moves. This morning, an older man was walking in circles, swinging his arms.
Exercise is a big deal here. When we hear Chinese music playing, we know that a group of older folks are doing tai chi in the park/playground on the other side of our building.
The other day, though, someone kept playing disco-style music, and it sounded like they were singing "Party Like a Bee" over and over. It got really annoying after a while so Parker shut the door. There must be a more energetic exercise group somewhere.
Younger people use the exercise equipment too. Parker especially likes the leg machine.
After we rented the apartment, we had to get a few things to make it home. Where do you go in Shanghai when you need to outfit your apartment?
The Shanghai IKEA was out in the suburbs, and it took about an hour to get there on the metro. It was exactly like the IKEA in Charlotte, except that the signs were in Chinese and they served Chinese food in the cafeteria, along with the Swedish meatballs. The meatballs tasted just the same and were a great deal: 20 for only 18 yuan. We bought a bunch of stuff and then took a taxi home.
We have the apartment fixed up now. It has two rooms (besides the kitchen and bathroom), and two balconies. Peter and I sleep in the living room, and Parker sleeps in the bedroom. It reminds me of the New York apartment I lived in when I was little. That apartment only had two rooms, and my parents folded out the living room couch every night to sleep.
That's all for now. Here is a photo tour of the apartment that Parker created. Hope you like it.
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