A Slight Improvement

On the first day we went to Ikea. We bought a beds, mattresses, and a couch. We couldn’t complete our furniture purchases because we forgot to bring the measurements. It was Chinese New Year (actually the New Year was on the 14th but they celebrate for 15 days) so Ikea was somewhat reminiscent waiting in line at Disneyland - the entire store!

We made our purchases and headed home. Usually Beijing’s Ikea will do same day delivery, but because of the busyness of Chinese New Year it had to wait until the next day. That night we spent again in the bed that is not ours. What made night two better than night one is that we put a space heater in our bedroom. The electricity is real delicate so we are only allowed one space heater per apartment. The kids were just fine in their 20 degree sleeping bags so we put the heater in our bedroom and closed the door. We were sweating and sleeping without covers by midnight.

Again we awoke at around 4:00 a.m. and again it was difficult to get our of bed for all of the aforementioned reasons, and it was still cold everywhere except our bedroom. Had the jet lag not woken us up these first few mornings then surely the fireworks would have. We actually heard our first fireworks at 5:00 a.m. on the 18th. Apparently this had something to do with it being the day of the god of wealth. They say louder the display, the more of his attention your family will receive. The competition was fierce. From 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. I could not count to 5 without hearing an explosion.

When Ikea arrived with our beds and couch we piled them high with blankets. It was quite difficult to roll over with the weight on top of me, but we were warm. Also, by day 3 the kids started to return home from visiting relatives over the New Year holiday so they started burning more coal, which made our house a bit warmer, but still far from warm.

The next hurdle is the water. The heat issue we have, for the most part, been able to manage. The water...that’s a different story altogether. The good news is that the water is warm (in the bathroom it is warm - we have no warm water in the kitchen). The water smells bad. The toilet flushes sometimes. The plunger is the most important tool in our house. The sink has a dripping leak which we have remedied the old fashioned way - with a bucket to catch the drip. It is hard to get (or at least feel) clean when the water itself is dirty. Not only does the water smell bad, but whatever aroma is coming up from the drain pipes is unbearable. Combine that with an often unflushed toilet and it makes for a room in which we spend as little time as possible. Fortunately, a closed door keeps the problem contained.