I’m at Xi Wei’s now, but managed to snag some photos of my apartment just before I left, shortly after my toilet broke. I quite like this place, although I have to figure out a way around the noise. MSN Spaces does weird things to the scaling of images, maybe I will take all future pictures in landscape.

This is the first room of the house: my kitchen. There is a seat with a shoe storage compartment behind the water jug. Portable hotplate is stored in the cupboard. I didn’t buy the instant noodles, the school gave them to me in their goodie bag. I had Wuxi toad meat lying in the sink which I collected in a doggie bag after a meal and subsequently forgot to bin for the several days I recently spent back in Shanghai. My grey shoes have oil stains from the motorbike ride home (the taxi drivers at Wuxi station refused to serve me).

This is my bathroom. The washing machine is out of the frame, to the left. I have a proper clothes line on the balcony (you can’t see it in the pics), but the makeshift one should serve me well with removing some creases thanks to the steam from the shower. There is a vertical inlet to the right of the shower door for storing stuff. The towel provided by the school is too synthetic. I have some stories about Chinese towels and western body hair that I should write up later.

My clothes, neatly filed away. The cupboard on the left is for the ironing board, fan and other things. I need to buy more coathangers, ones where the arc isn’t so high as I have to orientate the coathangers in a diagonal fashion just to get them off the rack. Phew. Casual summer clothes on the right which lead into casual winter, formal winter and then formal summer ending on the left with my suit and pants.

I have no idea what to do with that Australian flag, so I think I will leave it on my sofa. The main room is a little messy as I was packing for Anhui. There are actually 4 chairs on the balcony, maybe later I will invite people up here for beer. I have a second pot plant just to the right, behind the curtain. The quilt and pillows were inclusive in the package. Dirty laundy goes on the sofa for now.

I got the calico bag from the World Expo volunteers who helped me book my hotel at the airport. I’m glad I picked one up, very handy. You can see my books on the right of the table and my necessities on the left, the laptop is the mediator between the two. Just like in the other apartment (damn, forgot to take photos >_<) I can tap into a free wifi service, however it’s not quite as strong in the new apartment.

Here you can see how all the rooms are connected. I will probably be ironing so much that I figure it best to leave the iron out all the time. I don’t like how one of the towel rails hangs over the toilet bowel. The matress on the bed is quite firm. Not sure if the TV reception is connected up. The last two weeks have reminded me of how many fun and games, Hey! Hey! It’s Saturday-esque shows are on Chinese TV–I love it. Despite the cultural differences, I am really ammused by these programs, they are very entertaining and highly improvisational.

Here is the view from my balcony. I am on the 27th floor, the top floor. My apartment overlooks Qingyang road ???. To be honest, I am probably more familiar with Chaohu city ???, where I am now with Xi Wei, than Wuxi. Maybe later I will tell you what these buildings are for. I should also add that I share this floor with an old couple who I haven’t seen yet. They don’t make much noise besides moving chairs around. I feel encouraged to play my music louder.

I didn’t bring my camera with my to Anhui, next time I will have to do that. I have plenty more to write up, but I don’t know how gracious my timetable will be in the future. Comments are welcomed as per usual.