Home Sweet Home

Well, I've been here almost a week now (sorry I'm behind!), so I guess it's time to let you know about where I'm living.

I am living in the town of Zhongshan. I'll be teaching in the Shiqi area of the town starting in February (I'm currently teaching a winter camp somewhere else- more later), and our apartments are located in the Kaiyin area (we're down the street from the Kaiyin school).

Because there are 7 of us girls, we have two apartments. Each one has three bedrooms and can hold up to six girls. Right now, 4 are living in the downstairs apartment and 3 upstairs. I'm in the upstairs apartment and have my own room! At least until the rest of our group arrives...

Our two apartments! With the drying blankets...

The apartments are pretty nice. The only real issue is that they're freezing. It's light sweater weather outside, but we all turn into ice cubes in the apartment. The only temperature control we have is air conditioners in the bedrooms, so we've been piling on the blankets!

The beds are also much firmer than I'm used to... We'll just say my hips are sore.

Here's some pictures of the apartment:

    





Our door with a cute decoration the neighbor boy made for us. I'm pretty sure his grandma tried to tell us we needed some the other day, but she only spoke Chinese... I don't really know what it says either...

                           


They're the only neighbors we've really seen so far. I have heard someone practice an instrument (I think it's the piano) and there's an annoying yappy dog that lives downstairs.


Our apartment building is located in what's basically a large gated community with many apartment buildings. These gated communities are pretty common in the area. It's a pretty nice place with some great landscaping. I love the trees!

One of the gated entrances to our apartment complex.
There's always guards at the entrances.
One's particularly happy and always says
'Hello!' and "How are you?' when we go by :)

Part of a big pond between buildings outside my window.
There are ponds, fountains and plants all over the place!