24 August 2010: Day 4 in Peking


I just called home and ended up tearing, yet again. I've never felt so homesick before. Even my school trip to UK when I was 14 didn't feel like now. I don't know if its because of where I am or because my house doesn't feel like a home.
 
Day 1 in Beijing: We touched down after a delayed flight with paper cups used for drinks in the squeezy air china. And Peking welcomed us with, RAIN. It was raining the whole day from the time we touched down. And when we arrived at the Super 8 hotel, we realised, there was no elevator or lift. And all of us had 30+10kg worth of luggage. Thankfully for Uncle Ong's driver, he helped us lift our luggage to the second level. And Super 8 is really budget. If you think that youth hostels in Europe are small. This is smaller and the window opens to the corridor, not the outdoors. Anyway, so we splished and splashed through the roads of Beijing right after checking in. We first went to the unfurnished apartment in Zi Fang Yuan and it is indeed big. And new, but setting up a new home I now know is one big feat. After viewing a few others, we went to set up mobile lines, find furniture and sign our contracts. So we did take the biggest unit which came unfurnished. So we had to get everything, beds, cupboards, desks, tables, fridge, washing machine, all the housing things you need when you basically set up a new home. Thankfully we can bargain in Beijing and their standard of living is generally lower than back home.
 
Day 2 in Beijing: We awoke to move to another hotel in the CBD Chaoyang area. And went to settle our bank accounts. After than, Bellie and I went to get the washing machine and fridge while the rest took a short shopping stint to get mobile phones as our phones were dying. Then towards night, we took a trip to our new house to witness the changing of locks and keys. Today was a little less overwhelming.
 
Day 3 & 4 in Beijing: Pei Si arrived today and we ferried her to our new house after we moved ourselves from the hotel suite. We went to get some cleaning tools from Carrefour and thus began the nightmare, the house was in a mess. Our so called cleaned apartment was filled with sawdust from the drilling of built in furniture and the mosquito nets were not cleaned. It was as if we moved ourselves into a newly renovated apartment with our luggage. We cleaned the house till 3am that night. And still it was dirty like crazy. The next morning, we awoke to continue cleaning till 7pm at night. I can't tell you how dirty it is but if I say, after about 5 wipes of the floor it was still relatively murky you can just do a rough estimate.
 
Day 5 in Beijing: Oh yes, in Beijing now, the sun rises at 5.30am. And with no curtains yet, I haven't been sleeping well. And we awoke at 7am to go to the place for 'Physical Examination for Aliens (a.k.a. foreigners)'. Don't ask me why foreigners are addressed as aliens over here. Its plain weird. And to be understood by the Beijing-ers, we are adopting a Beijing slang. And many of them think we're Koreans or Japanese cos we speak babble English and Mandarin. Haha. Anyway, after that we went back to our neighbourhood to report to the police. Oh and Beijing taxi drivers and the people don't know directions. They always say their not sure. Or if they do they'll point their hand vaguely somewhere and ask you to head north, south, east or west. And you just stare back at them and wonder, where in the world is north, south, east or west. After we 'Aliens' reported, we went to a market to find bed sheets and quilts as autumn/winter is approaching in 2 weeks! Finally, as all my clothes that I brought over are meant for cold weather. And we spent the whole afternoon haggling. I think I'm not an expert. I should learn some skills from mummy. I miss home. :(
 
And so, I'm probably not feeling settled and thus missing home. I hope they can come visit me if not I wish for school to start, and keep me busy then I can return home faster. Let's hope I can survive bitter cold winter.
 
Alright then, I'm going to drink my milk which tastes like baby powdered milk and then sleep. My whole body is aching from the mopping and cleaning yesterday.
 
Toodles.