My new apartment!!!!

I found an apartment. I spent all of Sunday looking at places and being pretty disappointed by what I was looking at. The housing allowance that the school gives seemed like it would be more than enough, but it really isn't. I know I can play more out of my own pocket, but I am trying not to. Anyways, I started looking at 9:30 am and looked at the last one around 2. As luck would have it, when I walked into the last one I knew that it was the "one". It was not as nice as I wanted in terms of size and furniture, but there was something that made me like it. The location is AWESOME!!!! The center of Shanghai is called People's Square and I am about a five minute walk from there. Anyways, I had to make a quick decision and because people were coming right after me and if I didn't take it and they did then I would be out of luck. I felt too pressured and couldn't make the choice and told them I would think about it and get back to them. As I walked out of the apartment toward the subway station I passed a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf that is one block from me, and I was sold. Knowing that I can get Coffee Bean anytime I want it was the sign I needed. The next day I called my agent and told her I wanted it and signed the contract Monday night.

I figure that once I can decorate a little it will be nicer. Also, the couch is a wild animal print with lions, tigers, zebras, etc. on it and they are going to recover it to a beige color along with the other couch. They are also going to get a bed for the guest room. So I now have my apartment. I move in on Saturday and I am excited. I will definitely post pictures when I take them and hopefully will have pictures of the couch before they recover it.

If you want to see the area go to this website: http://www.smartshanghai.com/maps/smsh_map.php

I am right on the corner of Fuzhou Lu and Hubei Lu.

So that is where I live. Hopefully some of you can come see it sometime :)