The Humble Abode

Oh this apartment. In all of its moldy glory, it really has become a safety net on which to fall back when faced with naughty children, evil mosquitos, stuffy humidity, and stinky pollution. But it hasn’t come easily or without frustration. It’s a modest little place but compared so some other ILP groups we have it really good. Through the good times and the bad, it’s been good to us. Every day is an incredibly amazing apartment adventure.


Here is our washing machine.

It sits on a little deck of sorts off the back of our apartment. Notice the railing…..

One day while hanging up the laundry on our deck, the mop slid in between the railing and fell. Oh great, I thought, I’ll have to go all the way downstairs and get it out of the bushes. But when I looked over the railing this is what I saw:

That black blob is the mop, sorry it’s small. Anyway, I once dropped a sock down there and never saw it again. We tried going down to knock on the door and ask for it but no one answered. Long story short I used my inventing skills to construct a device for retrieving it.

A bent hanger and some dental floss, the ordeal was shortly resolved. I felt pretty cool:)


The kitchen is a little growth off the side of this deck. It’s small but it gets the job done. I skype my family from this poor excuse of a room hehe.

Dish dryer that we never use, microwave, clutter, the usual. A little to the right out of view there is a water cooler and behind the door there's enough room for an ironing board and that's pretty much it!


Ahhh, the magic oven. I made the best yellow cake I’ve ever had in my life made in one of these. I don’t know if I will ever comprehend how this contraption is so amazing but I think it has something to do with a broiler and a lower heating rod..or it’s just plain enchanted, I like that theory better ;) Here we are making a Chinese cake of sorts one Sunday with our Chinese friends Tina and Mandy. It unforseeably puffed up real good and tasted like German pancakes. Yum!

One time we had a dance party in this our little cooking closet.

We fit 8 of us in the kitchen..which meant not a lot of dancing room but it was sweet! Complete with a strobe light, which admittedly had to be powered by one of us standing outside flickering the lights off and on but that’s beside the point.



Chocolate chip cookies were involved. Things get pretty awesome around here sometimes :)


And let’s not forget the bathroom!

I will probably never live in another apartment where you can simultaneously use the toilet for its intended purpose and then literally turn around and use it as a foot stool to shave your legs during your shower, and complete the experience with a quick mop of the floor. It’s quite the set-up! Sometimes during my shower I can’t help but laugh when I remember where I am..standing in front of the toilet showering directly on the bathroom floor. Too funny..and yes it gets SUPER wet in there. We bought a little garbage can thing with a lid to keep the toilet paper dry and we have to squeegee the floor after showering. And this is normal to me?


In China there are these things called house shoes. They don’t have backs and they're pretty much slippers worn only around the home.

These are mine. I happen to love them:) Pandas were the only option.


Bugs. Cockroaches, specifically. One day I woke up and went to use the sink in the bathroom and there was one just chillin’ in there. Lovely. Some days there are tons of dead ones in the hall so once we signed a note to the boys from a dead cockroach and included his body..

(Too bad we are the only ones who really think we are funny!)


And then there’s just the random fun that goes on around here.


Dressing up in Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating on April Fools’ Day



Yep :)



Truth or Dare one night, yes Amanda is pouring water into my mouth, blind-folded. Things were obviously getting very intense ;)



Bringing Chinese friends over to our crammed apt to watch New Moon because they’re in love with Twilight. Love it :)


It’s not much but it’s home for another month!! I think I’m even gonna miss it!

Thank you, Sun Yat-Sen

Many adventures happen downtown after kung fu. Remember the giant Brigham Young-esque statue? Well we explored his entire park after kung fu and it was a surprising treat!

We were met first by some finely manicured hedges that just reminded me of Alice and Wonderland ;)


We started up some stairs to a pagoda (after a kung fu pose...)

..and found a pond with a bajillion koi. I bought some fish food for 3 RMB and quickly became the fish's favorite tourist at the park :)


And the little Chinese lady behind me started blowing bubbles. It was perfect :)




Pagoda!


Silhouetted kung fu picture behind a waterfall. This might be a little too legit, folks!


All of this is as artificial as Disneyland but it doesn't make it any less fun to explore ;)

We headed back down the stairs to go catch the bus and were met by a group of tourists that we have come to refer to as "the red hat group." I'll let you figure out why ;) We figure they must be a group of tourists from somewhere that doesn't get many foreigners because they are always REALLY excited to see us. And this memorial must be a stop on their tour of Zhongshan because there are ALWAYS some of them here. And they are ALWAYS happy to see us :) Come to the Sun Yat-Sen memorial and see white people, what could be better?

This time it was especially funny because one of them just handed me a large bouquet of flowers to pose with. Hehe :) We had to hide from the rest of the groups to make our bus on time. It's hilarious to watch the genuine surprise and excitement when Chinese people see us, though, it's really a neat experience to be in another country and have the immediate friendship with someone, even if it's only for 5 minutes and a picture!

It's wonderful to have so many exciting places to visit so close to home! Our weekends are such a relaxing relief. I have grown to love Zhongshan so much for all it has to offer!