You and Your New Home Tips and Tricks

My first day—It is hot here! Shenzhen is a sub tropical environment- You have just gotten off the plane and a blast of hot, humid air will hit you! You will be in an air conditioned van soon! Have no fear!

Time to get your phone, internet, metro and bus pass On one of your first days in Shenzhen you will head out an get your phone, internet, bus and metro pass. This may also be the day you get your picture taken--this picture will follow you for a while, try to look good even though you are walking around and sweating (glowing)!  This is all pretty painless, but you have to pay up front, so bring cash! When they ask if you want to pay for the extra days of August for your Internet- say yes! You will be very sad when they forget about you and you don’t have internet for a long while!!

What to expect- your new place! You will head to one of the numerous apartments in the area. This is mine! It is very close to the Seaworld area (no Shamu) and The Main. All apartments different greatly. They are based on number of people in your family.

Living Room Living rooms can vary greatly in both size and look! You should have a sofa, chair, dining table and likely WHITE walls. A TV is not a given- there are really only 2 English channels and they have lots of commercials- Computer is better! Love you Hulu and ABC.com!! The Artist Village can take care of the wall part- Ikea can take care of the rest. VPN is a must for these channels and Facebook!

Kitchen You can have a big open kitchen or a smaller “efficiency” kitchen! If you have an Ayi, you may never actually cook in your kitchen unless you really love to cook on Weekends. Some bigger places have ovens, but not many. Toaster ovens are okay- shop around and talk to people about what they like. You get a stove top- probably gas- and somewhat small sinks. Unless someone left if for you in the kitchen (or you bought it on the Commons or shipped it), you will be buying everything for your kitchen from Ikea. It is pretty cheap to outfit your kitchen, but it might be good to have a plan of what you really want before you go. Ikea can be a little overwhelming in the states- here it is a LOT overwhelming- you also have Walmart! 

Ayi Note on Ayi: You may want to take your Ayi with you to buy things that she will be using. It is much better to have her help you get what she needs. (Short, true story- My Ayi and I went to A-Best to get the rice cooker, iron and such and we had so much stuff, I didn’t know how to get it home. She arranged for the checkout person to follow us home down the road with a grocery cart filled to the brim with new items- It was sort of awesome!! You can get anything delivered here!! Groceries, plants, water, dinner- almost anything!)

Bedrooms Bedrooms Really vary in size! Some are really big and you can get a dresser, 180-200cm bed, and side table! Some you can get a bed! You will want to invest in the mattress pad. Ikea sells them and they come in many sizes and comfort levels. You will be required to buy your own sheets and such and return the ones loaned out back to the school. Side note: What you get when you first get here (sheets, pillows, towels are used every year for about 2 weeks, so they don’t replaced them each year. You will have your own items soon enough to replace them. Though… I wish I had taken a picture!! 180 cm 150 cm

Bathrooms On to the most important room in the house-the bathroom. Just like all other parts of your new home- these will vary in size. Depending on the size of your family you may have one, two or three. Showers are pretty standard, but bathtubs are not! There is really not that much to say- It’s a bathroom!

Final word on your new home! When you walk into you new home in China for the first time, you will be jet lagged, hungry, excited and all the other emotions that a big, new move can conjure up. It may not be as clean as you like or as big as you thought (better to imagine the smallest place you could be living in and be surprised- This is not House Hunters International), but it is all yours! You can start from that moment to make it exactly what you want it to be. Welcome to your new home and to China!!