Red Banners and Jazz Singers, A Day at the Lake

Our house (read: giant apartment building) is right next to a lake. I have to admit that I only learned of that fact after buying a map of Nanjing, something that was on the top of my to do list ever since arriving in Nanjing. So we get the map, figure out where our house is and notice a giant blue spot on the map in what looked like walking distance. The weather was nice and the schedule opportune to undertake an outing to said lake. Thus, on a sunny saturday afternoon, we, together with friends Jonathan, Robin and Peter Nelson, went on our way to Xuanwu lake.

As I said, the map made it look like we could throw stones into the lake from our apartment, so we walked. And as with other typical map misunderstandings, the journey took a little bit longer. But it was fairly close nonetheless, and we had soon arrived at the rather large and impressive gates of bespoke Xuanwu lake. 

The lake was very nice. It was easy to see that this was a popular spot for saturday family outings, as the whole area was full of families with plenty of Chinese kids! Lotus flowers and plants lined the shore of the lake. Certain areas of the lake park had red ribbons hanging from tree branches, giving these areas a certain ceremonial and traditional Chinese feeling. We found out that these red banners were wishes of luck and prosperity for the future or wishes of health for family members and friends. The banners themselves had a printed Chinese phrase of general good fortune, a basic fortune template, and people had written their own wishes with marker on them before hanging them in the branches. It was an impressive sight!

It was a great outing. Before returning home to our dreary inner city apartments, we sat and talked for a while in a shaded area in the lake park. Nearby, underneath a pavilion, two older gentlemen were listening to a certain Jazz piece over and over again, one of them singing along with the saxophone. Before we walked out of the majestic park doors, we enjoyed an ice cream cone from the McDonalds booth that can be found at any destination of interest in China. A great ending to a very pleasant afternoon in sunny and smoggy Nanjing!

Apartment Hunting

One of the first things that we needed to accomplish was to find a new home. So, we started the hunt. It wasn't as easy as we thought. 

The lady that owned this apartment attempted to use the self-made hanging beads as a selling point. :)

After looking at several places we thought we had finally found our new home. We were planning to sign a contract the following afternoon. However, when we woke up the next morning it just didn't seem right anymore. This might have been because we remembered that our "dream" apartment was rather filthy and run down. So, the hunt continued. 

One of our friends was signing a contract and the realtor that had helped them find their home had a few more possible places for us to check out. 

Option 1

Option 2

We decided that these new options were far better then the apartment we were previously going to sign. The apartment was the right price and it was exactly what we needed. Option number 2 it is!
So Daniel worked his magic and talked to the landlord and realtor and signed the contract. Right then and there. 

"Does this come with room service?"

The building in which we live has 54 floors and lots of elevators, although the 13 people limit on the elevators seems to be viewed as a "minimum 13 people" recommendation. We live on the 20th floor. There are several other couples from flagship that live in the same building. It's a lot of fun to have so many friends close together. 

Leaving the States

We're off! Utah to California and then off to China. We left Bakersfield at 3am and went to LAX airport. We were surprised to find the longest check in line we've ever seen.  

We enjoyed our flight from LA to Seattle and then for the long stretch Seattle to Shanghai. 

Before arriving in China we decided to prepare ourselves for Chinese food by having a Chinese dinner. It was decent for plane food, but not comparable to the real Chinese food here in China.

   

We arrived in Shanghai and spent the night at the Walter's. They were kind enough to pick us up from the airport and treat us to some dinner. We were exhausted after such a long flight.

The next stop was to the train station to travel to Nanjing. 

The train was nice. Daniel did a great job buying tickets and navigating our way around the train station. 

We arrived in Nanjing and noticed that here in China they like to build very large and spacious buildings. The train station was not any different. 

We navigated our way around and found that we managed to avoid the fake taxis and found the long line for real taxis. When we got in the taxi the driver put all our belongings in the car, but the trunk didn't exactly shut. The entire time we drove to Amy and Jonny's apartment we were worried our luggage would fall out and be strewn along the road. 

Once we arrived we were greeted by Amy and Jonny. Where we were able to stay until we found our new home here in China.