New Home

On Friday, we got the keys to our apartment, which was an amazing feeling after the long wait. We are super happy with our choice for so many reasons. When we chose this apartment, there was a lot of construction taking place around it, and we were told the plan was to create shopping, proposed to be complete by January. However, we thought there is no way it would be done soon because everything was a mess and in the beginning stages. When we got the keys, the shopping mall was open! It is beautiful and has a great supermarket with lots of western food and prepared food, similar to Whole Foods or Food Source. The mall even has an ice rink. It was so exciting to know we had this awesome place virtually in the basement of our building. I am so happy!

Our building is one of several apartment towers all surrounding a subway station. The station is underground, as is the shopping mall. Above ground, there is lots of greenery, plants, and a fountain. In the final stages are some restaurants and bars, two of which are already open. The whole area is called West Kowloon and is all reclaimed land, meaning it was only water a few years ago.

Even though we are above the subway station, it is for a line that we won't use as frequently as the red line. We can walk to the Jordan station (red line) in less than 20 minutes. Jordan is a cool area, because it is local, Chinese style. It will be fun exploring the small restaurants and shops along Jordan road. It is nice that we will be close to both cheap, local stuff, as well as, high-end, western style things.

On Saturday, we received our shipment of stuff from the US. We were happy to find our things in good condition, since they have been waiting in some black hole for the past few weeks. Two Chinese movers unloaded our stuff, one of whom was very jolly. When the jolly guy entered our apartment, he gasped at the view and said, "This is my dream!" He raved about the apartment the whole time he was there and asked to unpack our stuff so he could stay longer, saying, "I could stay here for 50 years." It really emphasized how genuinely lucky we are to have this experience and this wonderful apartment, one that we could never afford on our own, at least not at this moment.

Our first night in the apartment will be Oct. 13. I will post pictures once everything is together, but it will be awhile considering our TV stand won't be ready until Nov. 20, since it is being custom made.