remmy goes to shanghai

avg. tem.: ~90 degrees, 1500% humidity (inside each apt. with no air on)

today’s accomplishment: signed a contract for an apt.

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so maybe it’s time for me to shed a little light on the world of apt. hunting in shanghai.  before i get to that let me just say that i have taken some pics that i want to upload and post, but at the moment my stuff is scattered between 4 suitcases and various boxes and i can’t find my camera cord.  so i’ll have to wait until i can actually unpack for real for me to be able to post pics.  but soon….

so anyway…yes, apt. hunting here in shanghai is cutthroat.  with 200 million people in 1 city (yes i said 200 million and that is not me exaggerating), there are lots of people looking for places to live….and there are plenty of real estate agents to help you out.  i think i explained previously about how the reale estate agents work and how they have to show you around.

what i haven’t told you about are the landlords.  so i was told that the chinese don’t really say “no” the way westerners do…or especially the way americans do.  there are a lot of nuances in the way they communicate with each other and much has to do with “saving face” etc.  i was told it’s in poor taste to ever back someone into a corner to make him/her have to say something that will make them look bad.  not like in the u.s. where we tend to call people out for beating around the bush.  here…it’s more about reading between the lines.

it’s hard to really understand how this will play out until you actually have such a conversation.  i finally came across a quite humorous case of this while apt. hunting.  we have been looking at apts. for several hours every day since i’ve been here.  most apts. are fully furnished and have had either 2 or 3 bedrooms (based on my price range).  so we go to one particularly nice compound (all apts. around here are sorta like gated communities…even the not so nice apts.)….so we go to this nicer one which i knew would be more expensive and when we get up to the apt. the landlord and several of his “colleagues” are waiting to show us the apt.  this particular landlord spoke some limited english so i was able to talk with him myself, which is why i was so enlightened by the conversation.

typically, you look around the apt. and then if it were decent enough to negotiate a bit then we would do so.  with most being furnished you are dealing with the taste of someone else and not just anyone…but people of a different culture.  so sometimes the apts. had very nice furnishings, but sometimes….well…they left something to be desired.  in this case, the furnishings were rather sparse.  and of the things that were there, there were several pieces of well….camping equipment.  well, i should say….it LOOKED like camping equipment….we weren’t sure until later.  as we walked through we mentioned things that maybe we would like to change….single bed to a double, was he leaving the desk?, could we change out the plastic table to a wooden one? that sort of thing.  there were also no dressers or wardrobes so we had asked for that too.  the landlord walked with us and was making a list of things we wanted to ask about.  then we went back in the living room to discuss options.  initially, he said yes to everything (as is typical)….then came what i can only describe as “chinese for laugh in your face no”! 

when we asked about an extra chair for the living room (there was only 1 love seat), he said i could choose from a catalog.  as he hands us the catalog we discover that this is the business he and his friends own (the light begins to turn on)….low and behold…it’s camping equipment!!! all in japanese…but camping equipment none-the-less.  and so i learn two things, 1.  apparently the japanese like to camp a lot and 2.  no wonder the table and chairs look like they were made for camping….they were!  but anyway, he smiles quite proudly at the selection he is offering.  then i ask about putting a double bed in the 2nd bedroom, which was empty at the time.  he again smiled and showed me the wonderful air mattresses that he was more than willing to provide.  again, you almost have to chuckle at the air of benevolence he had about him….i think he truly believed he was being quite gracious.  in any case, we just shook our heads to acknowledge the options and kept going.  but the best part came when we got to the wardrobes and dressers.  we asked that he provide some.  first he said yes.  then he came back a few minutes later and he said, “i hope you will be able to purchase this for yourself as you will be able to choose your favorite and i no be able to choose your favorite.  i hope you can pick the one you like.”

 huh?  i look at renee and kinda ask her….”does that mean no he won’t buy it?”  she smiles and shakes her head.  ahhhh…chinese for laugh in your face no.

then we mention that the bathroom window would need some inexpensive blinds and he says, “i hope you will like to choose your favorite blinds because i don’t know what a woman would like.  men don’t buy these accoutrements.”  lol…again with the chinese for no….but really….accoutrements?  if you don’t know…that’s the english word for accessories.  i’m thinking…how can this guy who speaks broken english at best know the word accoutrements?  i don’t think half my american friends would know that word!!!

ahhhh….the chinese.  in any case, we told him we’d think about it and went on to find a spacious 3 bedroom apt. with a landlord so nice he is actually taking me shopping with him this afternoon to choose the furniture i would prefer to furnish almost the whole place (i think we’re going to ikea!).  annnnd….it’s only costing me 5,000 rmb a month (about $650).  so it should be pretty sweet.  i’ll take some pics when i get moved in…hopefully sometime next week.

but i think i’m gonna keep in mind that chinese for no next time someone asks me for something i don’t wanna do.  they’ll be so busy trying to figure out what i said they won’t even know i said no. 

i hope you will like to do this job yourself as you know the best way that you would like to have it done and i don’t really know anything about such accoutrements!