Home Away From Home (*P*S*C* #25)

Welcome to our home away from home during the second part of our stay in Guangzhou! We were moved to this on-campus Foreign Experts building after being in a nearby hotel that was closing due to renovations (much needed). Truly, it felt like we were living in a movie set from one of the old movies with all the palm trees, ceiling fans, cawing birds and tropical humidity. We walked in and out of this gate many times a day. Once through the gate, you can see what our building looked like. There were about 20 dwelling units here with most occupied by visiting teachers from other countries on a long-term assignment. Our next door neighbors were from Japan, across the hall was a man from Germany. Rupert lived downstairs; he was from London. On the east side, we met a fellow American who had lived in the building with his wife and family for the past seven years. We so enjoyed being able to converse in English with these neighbors. We even were invited for dinner one night at the homey apartment of Mark and his wife, Lina.

Here you see the lobby of our building. Charming Chinese girls sat desk and greeted us daily with "Ni Hao" and smiles.

No elevators for residents in this building. We walked these stairs to our third floor apartment daily - and were grateful not to be on the fourth floor. Here we were also greeted by visiting wildlife of the eight-legged variety.

Two balconies were attached to our living quarters - imagine waking up to this view every morning! Add sound effects of exotic cawing birds and you get the whole picture!

Though the cupboards remained bare of dishes and groceries, we did have a kitchen with a refrigerator. We purchased four bowls and two spoons and this was adequate for our needs.

See that box on the upper left corner? It was our true gift in the apartment: air conditioning. The temps were in the 80s and 90s with very high humidity and we so appreciated the coolness provided by this box - and the ceiling fan overhead. The couches, however, were not so comfy.

The apartment had two bedrooms. We were a little relieved to find out that the mosquito nets weren't needed, but just in case they could provide bug protection.

The second balcony had a washing machine and sink. Notice no dryer? This means the clothes were hung out to dry on overhead pipes...which we did take advantage of one time.

I have been asked where exactly Guangzhou is located within China, so I found a map to post here. Guangzhou is in the province of Guangdong and can be found in the lower southwest corner of China. You can see that this is the tropical area of China. Hong Kong is a two hour train trip from here and Taiwan is that island to the right of Guangzhou.

How very very far we felt from our home when we were in China. But, this little apartment was a good place for us to settle in while we were in Guangzhou...and we rather miss it these days.

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