The place I live...

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."
-Maya Angelou

So I have tried, and tried in vain, to get the awesome video tour of this apartment that I made to upload. So a brief, but detailed, picture tour will have to suffice:

Picture yourself opening a large brown door on the third floor of an apartment building at the edge of campus...

Stepping into the apartment one is greeted by a short hallway with a tiny room on either side. To the left is a kitchen. Don't despair friends, it is totally adequate. I have a stove (used frequently to boil water), an oven-esque thing, a microwave, and a fridge/freezer. There's even room for a little sink and some shelves of random cooking utensils. You may not believe this, but I've made some fairly edible pizza in there before.


To the right of the hallway is the bathroom. This is the most exciting part of the apartment because it is least like anything back home. Whatever you do, don't lean on that sink... I think it's attached to the wall by hope. The shower is fantastic because I can get hot water basically any time I want, and I want it. The squatty... well I haven't fallen in or made any messes yet and the cool thing is that you have to turn the flush on and off. Essentially meaning that you can flush all you want, you could let that flush run for hours if you wanted (or needed?). I really enjoy that.


Then there's the living room. If you look carefully you can see the lamp that I bought at the "Kmart" which I still am very proud of. You can also see the Tibetan style furniture, once you get over the strange choice of fabric patterns it's really comfortable. You might also notice the TV in the corner... I have no idea why I have it, honestly the only thing it could possibly be used for until I buy some Chinese DVD's is to watch Chinese soaps, and trust me, you don't want to do that. The clothes washer also resides in this room, it's exciting because you have to move it into the bathroom and fill it with water yourself to get it to work. What you don't see is what I will hereby refer to as "the scary red bike" the chain of which came off as I was riding it through the city. We fixed it, but I'm going to buy a new one and let daredevils borrow that bad boy.


Moving on... to the bedroom area. This is my favorite part of the apartment, honestly. I love looking out the window because the view is really nice, you can see the Potala Palace (at night it's all lit up), and there is so much entertainment on the street outside. If you're lucky you may chance to see a heard of cows, a motorcycle parade, a dust storm, random people peeing, or all of the above. The desk area is nice too, I have some pictures of family and friends up and the bed is really comfortable. Wait, what is that you say? That bed looks suspiciously like the "couch" in the living room? Well that's because it's the same piece of furniture, multi-tasking people!


Yes, yes, the walls are still kinda bare (couldn't find any posters at the "Kmart") but at the end of the semester I'm inheriting a few house plants so I'm looking forward to that. I actually really like it here and have no complaints at all about the situation... except for that funny lingering smell that I can't seem to capture on camera... it's that smell that keeps the incense vendors in business, forget all the merit making piety...

Y'all should come visit (I'm as serious as I can be with the travel restrictions)... my couch/bed contraption is up for grabs! :)