A home of our own

I wrote the following almost two weeks ago, but just realized it never got posted to the blog.

Well, maybe. Saturday afternoon we moved here to the Java Paragon. It's two tall towers-one is a hotel and one is apartments. It's really spacious and way more than we need ( or want to pay), but there is very little else that is decent. It was the only place we saw that has any kind of a kitchen and, as most of you know, I like to cook. That said, the kitchen is very basic. It has a sink with cold running water, four burners, a very small refrigerator and a good amount of counter space. At first the entire set of equipment was 3 cups, 3 plates, and 3 sets of flatware, and an electric teakettle. After explaining that I really intend to cook, they came up with a set of Teflon lined pans, a microwave, and some cooking utensils. Fortunately there are two supermarkets within walking distance so we rounded things out with a few purchases of our own. I am trying to buy cheap stuff as it just has to last a year, but that may prove to be foolish.
There are two bedrooms and an office, living and dining areas and three baths! High ceilings make it feel even bigger. I didn't want to live my time here in a bubble, and this is somewhat of a bubble, but we are the only Americans here and a third of the units are longterm rentals to the consulate of China whose building is next door, so I guess it's at least an Asian bubble. And when I walk to the supermarkets, I am definitely not in the bubble.
We have taken this for a month's trial as it is quite far to Toms university and he wants to see how long and costly the commute is. He will take a taxi as we would never think of driving here. They drive on the left and traffic is nuts. Two other fulbrighters have hired a car and driver for about $800 per month. That buys a lot of taxi rides, so maybe Tom can make good use of his time. If the commutes become too burdensome, we can start looking again.
There are a few other wrinkles. Even though we are renting by the month, we have been advised that the unit is rented for Nov 4 and we will have to move out and go to the hotel part. I told them ok, but that I am going to have a lot of stuff that will have to be packed and stored somewhere. That is still under negotiation. Also we were very anxious to unpack our stuff, having lived out of suitcases for a month, but they said a nicer unit (same layout) will be available in a day or two if we want to move, so I am holding off getting too settled here. One thing going for us is that the GM is an American and I think he will make things as good as possible for us here.