Paradise Found

After much consideration from having stayed with M a few days, we decided that we would try to rent our own place, for much needed privacy, as well as feeling more at ease for everyone. It was getting somewhat frustrating as M and our world is quite different, and it would hard to mesh it all together.

So we braved heading out for our search on our own, which I must say, is so much more work when in another language from a place one is not familiar with. We start off with some internet research, which is harder because not all places advertise the way we do in the West. Then I try to write down the simplified Chinese words for the address or name, then look it up in the Chinese dictionary to see what the traditional characters are, so that I can recognize them, in order to pronounce it. You see, I learned Chinese in it's traditional form and speaking while in Taiwan and in Vancouver. But in China, most mainly use simplified and speak a form or variation of the traditional/classic Mandarin language. It's like us Canadians learning english from a Scot or Aussie or even Welsh. It's got a different tone, way of sayings, and accents. It's all a bit confusing. At any rate, we managed to find a few ads and places, and decided on going to see one place, the Huafa New Town development. This place caught our eye last time we were here, well, from the road that is, and with it being the only one with a website that had a 'foreign sales office', it really made our decision a little easier. haha.

So with my out of practice Chinese writing abilities, I managed to get us to the main sales center, but not the 'foreign sales office' :P However, we lucked out, as Ken Fong the foreign sales manager was actually at the main office!! He had a pretty good grip on English and we were very impressed; no wonder he is the manager. He took us to see a few available apartments for rent, which first we had to get there by golf cart, as they were all located at phase 3, and we were at phase 1, which was quite a bit of a walk.

We were immediately impressed by the first apartment (which is the apartment we choose in the end), a 2 bedroom on the 11th floor. Then we were equally impressed by #2, which was a 3 bdrm on the 22nd floor, with somewhat better decor, which cost only $15o cdn more than the 2 bdrm. We saw a few more less costly ones, but in the end the first one won out, the second one was a close choice, but those of you who know J, he has issues with vertigo, and that one was just too high up, even I felt it a bit.



So after we decided, Ken called the property's owner/manager, to arrange for a meeting time to sign documents and exchange payments/keys. We met up the next morning, and to our luck, it was an older couple who also spoke English, that were managing their son's apartment, as the son was in California, and the couple lived closer, just in Macau. The couple are professors at Macau University, and the gentleman teaches computer graphics, so he and J hit it off immediately. Amazingly the process was fairly simple, reading over the contract in mostly English, then receiving bank account info as to where to deposit payments, going over the appliance and furniture check list, and voila, we were done! (okay there was also passport photocopying and running back and forth to bank to withdraw enough money for two months deposit and first months rent, as well as 1/2 month commission fee to the agent, etc...)

It sure feels surreal to have our own place to stay, which is only a couple years old, AND never lived in! We were to break in the new place :) Not bad for a new start in a new country I'd say.