New Beginnings...

Hello everybody, this is Devin. That's right, a guest entry this time! Life has kicked into full gear in the last month, now that we are settled in. In the last month, we have painted our apartment, remodeled a bathroom so that I (Devin) can fit in the shower. We bought furniture, registered at the police station and did our in-country physicals (for more on that, see here), moved in all our stuff, and finally after 8 months of marriage, we have settled into our very own home. (Insert fanfare here.)

Last week, language school began, and Lisa and I are back to class. English corners are back in full swing on Fridays. Lisa has begun doing more at Harvest. Life is very full, but very good, and as we start into a new semester, who knows what adventures await...

After so much anticipation, it has been a very fun month for us finally getting to set up a real home. If you were to stop by our house this afternoon, we would welcome you, give you a quick tour and invite you into our home. This got us to thinking that we could do the next best thing.......so the following is an attempt at a virtual guided tour. (If you would like to see for yourself, we would always love to have you visit!)









Here is the front of our building. We are on the first floor! Yay! That bottom window on the right is us (near all the bikes).

After entering the building our apartment is the first on the right.  Come on in!

On the right is our kitchen, which Lisa loves!  It is hard to find an open kitchen like this here, so it is great that we have so much counter space.  The dinning table and chairs came with the apartment. 

Our stove is off to the side.  This is typical here since people cook with such high heat and use a lot of oil so the stove is kept in a well ventilated area.

You can see our small oven. Since Chinese don't bake you have to buy a large toaster oven to bake in.  Lisa finds it challenging when baking multiple layer cakes but it gets the job done.  Also in the left corner is our drinking water.  We have to buy clean water, but it is great when you order water - all you have to do is call the company and tell them your name and they bring you another bottle!

Across from the kitchen is our living room.  We also liked how open everything is. 

Most of this furniture also came with the apart- ment.  We are in the process of having some couch covers made since the couches are a little old and stained. 

Off of the living room we have a rather large patio  which we are very excited about.  We purchased a small grill and are hoping to use it soon.

We even have our own trees!!! 

We can see our neighbors patio from ours.  Someday we may hang clothes outside too. 

Our bedroom has a view of the trees on the patio which is quite lovely.

Of course you can't forget the postcard wall... (and don't forget to send us some more :)

We have a second bedroom that serves as a guest room and office.

The desk was left by our landlord which is nice because it is big enough to both study and leave our stuff out on :)

Our bathroom, which we had to buy a new sink for and change the shower, now feels very open and large.  Our washing machine that is beginning to fall apart on the outside is still managing to get our clothes clean and has a great spin cycle that sends the machine bouncing around the room! 

This is the shower we reinstalled.  It is now so tall that it can't even fit it the picture :)












This last picture is a sign that was given to Lisa during a wedding shower some friends gave her here.  We hope that this will always be true of any home we live in.  Hope you enjoyed the tour!  You are welcome to our guest room anytime :)  

May our home always be too small to hold all of our friends