It has been a week since I dragged the first of my (plentiful) suitcases into Unit 36G Beijing Fortune Plaza, 3rd Ring Road, Beijing 1000020 P.R.C. Yes, my friends, this is my new address (though I recommend you ask me for the Chinese translation should you want to send postcards!) and will perhaps be so for the next couple of years.
So after many hours of labor, cleaning, furniture/knick-knack shopping and xx,xxxx.xx RMB poorer, I feel that I am "settled" -- evidence of which is today I cooked my first Pinoy meal in my apartment.
It was a simple dinner of pork steak (recipe of course courtesy of Mareng Jennet) and fool-proof rice thanks to my boss' rice cooker, but now I feel that this place is home to me. I love my new apartment and somehow it relieves some of my homesickness because it somehow gives me a sense of security. Now I have a sanctuary in Beijing and it makes the prospect of my 2-year expatriation less scary and more exciting.
I will post my before and after pictures (amazing transformation, you would have thought the fab 5 came over) pretty soon but for now I gotta enjoy my new place. I'm gonna kick back, relax and have some well-deserved Baskin Robbins Perils of Praline to celebrate the start of life in Beijing! :)
