Yesterday was a very busy day for us. First, we got a new sofa out of the blue from the school. Until yesterday, our living room furniture consisted of this oversized wooden bench-like thing with arms and two wooden "arm-chairs" besides being as soft and comfy as a park bench, the slats in the seat were a little warped, making it almost impossible to sit on certain parts of the couch. We had complained earlier, and received what were basically plush bathmats to place on the sofa and chairs. It was a surprisingly big improvement, but only because the starting base for comfort was so low. On sunday however, our boss told us to be home around 10 am because we were getting a new sofa delivered. The next day, some workman and the school owner showed up with the mother of all sofas. It's one of those sofas that wraps around the wall. It came in three parts and was basically was so big that it overlapped with our air-conditioning/heating unit by about 2 inches. (Quick aside. In China, air-conditioning heating units are called "kong tiao," which I just thought meant air-conditioner. This has led to some confusement on my part when people say to me, "oh, don't worry, it's quite warm, it does have air-conditioning after all.") They had to bring in an air-conditioner repairman to have the air conditioner moved over about half a foot. Though back to the sofa: it's a modernist sofa in cream and orange, with a variety of different size, shapes, and patterns of pillows, all variations on cream and orange. The seat of the sofa is orange, the back and sides are white. Maybe soon we will put a picture of it up on the internet. Like pretty much everything in China, it's extra firm, but it is quite comfortable none the less. Also, the back of the sofa has in certain places, orange head rests like those in cars and airplanes.
The other news is that our two roommates moved out after what has basically been a three month process. Our school has two apartments, one which is a 10-15 minute walk from the school, and ours, which is behind Qingdao university a total 25-30 minute walk/bus ride to the school. We are also on the side of a mountain, which makes for very nice views, but we are not all that close to many restaurants or stores. The biggest problem is not that we are objectively that far away, but that it's a 10-15 minute walk to the bus from our house, and it is all uphill on the way home. In return for having a somewhat inconvenient location, we get a washing machine, microwave, toaster, free internet access in the home, rides home at night, and apparently, a very nice new sofa. However, whether these are viewed as outweighing some of the inconveniences is somewhat of an individual thing (and one that I tend to vacillate on myself). Anyways, I'm not going to go into the whole drama, which does involve much more than the housing, but basically our roommates negotiated getting a new apartment in the other complex, and in return, Dan and I will, for the rest of our stay, have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment to ourselves (and of course, a new sofa, which the more cynical might view as a ploy to stop Dan and me from also requesting to move). Unfortunately, it appears that their apartment is a little too new, as it is still under construction. And apparently, besides beds, there is no furniture, the heat doesn't work yet, workmen are there all day long, it smells like strong paint fumes, and the kitchen isn't finished. Our apartment is now quite spacious, what with the new furniture arrangement and no roommates. While in many ways our roommates were good company, in some ways this move could not come sooner because we no longer had any space in our room to put our stuff and had to put it in piles around the room(surprise surprise). Dan says however, that more space does not give me the right to acquire enough stuff to fill it, so I will work on that. (Though I have to say, it is not completely my fault, for example, a student of mine (adult, of course) gave me 4 sweaters from her factory).