Moving to China on a Whim!: One Week Until the Move

On Wednesday we found out that our new landlord broke the agreement we had and gave what we thought was our new apartment to his friend. Sneaky bastard! Thank god Adam was still in Rui’an so he was able to go look at another one in the same complex. Well it turns out the new one is even better because it’s on the 3rd floor and has heat lamps in the shower. So it was a blessing in disguise! But the landlord is still a sneaky bastard.

We bought dinner for a bunch of people last night as a farewell. We invited the heads of all the departments and the people we worked most closely with. There were 13 of us, and we booked a really nice room:

Ms. Zhen from HR ordered the food for us ahead of time. We gave her a few suggestions and let her do the rest. She ordered 31 dishes, three bottles of baijiu, 11 bottles of beer, and tea for everyone. The bill came to 2,305 RMB ($365). This was actually less than we expected because normally the men drink a lot more baijiu but I think they were being conservative for our sake. But while I’m grateful for that, it could have been even less expensive if Ms. Zhen hadn’t ordered shark fin soup. Shark fin soup! That alone was 588 RMB. If I was spending someone else’s money, I would ask before ordering a totally unnecessary and expensive soup. And it tasted just like chicken soup, too, so I’m a little miffed about that. But it’s ok.

I finally took down the New Year’s sign we had on our door. Smudgie had a good time ripping it up.

Original sign