Home in Guzhen

So I have heard from a lot of you already, and I'm sure you are all dying to see what my apartment looks like here in China. It's a really keeper let me tell ya! Also keep in mind when you see these pictures that they say, they are "brand new" and no ilp teachers have lived here before. Lets just say that up close it looks like 50 people have already lived here, and they forgot to clean up their messes, in other words they don't clean up all the construction mess. We live on top of business stores and they are still under construction so we get to hear hammering, sawing, and pounding ALLLLL day long. It's great. So I took some pictures of what my house for the next 3 months (thats right, I've been gone for a month!) Hopefully it gives you a pretty good idea of what it's really like here.

 This is our lovely kitchen area we have to work with. It is completely gross, but every day it looks better and better. (I think thats cause we are slowing forgetting what NICE looks like) We've started to buy more food to fill it up, and maybe one day we'll brave the rusty stove tops. That little tiny box to the left is the fridge. We do have a bigger one, but it is completely disgusting inside, and maybe another day, we'll brave cleaning it.

 I thought about cleaning up before I took this picture, but then I was like nope, you get to see it how it really is here. Our table is always covered in school stuff for teaching. Our chairs always have towels on them so that they can dry, well get some what dry. And in the back we have two microwaves stacked on top of each other that we keep food in (away from the bugs).
Next here is my room. Same as before, it's a little messy, but where do you find room to put three people's stuff in a room that has no storage?

We stole this desk from the family room since it didn't have anything on it, and brought it into our room so we can at least keep our stuff off of the floor. Best idea ever.

Here is the bed that Catelin and I share. Mine had a nice hole in it (I try not to think that it was infested with bugs and they had been rotting it, cause I slept on it for a couple of days) When it turned cold here, we decided that we would just share a bed, and get rid of mine and that would give us some more room.

 I couldn't forget to show you our lovely curtains.. One is purple and the other is yellow. And in the room next to us they have our mismatch curtains. We can't figure out why they did that!?
I know these pictures are what you have been waiting for...
THE BATHROOM!
Keep in mind that it's the bathroom, shower, and laundry room all in one.

  This gem is what we wash our clothes in. I love how it stretches all my clothes out so they don't fit me anymore...

And this is our dryer. I love how this stretches out my clothes even more and takes 10 days for one thing to feel somewhat dry.

This is our sink. It's pretty nice, looks normal.
But what is not normal at all is this........

  This hole in the ground is where we have to do our business. Try being relaxed enough to go on that thing... Yeah we hold it as long as possible.
(a little secret I can say now that I've used it for a month, I'm glad I don't have to sit on any disgusting toilet seats here, but will be so glad to see a toilet when I get home).

 Here is the shower. You have to hold the head, it gets annoying real fast when you need to use two hands to wash your hair, and then it gets cold. But it's good to feel clean still.
Well that's how exciting my life is here! Thankfully it gets a little bit better each day. It sure has made me grateful for the things I do have, and the things I took for granted. I know I'll be enjoying every little thing by the time I get home.
Stay tuned for some pictures of our recent vacation!