Moving out and moving in.

Kelly and I are now pretty much set up in our apartment. It took about two weeks to find a place and get through all the paperwork and bureaucracy (I should note that Kelly did all the work here... my mandarin skills at this stage amount to little more than saying "I can't speak mandarin, do you speak English?") We now have a spacious two bedroom apartment on the 5th floor of an apartment block a little south of Fudan University. It is a nice place located in a good location for Kelly to get to Uni. We are the only Anglo foreigners for blocks it would seem, as it appears we are quiet a novelty to the neighbours. They are all quite friendly, a guy called Jia came out of his apartment and helped me fix a fuse this morning after we blew it the night before by having a total of 4 heaters (and television, computer and kettle) running at once (did I mention it got to -10 degrees earlier this week?)

We have spent the last few days buying housewares, I have been finding it kind of fun as it kind of seems like a real life version of The Sims. We also have broadband Internet access which is good, although I am mightily frustrated that I cannot access Wikipedia. Damn you great firewall of china!
The broadband setup was amazingly swift and efficient. We called China Telecom in the afternoon and they said someone would come round between 9-10AM the next day. The man arrived at 8:55AM and we were on the net by 9AM. Can you imagine Telstra coming close to that? Before you jump to any positive conclusions about the efficiency of the Communist bureaucracy, Kelly has spent the better part of a week going from office to office getting various pieces of paper stamped and authorised so she can obtain a residents permit. Every time she thinks she has achieved one dot point on her list of things to do, it seems to branch into another 10 or so forms and stamps and appointments.

To the right is the statue greeting those who enter the main gate to Fudan University. I haven't seen too many Mao statues or memorabilia around here, I think the modernisation drive of the last 20 years has tried to put him and the cultural revolution in the past. I am told the official party line is that yes, Mao did have his faults, however he was still 70% good and only 30% bad. Far be it for me to judge the guy (especially as Internet communications are monitored, and there is a Public Security Bureau building pretty much next to our apartment block.)