New Home

We moved over the weekend.  Easiest move of our lives; we just jumped buildings to the one right next door.  And it was made even easier considering we don’t have our shipment yet so we only had to contend with our 12 pieces of roller-luggage from our flight.  You know it’s a quick move when you can even take your ice cubes!

I’ll do the proper apartment tour once we have a chance to settle and there’s something to see beyond the current mess.  In the meantime, I thought I’d introduce our apartment complex, which hasn’t changed since we just moved within it.  There are 21 buildings in the gated complex, ranging from mid-rise to high-rises, and all sharing a parking garage (underground) and clubhouse (central).

Val's new hangout

The clubhouse is awesome, and frankly it’s the main reason we picked this complex as our choice of residences.  Fairly standard to any Shanghai clubhouse is the gym and indoor pool, but I think ours are especially beautiful, which will hopefully inspire us to use those facilities more often.

Matt's new hangout

 

Additionally, this clubhouse has a whole series of other services and rooms, including party spaces, a spa, a golf simulator, a “band practice” room, and the icing on the cake: a huge indoor gymnasium including basketball courts, volleyball/tennis, and a rock climbing wall!

Lamborghini, anyone?

Rumor is that Yao Ming retired into one of the penthouses on the fancier lake-facing side of the complex, so Matt’s dream is to play a game of pickup against him one day.  Another rumor is that Jackie Chan owns one of the duplex penthouses as well.  Regardless, we have some ridiculously wealthy neighbors, as is evident by their choice of vehicles.

Now that we've moved out of our extended-stay hotel and into a real apartment where we'll live for at least a year, I’m excited to organize and decorate with a sense of “permanence.”  Once we get our shipment of familiar things from the states, we can really complete the settling-in process.  For now, it’s just nice to enjoy living in this beautiful, friendly complex that is already beginning to feel like home.