Apartment Woes

Well Lara and I have finally moved. Our lease was up on our apartment so the school had us move to a new apartment complex. I understand that moving is a lot of work to make the new place livable, but this has been ridiculous.

Our first week back form Cambodia/Thailand we were shown the apartment, and we refused to move until it actually had appliances and furniture. A week later we came back to have a look and thank goodness we did.

1. We have our own water heaters that we needed translation, and despite the translation I still didn't have hot water in my shower for 3 days.
2. Both showers leak into the other compartments of our bathrooms. And if you accidentally use full water pressure in Lara's shower, the hose kinks up and the water shuts off.
3. The washer would finish the load and still be half full of water.
4. We asked for curtains, which conveniently fluttered with the draft as the CLOSED windows weren't sealed around the edges.
5. Still no microwave or toaster oven ... no ovens in these apartments for baking! :((((( That's a really sad face.
6. No fresh water dispenser. We've been filling up jugs at school and hauling them back on our bikes.

As we are only here for 4 more months, we aren't financially prepared to furnish a new apartment, as we're both going to be doing it again in 3 months! I know I complain a lot, but it was a difficult move mid school year.

Now that we have moved:
1. The school agreed to reimburse us for the bikes we had to buy, since they won't provide a school bus for us (we're a 20 minute walk away) there is no public bus, taxis are infrequent, and the driver they hired to take us didn't show up on the first day.
2. Our Foreign Affairs Officer had to call the security at our complex since they refused me entrance TWICE. I just wanted to know if I needed ID or something since they kept stopping me. Apparently the guards said no foreigners lived in the complex. Lara and I are the first. And even more apparently, they only care about redheaded laowai since Lara had no issues, only me.
3. After 2 weeks, I have finally been able to do laundry. The hose for draining was built to drain UP and out of the washer, which obviously defies gravity, so we switched it to flow DOWN and out.
4. I've caulked both the showers (thank you daddy for sending me some of that last year).
5. I finally have hot water in my shower, but you can't turn on ANY water in the apartment or I will get a frozen blast of water.
6. We finally got a toaster oven yesterday, and Lara baked scones this morning! But we still don't have a fresh water dispense. More stealing water from the school, yay!

Alrighty, so here is the video. Keep in mind, everything in China is made to look nice. But it's usually just a temporary fix. I do not exaggerate when I say that if Lara and I haven't fixed it, it's probably still broken, and we just haven't had the time.