I think I like it here!

I am so excited! We got such a fabulous apartment in the French Concession! It is on a beautiful, tree lined street, right at the top of a very hip street, with lots of cool hang outs, nice resturants, shopping....The house is one floor up from the street and it is in "The most famous apartments in Shanghai" with a beautiful green art-deco frontage. It was built in the 1920's and the landlord has maintained the elegance and beauty! This was the 2nd place we looked at and we were almost immediately sold! It has all wood floors, the main rooms have wood paneling up to waist high, and the ceiling has a simple, but nice molding alond the edges. You walk in to a big foyer (I'm laughing because it's bigger than my old bedroom!) and to the right there is the living room, which is long and 2 of the walls are just windows. Then there is a large bedroom that I'm designing, and yes, we have a large futon available for guests. I suspect we'll put the desk in there too (It came nicely furnished). The froom the front day if you walk forward a little to the right you come into the biggest bedroom I've ever seen in my life! (I'm laughing again because you could fit my whole NYC apartment inside the bedroom!) I have no idea what we'll do with all that space in there! You couldn't even put a tv across from the bed on the other wall because you wouldn't be able to see it! The long wall is all windows and we have a big balcony that overlooks the street. There is a bathroom attached to the bedroom, with a tub and everything (a rare thing here)....And the storage space is unbelievable! 2 large closets in the foyer, and the bedroom has a huge built in wardrobe! So then right of the front door is the spacious kitchen, with a water tank, microwave, fridge/freezer. It's funny, the counters are all a little low for us (not built for us)! Off of that is the dinning area. Then to the right of the kitchen, there is a washer and dryer and the wall there is all windows and there is another bathroom that has the sink inside the shower! It is a gated complex, and it is very cheap for all that it has. A real bargain too because we looked at some other places that cost the same and they weren't nearly as good! So YEA!!! We move into tomorrow!
So then the question came up....how do we get the first, last and desposit money here when all the money is in the USA!? What a nightmare that turned out to be! Well, in the end I got citibank to raise my maximum withdrawl (NY banks closed on the weekend and starting Monday, all of China takes a week off!) It was a little stressful, but I'm real proud of myself for coming up with a solution! So after I got that settled yesterday we went to celebrate with a real brunch! Eggs benedict never tasted so good! So last night we met up with Todd and Nathan at this club. They had some good djs spinning hiphop (Apparently one of the only official hiphop parties in the city). Then, 2 Chinese guys and one Japanese guy all got up and rapped! It was unbelievable! I think they were really good too! It was so strange and briliant at the same time! I bought one of the guys cds and will put one on my myspace page. It was a really great vibe there too, and we danced and had a blast! Then we went to Logo, which is my new favorite spot! We found it on Friday when it was reggae night, and last night was just as cool. Very laid back and private feeling, with great music, and cool people. Yesterday was the best day I've had since I got here! Made some new friends and am feeling very confident about things.
New Address:
Room3, No.1, Lane 1360,
Fuxing Zhong Lu
Shanghai, China 200031

House Phone nUmber:
021-6437-0555

Our Cell number (I'll get mine worked out soon, but this one works for both Norm and I):
137-6118-5830