We have to get at least one air-conditioner to equip our home with this summer.
For my seven past summers in Beijing, and actually all my more than 30 past summers, I either didn’t lived in an air-conditioned home, or when I live in one, I seldom used air-conditioners. I don’t like big electricity bills or the air blown from long-serving air-conditioners that smells of old dust particles.
But, this summer is different. My family now live in a home we can call our own. My wife and I bought it last year literally right before we could no longer afford it. For your information, the price of our apartment in southern suburban Beijing has sky-rocketed by around 85% since we bought it last June.
The year of 2008, a much anticipated, shiny year, is just less than one month away though I still cannot count the remaining days on my fingers and toes. Soon, it will be the routine New Year resolution poking its head out of its hole.
For the Chinese who are interested in those big-picture things, at least two things are what they’ve been holding their breath for. One is the Olympics games and the other is the political spin-off of Taiwan’s elections.
People like me have been expecting much from and doing much for the big event.
Looking for a job in Beijing
To come here was a tough decision. I doubted my decision of giving up my long accustomed life back home. I was awed by the uncertainties of future in Beijing and the disbeliefs of my competence racked me. Nonetheless, I came here on November 10, 2002.
Life here could be real tough. Without enough money to pay for things I need, I would have to live with a poorer standard of living than at home, for example, sharing with my roommate a cold room in a one-story house without an indoor toilet in the winter.
