Then and Now

My niece Em recently read an article about the cramped living spaces in Hong Kong, a VERY large and heavily populated city. She then asked me about our apartments in Shanghai. Were they small? Were the buildings really close together? How high are they? Well, Shanghai is a city with more than 23 million people living here. That sounds insane, I know. However, this city is extremely spread out and doesn’t feel like there are that many people here (well, most of the time!). We live a little outside of downtown, so it is much less chaotic over here and we have a very large apartment. In our apartment we have 2 bedrooms, 1 office (that is big enough to be a bedroom), 2 full bathrooms, a living room and dining room all in one big open space and a tiny kitchen (with no oven and a small fridge!). But, all in all, it is plenty big, especially for just Travis and me.  This prompted me to think about how much our place has changed.

We moved into this big empty place on August 1, 2010 with four large suitcases and 2 small carry-ons. That’s it. I remember having multiple nervous breakdowns before we left and then a few more during our first week. We were given 2 pillows, 1 set of sheets and a few kitchen items from school to get us started. However, it was up to us to make it our home. Now here we are after living here for 3 years and it is definitely our home. I haven’t lived in one place for this long since high school!!! It definitely feels like it is ours, even though we only rent. So with that said, I wanted to share some pictures to show how different it is now. Here are some photos from when we first got here and some from a couple weeks ago when I took pictures after the Ayi cleaned! :)

 This is our apartment compound. Most of the buildings have around 17 floors. We live on the 8th in a building behind these.

 The entry in August 2010.

 The entry now. We got a new couch quickly because the old furniture was falling apart.

 Couch area, August 2010

Couch area now

 We had nothing on the walls! August 2010

We have added a few things!

 The old kitchen table. The lower glass was so low that you could not pull your chair in and sit at the table properly. We showed this to the landlord's friend and he cracked up! We got a new table after that!

 The empty shelves...

 New table with pictures on the wall.

 Shelves filled up!

 Another view of what it looks like now.

 The kitchen has not changed much. So here it is now. This is our tiny fridge that is actually bigger than some of our other friends' fridges.

 Look at all that space!

That is not an oven, it's useless. :(

 Empty shelves in the office.

 New office/workout room

 Shelves are pretty full now!

 Our bedroom when we first moved in.

These are the sheets the school gave us.

 What it looks like now.

 Now

My empty bathroom when we first got here.

Now it is prettier!

 Travis' bathroom at the beginning of the year (we use to both use it).

Not much different now. :)

 The extra bedroom with nothing!

Now it loves to have guests!

I think it's a crazy change! Now the question is "should we stay or should we go now. If we stay it will be trouble, if we go it will be double..." Hopefully you were singing the 80s song as you read that! :) But seriously, in the next two days we have to decide if we will stay in our apartment or move to a smaller one downtown...decisions, decisions.

xoxo

Christy and Trav

Terima Kasih Bali!!!

We just got home from our spring break, 2013. This makes the seventh place we have been to this school year. This also makes us realize what a fabulous life we live! It has been a LONG, STRESSFUL few months and we really, really, really, really needed this trip. I had high hopes for it, and for the most part it was as wonderful as I imagined!

It began with a difficult China Eastern flight. It had been a while since we flew this airline...and now I know why. First, we were delayed an hour and our gate was in terminal 1, which sucks and it was on the lower floor and smelled so badly of smoke that we couldn't wait down there!!! Then it was a 5 1/2 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur on the hottest plane EVER! Even I was hot, so you can imagine how Travis was feeling. It could have been worse though. We began in the row of seats in front of the emergency exit and the seats didn't recline. I quickly complained and got us moved. Our new neighbor, who thought he had an entire row of three seats to himself, was not as excited when we moved. We made it to KL and had an 8 hour layover...sigh. No worries though, we slept quite well in the terminal. This was a great airport to be stuck in! The next flight to Denpassar, Bali was also delayed. The flight was quick, cooler and they had great food. It was our first flight with Malaysian Airlines and we thought it was nice.

A Taxi driver to us to our hotel in Ubud and we were ready to start our vacation! The hotel was nice enough, seemed to be in a good location and had a friendly staff. We quickly headed out of the hotel for dinner and to do some exploring.

 Travis posing at the restaurant we ate at on the first night in Ubud.

 My delicious fruity drink!

 Loved this sign at a bar we went to. It reminded me of a few friends!

The live band we listened to. It was a great first night!

I woke up the next morning REALLY sick. I must have gotten food poisoning. :( I couldn't move from the bed for the entire day. I woke up on our third day feeling better, but still not great. We never did get to explore Ubud properly because I was so weak and couldn't eat much while we were there. We only had 2 full days, so we missed out. Next time we go to Bali we will stay more in the jungle and explore Ubud a little better.

Our friend Gusti, who we met the first time we went to Bali because the Watt family is very good friends with him, picked us up on Wednesday and took us to see some terraced rice fields and a temple on the ocean. Both were beautiful sights and it was SO good to see Gusti again!

 The rice fields

 This snake was at the entrance of the temple on the ocean- Tanah lot. Travis FREAKED out!

 Tanah lot

Around Tanah lot- it was gorgeous!

The next stop was our All Inclusive hotel in Nusa Dua, Melia Benoa. It was perfect! All you can eat and drink and it had an amazing pool and the beach was perfect! We loved every minute of being there and seriously contemplated not leaving! ;)

 View from our room

 our room

 This is what we looked at all day!!!

 I loved the colors of all the boats, the ocean, the sky, trees and sand! Beautiful!

 Fire dancers during a dinner on the beach

 The beach we sat at each day.

The pool with swim up bar!

 The temple on the hotel grounds.

The lagoon on the grounds.

It was just an amazing time! We loved the hotel and everything that went along with it. I would absolutely do it all again! The ocean was so clean and warm. It was perfect for swimming. The pool was also very refreshing and swim up bar was an added bonus! The food we had was great and the people were wonderful too!

Here are a few more pictures from the last day we were in Nusa Dua. Gusti drove us to the main part of time to see it again. Bali is such a special place and has so much to offer! Driving through the country side, talking to the people, eating the amazing food, seeing the temples, enjoying the warm weather and gorgeous beaches...it is a magical place! If you haven't gone, you MUST! After two times, I still want to go again and I know that I will!

Side note- I didn't know what to expect the first time we went to Bali and I think I missed a lot of the culture because of it. This time I really fell in love with everything about the island. Bali soothes the soul and warms the heart. ;)  I can't wait to go back again!

Nusa Dua 

Locals cooling off from the heat (it felt like 100 degrees F each day!).

This was a cool Pirate themed bar and restaurant on the beach. 

Tree house at the Pirate restaurant.

"Water Blows" at Nusa Dua- seriously what the sign says!

Gorgeous waves crashing! This is why it is called "Water Blows."

The next time we get on a plane it will be to go back home to Michigan! I am so excited, I can hardly wait! We leave Shanghai on Saturday June 16 and arrive in Detroit on June 17 in the morning! Thanks for reading the post. I hope the pictures make you want to go to Bali or bring back memories to those who have gone!

Love, 

T & C