For me, one of the most difficult things about relocating to another city or another country, is finding a place to live. I think a “home” is important in many aspects, and especially if you work in a job that is stressful and demanding, you want a place where you can retreat into from the craziness that is around you, an oasis of some sort. There are several things that I care about when looking for a place to live. One, I want a place with a view, especially in big cities with lots of skyscrapers, since I find tranquility by looking into the city lights or the vast emptiness beyond all the buildings. Second, I want to be in a central location, a place that will allow me to go to work quickly, but also a place that offers convenience in terms of daily living. I find one of the most stressful thing about working is the time it takes to get to work. When I used to live around Columbia University and had to work at midtown, it will often take me about 40 minutes to get to work. That is too long. By the time that I get to work, I am often exhausted and tired already, especially during the summer when the weather is hot and humid and the trains are crowded and smelly. By contrast, in the last year, I lived about 15 minutes walk to work. I was able to go to work on my own schedule, no need to worry about waiting for the train, and I know exactly how long it will take me to get there. Another thing that is important to me in terms of housing is the apartment itself should have modern fixtures and are new. Many of the apartments in Hong Kong are old, sort of remind me of our house in Taiwan. It is fine and many of the things are in fixtures are in good working order, but I wouldn’t be comfortable in them as I would think the fixture are old and thus are dirty (even though that is often not the case). Lastly, an all important criteria for me is that the place needs to be very bright from natural sunlight.
Unfortunately, I was not able to meet the four criteria that I had laid out. I found a place that is newly renovated (the fridge is not even broken in yet) and in a good location (20 minutes walk to work, 5 minutes cab, and close to lots of restaurants and supermarkets). However, the place is located on a low floor, therefore, there are no views. I look into other buildings, even though there are no buildings that are immediately next to me, and there are actually quite big gaps to the next building, but still, it does not offer sea view, nor does it offer view of the mountain and the city nightlife. It does, however, from certain angles, offer a view of the IFC Tower, the tallest building in Hong Kong. At night, the IFC Tower looks much better with the bright lights, and is kind of pleasant. The apartment is sunny enough, offer lots of light during the day, even though it is on a low floor. The bathroom is very modern, but one big drawback is that it has no soaking tub, but only a very modernly renovated shower with a directly overhead showerhead (forgot what those are called). I don’t take bath all the often, but it is always a nice option to have, especially if you want to relax. I think I only took bath twice in my apartment in New York in the last year, but hey, at least when I wanted to, I can. I guess that is not a big lost, but again, it is just not perfect.
Oh well, at least I found a place now to settle down, but then, that just means another challenge has arise. I now need to furnish my apartment. Not only that, even after I furnished my apartment, I will need to wait until my shipment of stuff from New York gets here near the end of July, and then I have to unpack and organize everything, which will probably take 2 FULL days or so. Moving sucks. I will post some picture of my new apartment once I get a chance to furnish it.
