Sweating with the Chinese.

It's hot. It is 95 degrees--feels like 109. Luckily, we're living in our temperature controlled apartment, which is a comfortable 71ish degrees. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is 155-Unhealthy. Ick.

Anwer trying to order-notice how funny it is to the guy in purple.

School orientation has been underway since Friday. It has been moderately paced and minimally overwhelming. There is a lot of information to take in, but I am feeling well taken care of by the fabulous team at my school from airport pickup to housing searching to today's medical check, things have been well organized and low stress.

We moved into our apartment on Saturday evening. It is so lovely. It definitely needs some love and character, but I am confident that I will never find a monkey in my kitchen eating bananas. Our apartment complex has 12 different buildings and every night there are LOADS of people out walking, kids on bicycles, people playing badminton, a couple dancing---it is like we're in a Chinese sitcom. 

Where do we actually live? Good question. 

Our complex is located about a 35 minute walk from my school in an area of Suzhou known as Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). It's very suburban like and expat friendly. The city of Suzhou has around 11 million people total, but it does not feel like that where I live. There are lots of restaurants, shops, and supermarkets within 20 minutes of my house. It's fairly spread out, traffic is calm, and the streets are very clean. The city is very green and is covered in canals. So far, I like it A LOT!

Home Sweet Home

Living Room

Grocery Shopping

Oh, hey smog!