Apartments

So, Michael and I have had a pretty hard time trying to find housing here in Beijing that wasn't:
A. crappy and rundown
B. perfect but expensive
C. completely out of the area or
D. dirty (and I mean filthy dirty!)

Luckily, we found something that suits our needs. It is not exactly what we were hoping for, but we knew we had to compromise is some areas to get what we wanted in others. So, here is a description of our living arrangements. We share a 2-bedroom apartment with another couple. She is from Spain and speaks English, Spanish and Chinese. He is from China and speaks Chinese and Spanish. Michael, luckily, speaks Spanish so he can communicate with both of them, but since I don't speak Chinese or Spanish I can't even communicate with the boyfriend with anything other than hand signals... Anyway, we have our own room which is made up of some 1o-year-old Ikea furniture and has an air-conditioner!! HALLELUYAH!! We share the bathroom and kitchen and living room. They are nice, but unfortunately not the cleanest people in the world, which means I don't think I am going to be using the kitchen much... Anyway it is close to Mike's work, it's right next to the subway and really close to a market. All in all, it is a good apartment for 2 months. I sure miss sleeping on a super-soft American made mattress. The ones here are sooooo hard. At least we have some really soft pillows. :)