Jailhouse Rock

The learning curve remains exceptionally steep. On Saturday I signed a lease for an apartment to live in. I had been staying in a dorm but wanted something a bit more settled. This experience nearly landed me in jail today. Yep. Jail. It seems that it's Chinese law that you need to register your apartment within 24 hours of signing a lease. If not, jail. I escaped this fate on a technicality. The true owner of the apartment is the mother-in-law of the lady who used to live there. It was the lady who lived there that signed the lease however, thus rendering the lease invalid and me still free. Yikes.

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. I don't think they would have thrown me in a cell for a small misunderstanding like this but apparently they could have. The rest of the experience was also very different than renting an apartment in Canada...for example I had to pay the full years rent up front. That hurt. And bills work differently, it's backwards from Canada. In Canada the power company keeps tabs on you as an individual and has a file on you and sends you a bill every month. Here, it's up to the individual to keep track of the power company. They don't care who lives in the apartment, just that the amount owing is paid every month. Otherwise the power gets shut off. It's a good example of the old adage "there's more than one way to skin a cat". Which, come to think of it, is a really disgusting adage. Hmmmm.