It's okay except for. . .

Yesterday (Saturday) I went apartment hunting with my friend Victoria who speaks and reads Mandarin fluently. She did a metric ton of work for me looking for places and organizing the best way to see as many places as possible and coming with me and translating all day.
It was roughly 35 degrees all day which is about 95 degrees fahrenheit.
The first place we saw was a two bedroom place with only one air conditioner in one bedroom. It was also only a 5 minute walk to the school I'm going to be working at. It also had a tiny seriously beat up kitchen that didn't look like the grease had been cleaned out of it for a good 5 years. Overall it wasn't bad except for the lack of ac which the landlady said she would discuss providing one with her husband. She was also insistent that she had a lot of people looking at the place and it was obvious there wasn't going to be a lot of room for negotiation with her.
Moving on.
The next place was a rooftop addition of a six floor walk-up. On the upside if I lived there I would probably lose weight from all the stair climbing. It says in the add that it's only a one minute walk from the MRT station. We of course got lost right away and it took us a good ten minutes to find the place. The lady meeting us said she was about to give up on us and leave. Just to reiterate: it's really easy to get so lost in Taipei you end up in a completely different section of the city. The apartment is big and has a nice open floor plan. It actually has lots of potential. It's also completely unfurnished and moving any furniture up six floors it going to suck royally. I like it though. There's still more to see so we move on.
The next one is big and generally just disappointing so I'll move on. We headed up the street to the next and it's really good. It's small, but it has a refrigerator, washing machineand a rock hard bed, which I would replace. Cable is included (so I could watch TV again, not that I really need that extra distraction in my day). Then there's the bathroom. There is a small tub that was installed. It looks like they dropped in place from a great height and then spackled over all the cracks and that was it. It looks awful. Plus there is an electric 12 gallon water tank hanging over the front of it. Basically this means I would be able to take a five minute shower with actual hot water and then have to suffer through ten minutes of cold water until it got hot again. In the summer this would not be a big deal because the water starts out warm to hot anyway, but in the winter it would be awful. I deal with this now in my current place and don't wish to deal with it again.
Next.
The next place is huge. It was a bit scary, because it's above a bunch of shops on a main street. To get to the stairwell you have to open what is basically a really narrow garage door. You get upstairs though and it's a very traditional Chinese house design. The hallway is wood with sliding doors that have paper in them or frosted glass. The apartment itself is fabulously ugly. I'm just sorry I didn't take pictures. I was having trouble taking it all in. the front room had one wall that was paneled in some dark stained wood. The opposite wall had an Egyptian mural on it. Two of the windows facing the street and outside balcony had Escher-esque etchings. The dividing wall had three decorative arches cut into the wood with random hill side pictures set in them. You walk through to the next room and you're in the bedroom which has a Victorian feel to it. Big built in closets and bed stand. The wall facing the bed has an enormous glass etching again, but it's set away from a cut in the wall so the area behind it looks kind of like an aquarium. I'm fairly certain it had a backlight.
It's all still kind of fabulous and I could have a lot of fun with this place I think. Then we got to the kitchen, which you oddly have to go through the bedroom to get to. The kitchen itself is tiny and disgusting. There is also a door in the kitchen which apparently leads to another persons apartment or room. Well that's creepy and weird. Plus there is no refrigerator. No furniture at all actually.
Still this place is so bizarre I like it. Maybe we could get them to fix up the kitchen a bit. I'll keep it in mind.
Next.
Actually the next place was just a dump and not worth mentioning.
We then headed to Danshui and had lunch at Eddy's Cantina which is a great Mexican place. The guy who owns the place has family from Mexico and he has authentic recpies. The food has been great every time I've been there.
We then hop in a cab and got to the next place which turns out to be farther away then she thought. This is good though. Farther south from Danshui for me means closer to work.
We pull up to a brand new high rise that's still under construction. I should clarify. They are putting the finishing touches on the apartments and many are already rented or sold and being lived in. We step into the office and are helped out by a young guy. He of course speaks little English so Victoria goes to work. After a few minutes of questions we are taken to the buildings and step into an elevator that is still being used to haul construction materials and is rough walled and smells strongly of urine. Oh dear.
I'm shown the first apartment which is 16 pings. They measure buildings here in ping. According to the info I've found one ping is about 35.5 square feet. So this apartment is a loft, it has a good size living room with a little kithenette and the bedroom up on the second leve. It's beautiful and has large windows that have a view of the ocean. Oh my. There is no cook top in the kitchen though. I would have to buy a hot plate. Gah. I don't understand the Chinese mentality of not having a proper kitchen in a brand new apartment.
Next he shows me another apartment which is the same size with a slightly different layout.
Then he takes me to the 19 ping apartment. This one has a mountain view, ugly wallpaper and a beautiful kitchen with two gas burners. I want this one please. It's completely unfurnished and has no appliances aside from the stove (no oven, just stove).
I'm going back today to sign a lease and I will see if I can take pictures to show you. If not I will have to take them when I get back and actually move in.
Oh the building also has a gym, a spa and a 25 meter swimming pool that all tenents have access too. These are also having the final touches being put on them, but will hopefully be open once I get back.
Oh my, I'm so very excited right now.