User Comments - chanelle77
chanelle77
Posted on: Smelly Cheese
July 27, 2010 at 7:07 AM嗯， 最喜欢的是：Old Amsterdam, 可惜在南京买不下。
en, zuì xǐhuān de shì: Old Amsterdam, kěxī zài nánjīng mǎi bù xià.
Posted on: Smelly Cheese
July 27, 2010 at 6:58 AMDo not get me started on Cheese :-) 刷卡 is my first Chinese word, 卡门贝, my second :-)
Posted on: John and John Talk Cheese
July 26, 2010 at 9:20 AMFor the hard Dutch cheeses temp is not such a big problem when sealed or bought in a wheel. I think that humidity is cheese's biggest enemy, not heat :-).
Posted on: John and John Talk Cheese
July 26, 2010 at 8:48 AMJust speaking for myself, but one is: paying way too much for a piece of Brie or Gouda! And flying back from Holland with 10 kg of cheese and make every visitor do the same *wink wink*. I am blessed with a German bakery within 5 min walking distance who sells 5 types of cheese: could be worse :-)
Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent
July 21, 2010 at 10:36 PMHi evasiege,
Please note that my husband's company arranged everything. This is one of the reason that they charge such ridiculous fees. They know multinationals have the budget etc..Also, I was new to the whole expat thing so I did not know what was normal :-).
So now I would say, arrange it with your landlord yourself, (especially if you speak Chinese), because it will safe him / her money as well. And in case there is something with the house communication is easier without the middle man if you ask me! The landlord also pays a monthly fee for these "services"!
Good luck.
Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent
July 19, 2010 at 10:23 PMNope, ongoing fee, paid her 1500 a month :-) . So we stopped with that asap.
Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent
July 19, 2010 at 5:39 AMIf the agent represents the landlord why on earth did we pay them 1500 RMB a month I ask myself? :-).
Thank you for sharing you r experience!
Actually our landlady (works for government) is not the most easy going one, but we gained mutual respect for another over time (me speaking Chinese helped a LOT) I rather deal with one difficult person than 2 hahaha! So things work out now in their own funny way. I stopped caring for the mold in the house and basically anything that falls apart. So I do not have to deal with the workers anymore. I do not hassle her, she does not hassle us, and I could care less about property devaluation as it is not mine :-)
Furnishings: sensitive issue, we did not want the horrendous furniture and brought our own. Changing the cold water washing machine to warm nearly ended the contract, but she gave in.
One more funny story and I will shut up: we had satellite tv but did not work properly, (illegal construction I guess) she paid lot of money but the tv guys sort of ripped her off and ran away. She had licence plate of the tv guys and had them pulled over at the highway and somehow made them fix our cable. Only in China I tell you!!! So that was quite nice of her!
Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent
July 18, 2010 at 7:35 AMVery bad experience. Paid too much too. After 2.5 years still makes me mad hahaha!
General advise for anyone who will be dealing with these agents: DIY ASAP! !!!!First of all they show you the crappy houses they want to get rid off. Never tell them your budget or take a few thousand off. Never trust their agent, they are NOT on your side although they want you to believe that. Also try to negotiate everything with your landlord or lady yourself and get rid of the agency as soon as possible. After dealing with a load of crap when just arriving in China, we decided to do everything ourselves (in Chinese yes!). Saves you money and a lot of hassle. We had Fullhome, and after reading an article in Shanghai mag few months later about laobans lifestyle / company we were very pleased that not one more kuai is spend on this @#$%@&* hahaha! :-P.
Posted on: Whatever...
July 12, 2010 at 10:00 AMMost welcome! Happy I could be of any help :-)
Posted on: Smelly Cheese
July 27, 2010 at 9:19 AMHi John, The German Bakery here uses phonetic translations or descriptive for example 巴尔马干酪 if I'm not mistaken.
Regarding the complements of 买 my Nanda teacher told me besides, the one you mention you also have 买不下 and 买不上。 I remembered it like, the latter you do not have the money to buy and the first you are unable to buy? I might have mixed up those two, need to check that...