你好! So, after writing a distressed post last week about the mice invasion, things went from bad to worse. Within a couple of days of even knowing they were around they were all over the place. We couldn’t even sleep because they were coming into our bedroom every couple of minutes. Too much. After a completely sleepless Sunday night Kevin and I decided to check into a hostel for awhile. We both needed some sleep and I wanted to get out of there until we had a chance to fix the problem. We then came back to the apartment and deep cleaned, threw away/stored all food, sealed holes with steel wool, and laid traps. We came back several times to check before I agreed to move back home, but found no damage or droppings, and caught zero mice (slightly disappointing but I guess good). I would be lying if I said I wasn’t still scared one is going to sneak up on me (nor do I like being at home alone anymore- I don’t know why I’m so damn terrified of such little creatures) but it’s good enough for now I suppose. So, this week I’ll write about our time at Mr. Panda hostel.

I called my dad crying when I saw 3 mice in the course of an hour. He put this hideous picture of me sobbing on Facebook. Cruel. But now that it’s out there.. let me tell you how I really feel about mice.

It definitely is strange to pay to stay down the street from the place you already have, especially for people as anal about saving money as we usually are. However, we decided to make the best of it, call it a “staycation,” and enjoy being guests at someone else’s establishment. The prices weren’t too bad either; we got a double room that had it’s own bathroom for 140 RMB/night (~$22). This was only after we were told the dorms were completely full. They were a steal at 40-50 RMB/night. Our room was nice and comfy though, and later when we probably could have had dorms we decided to stay put. Luckily, I once again ended up covering shifts at work last week and thus made back the money I spent insisting we stay in the hostel. It was very worth it for me.

Besides enjoying a big, comfy bed, and not having to worry about mice, we also got to enjoy the location. We picked a hostel right next to Kevin’s work, near Luomashi, so we switched commutes for a week. He walked about 6 minutes to get to work and I took about a 20 minute bus ride. Not bad at all. Although the hostel is a little north to be considered downtown, I think, it’s located right near the subway and so we took advantage of being able to get around easily for the week. If we stay in Chengdu for another year I think I would like to move to that area. Close to both of our jobs but more central than where we currently are.

It was nice to take advantage of the restaurant, ie being able to roll out of bed and have some one cook you food and clean up after it, but the food was pretty mediocre. They did have western breakfasts, but the Chinese food was nothing too special. We enjoyed the convenience, though!

Mr. Panda is pretty new which was nice, but I think they are still working out some of the kinks in running a hostel. There were a few annoyances which made our staycation more stressful than relaxing at times. They seem to have trouble with booking, and the front desk people remained “too busy” for us to re-book our room at pretty much anytime (despite there being no other customers around), which resulted in them booking our room from under us and making us move around. There were several miscommunications and annoyances, but I won’t go into them because overall we enjoyed our stay. I will say the hostel itself is nice, new, and comfy. The staff could use some work, but it might all be a part of being new.

Now we’re back home and settled, and no evidence of mice yet, although I’m still jumpy and freak out and bang things around when I hear any noise (bet my neighbors love me!). Our weeks are consistently busy these days, so I won’t even bother writing that anymore. The Euro Cup has actually been really fun, surprisingly from Chengdu, because people seem to actually care about the games and bars put up big projectors to show them, sometimes even outside! So we have been staying up late, but having a lot of fun. Kevin is loving it. Next week is Dragon Boat Festival, so we might go away! I will post as soon as I have any idea what we will do.