This week has undoubtedly been quite interesting,
what with finding an apartment while the edge of a typhoon passed over my city.
The wind got so strong that at one point I thought I was going to blow over.
Between the three of us who were out apartment hunting, we broke an umbrella.
Later, I found out that Phoebe and Sarah, the two Dipont ladies who have been
helping me settle in, were the only two guides with enough gumption to take me
out in a typhoon. Everyone else found an apartment the day after I did.
The upshot of this story is that I had the choice
between two great apartments, one rather far from school but close to some
shopping areas, the other only about five minutes’ walk from the building I
work in. The first was really beautiful, with two nice bedrooms, a corner desk,
and a pretty nice kitchen. The ceiling in the living room had a recessed area
with blue accent lights. I think the whole apartment was close to the size of
my mom’s house in Pasadena (excluding the master bedroom). While it was quite
nice, it was also far from school and way too big for my needs. I chose the
second great apartment.
My current apartment is on the 25th
floor of a building and overlooks the school I work at. I have two bedrooms, a
nice living area, a kitchen, and a balcony area where I can hang-dry my clothes.
The apartment needed a lot of work, but it’s about 2/3 done and I can live here
fairly comfortably for the moment. The place needed a thorough cleaning,
several lights fixed, a fan, and a water machine. Right now the landlord is in
the process of reupholstering my sofa and putting wallpaper in the bedrooms.
The last tenant left this place a complete wreck, complete with wall damage, a
serious cigarette smell in the bedroom, and gross sofa covers.
The morning I moved in, the typhoon had caused
some mild damage to the elevators and they had to be shut down. We ended up
leaving my heavy suitcases with the guards at the front of my neighborhood (I
basically live in a gated community), but I dragged my small carry-on (about
35-40 lbs) and my backpack up the stairs so I could safely store my valuables.
Let me tell you, I was so glad to see the 25th floor! 25 floors with
a suitcase is enough for anyone to get a workout, and all my neighbors got to
laugh at the silly laowai taking her
stuff up 25 floors just before they turned on the elevators again.
The most recent few days have been spent
unpacking and moving in, a process which has been halted by the wallpaper
people. We (me and either Phoebe or Sarah) have to be in the apartment during
the entire duration that we have workers present. It makes for some rather
long, boring days. At least I finally have internet. Sorry the pictures come last...I wasn't sure where to put some of them and I'm too sleepy to deal with formatting.
The lobby of my (5 star) hotel that I stayed in for two nights while going apartment hunting:
The view from my apartment at night. The empty black space is my school, which is not in session yet:
The bedroom renovations are underway. They just finished putting in wallpaper today but damaged my dresser/closet thing while they moved furniture around, so I can't actually put my stuff back in my closet yet...
My office/guest room. The window looks out on the rest of my community:
No comments:
Post a Comment