Home Away From Home

Wednesday this week involved driving from apartment complex to apartment complex looking at rooms and talking prices. Myself and two other teachers from training, Michael and Meredith, have all been assigned to the same school and were interested in living in the same building. Well, none of us were pleased with what we were seeing. The apartments were all studios, basically no different than living in a hotel room with refrigerator or TV or couch for the next five months. So we asked our placement coordinator and Thai translator, Pak, to have our taxi driver take us into neighborhoods in search of houses for rent. This proved more difficult and after some driving through unappealing neighborhoods, an industrial sector, and then out along the middle of nowhere boonies for a while, we had all but given up. The day was late and we had been in a cab for five hours. We discussed staying at a hotel for a bit and continuing our search later in the month with the help of our fellow Thai teachers we’d be meeting next week. We asked (through translation) to have the cab take us through one last neighborhood near the bus stop, closer to town central, before we would go back to our hotel in Bangkok for the evening. Amazingly, that was just the last stop we needed to make. The cab driver spotted a for sale sign and we pulled over. The owner arrived shortly after we called, and the front gate was unlocked—yes this place has its own, locking front gate. We unlocked the front door and entered. The place looked great! The house is absolutely beautiful. Marble floors throughout in beautiful Thai patterns. A mahogany wooden staircase to the second floor. 3 bedrooms, living room, full kitchen (no appliances), two full bathrooms, and two extra rooms for good measure. Michael and I were sold, instantly. Meredith, the more level headed one, noticed some areas that were a bit dirty and reminded us to calm our excitement to be sure that the landlord cleaned from top to bottom before we jumped head first into the pool. So we talked all the necessary arrangements and agreements. Done deal. Perhaps best of all, the monthly rent ends up being slightly lower than our allotted housing stipend from our school, which means more money in my savings accountJThe tiny apartments we looked into would have been more expensive than the allotted stipend! So we found a great deal. Slight drawback, the house is not furnished, whatsoever. Well, besides one desk, which will be nice. Our arrangements were made to move in Friday.

Friday: we take a cab from Bangkok to Samut Sakon and to our new home. Our landlady is very, very nice but her English is virtually non-existent. Her name is Duang pon. She is a teacher and her husband is a police officer. She had some locals from our village at the house hard at work cleaning. One of them, named Num, owns a stationery shop up the road from us and has a decent command of the English language. We spoke to him and he’s going to help us find a used fridge for cheap. After signing our contract, the landlady takes us to Big C’s, which is the large shopping center/food court/grocery store/cinema and home good store. For about only $300 total, we picked up our floor mattresses (don’t have enough for a full bed just yet!), bedding, pillows, cleaning supplies, TP, speaker system for music, some cooking supplies and a coffee pot, three fans to keep us cool at night, and some cookies. We made out like bandits in proportion to how much we spent! The cab ride back home was quite comical, stuffing the trunk full of fan boxes and grocery bags, the back seat with folded floor mattresses, our trash can in Michael’s lap on the middle, and Meredith literally sitting on the floor of the car with me on the back seat. The cab driver thought we were pretty silly! But we made it home!

First night in the new home was a rough one; despite the neighborhood being significantly quieter than our hotel in Bangkok, which was above bars that played music until 2am, the reality of the situation spoke loudly to my mind. Knowing that it’s just me and two roommates in a new city, miles away from the big capital, thousands away from home, was a bit daunting. I survived, and I know that with each day my sleep will become deeper, better, and more long-lasting. But I will always miss home and family and friends!

Day two in the new home got off to a good start. I cut up some watermelon from the local market for breakfast for the roommates and I. We wandered out and about for a bit to explore nearby shops, then had some traditional Thai food for lunch. Our land lady came by in the afternoon and led us in a Thai Buddhist blessing of the house—this is done whenever someone moves into a new place. She took us into the town central to show us more good stores and where to catch the buses into Bangkok for weekend activities. She also showed us the route to our school and the bus stop to get there; we wanted to make sure we know how to get to work! Turns out our little village neighborhood is about two miles down the main street of town from the school! It should be a ten minute bike ride is all. I went back to Bangkok for the evening to stay in a guest house, shower up in the morning, and head to the airport for Vietnam with sister Melanie and her fiancé Ivan tomorrow!