Upon arriving in Bangkok again, I called my friend Samuli. He was in Thailand on his honeymoon and we had several times just missed meeting up...always a "so close, but so far away" time...but he would soon be coming to the airport...and so we arranged to meet within the airport. Samuli was an exchange student at UMAC and about 8 years had passed since we had seen each other...and I was super stoked to meet his wife Maarit. It was a great little catch up session before they had to head back to frosty Finland.
We decided to take a different guesthouse this time...one that had breakfast included and a private bathroom...in order to get everything set in motion to figure out what we would be doing here in Thailand. Wendy Guesthouse was just down the street from LubD and they had longer term rate "deals"...so we took advantage of that...and it was nice to have breakfast included...
...it was a lot of the same, Scott doing classes and finishing up his experimental short film through correspondence and the search for jobs and homes was the newest task we threw on our plate. I started off looking at places right near our guest house. It was quite funny because every time I went to one the security guard met me with "this is not a hotel" to which I would respond "yes, I know...I have a few questions for the front desk on getting a room for a year" to which most of the guards would resign, give me a visitor's badge and just watch me walk towards the front door because I'm pretty sure they had no idea what I said...
I took notes on the apartments and brought Scott with me to see the best ones...and we made an appointment to meet the owner of one unit, but when we had the meeting--the negotiating game was going. Poy had come with us...and we told Scott our concerns with the unit and planned strategy and Scott executed it--good team work. Unless we got the unit for less than asking price because of all the work that had to go into it, we would be getting another place. Well, I made appointments galore to see places...the infinity pools were definitely tempting, but the rooms in many of them were just awkward and I couldn't see myself living in them. Then, we managed to see a load of apartments in one condo complex called: Lumpini Place near the Pharam 9 MRT (10 minute walk to the metro) and across from the hospital...
Well, let it be known we fell in love with the complex...it was open and airy. The rooms in Buildings A and B were just 6 months old and C was just completed. We saw many of the rooms and we finally settled on one. We just needed the water heater for the bathroom to be installed and we signed for it. It could have been that the amazing pool was the signing point....and the fitness room wasn't bad either, or the sauna...
There are atms on the ground floor as well as a 7-11, laundry facility that does dry cleaning and ironing (or all the laundry if we become that lazy or pressed for time), a little eatery, and there is an MRT shuttle...
Since signing, we have been cleaning and trying to organize our place (with our Debit Cards frozen--should anyone want/need advice or want to hear which banking institutions you should/shouldn't use while traveling internationally--or just want a very comedic rant...do let me know...) and get all the paperwork done for internet, our cards for the pool/fitness room and prepare for work. It has been fun starting to decorate and organize the place...and find what exactly we packed when we were in San Francisco...over a month ago.
For now, we have two security/elevator key cards but only one set of keys for the apartment...so coordinating is important for the ability to get in and out of the place. Scott is out now, and hopefully he is making another set of apartment keys while out on errands...but we will see what he brings back!
Last weekend we did hit Chatujak (JJ) Market to scope out what crazy things we could use in our house and help Poy figure out what to bring with her on her trip. We went late in the day so we mainly saw the end of the market and the police walking around and some of the vendors running...those that didn't have the appropriate stalls set up and such...it still is quite an amazing alert system...
So I envision much of our time now will simply be putting together the house and organizing our work things and I officially start work on Monday, so I have been prepping as best I can. I can't even remember how long it has been since I had a 9-5, five days a week...with weekends off job...its very different. I may take on some part time teaching, but we will have to see what goes on.
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