Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A Foodie's Paradise

In the week and a half that we've been here, we've had so many opportunities to try new and different foods. Everything that we've eaten so far has been so delicious. We've eaten street food a few times, and it's always lived up to our expectations.

The food here is usually super cheap, unless you are looking for a more western product or special item, such as organic. Cheese and wine can be very expensive. I was looking for them online and the cheeses I saw ranged from $30 to over $100 for a block. A friend told us that when he tried to make lasagne himself last year, all the ingredients totaled about $50. That is one expensive lasagne.

Otherwise, we've been able to have good-sized meals for $5 or less. The first time we ate street food, we bought two baggies of steamed rice, three cobs of corn, a dish of pork with pickled vegetables, and a dish of chicken with various vegetables, all for about $3. And everything was sooo good, flavorful, and fresh. It's almost cheaper to go out to eat than cook ourselves, and with the markets and restaurants being so close to our house, makes it way too easy to go out every night for dinner, so we haven't had much incentive so far to go grocery shopping.

Anyway, here are some pics for your viewing pleasure:

Dragon fruit.
 
Inside of a dragon fruit. It is very mild, with just enough sweetness to be refreshing. The texture is a mix between a pear and a kiwi.

Street food stands.

Villa Market, where many western products can be found. We found organic eggs here for $2!

Soy milk with basil seeds on the left. It's kind of like bubble tea, but there's no taste of basil. On the right is a yogurt drink that I've had as a little girl and in the U.S.
A friend took us to this place for lunch one day. The owner of the place, Mr. Ploy (phonetic) is super nice and friendly. When he saw my son and our friend's daughters, he immediately came out to play with them. We had fried rice, cashew chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and sweet and sour chicken, all delicious.
Love the little bottle.

The market where you can get all kinds of produce, where I've been dying to go. Notice the temple (wat) in the distance. Imagine grocery shopping with that as your backdrop? There's also a floating market near the temple, which we intend to explore in the very near future.
Fresh eggs of all colors, even pink! (Not sure what that's about)

Produce galore.
Not sure what these are, but their tops are similar to those on eggplants.
Bitter melon.
Bamboo.
Fruits.

Not sure what these are called, but I've had it as a girl. Maybe similar to a pear?

Rambutan. The one in the upper right corner is durian. Have heard that it has a smell to it....
Longan (dragon eye fruit), papayas, and dragon fruit.
Another food stand.
Freshly baked bread from the Italian restaurant for $2.
So, for veggies, we bought long string beans, something that looked like bok choy, and something that looked like Spinach for less than $2 total. For fruits, we bought a bunch of dragon eyes, a bunch of bananas, and an unidentified fruit that the vendor let us try for $3 total.

Of course, there are chains here too, like McDonald's and Pizza Hut. And all these places, as well as the big grocery stores, deliver. So convenient. Yesterday, I got on the website of one of the bigger grocery stores here, called Testco Lotus, and made a huge order of groceries to be delivered today. It took me a long time to get through everything. Even though the website was supposed to be in English, the names and descriptions of each product were still in Thai! To see them in English, I had to click on each individual product. And some products had pages and pages! Pretty tedious. I got many things that we took for granted in the U.S., but hard to find here: peanut butter, mozarella cheese, spaghetti, Philadelphia cream cheese (!). Also got a bunch of Thai stuff. I'm ready to delve into the world of Thai cooking!! Wish me luck!





Monday, July 29, 2013

Afternoon from Hell

So after he got home from his first day of work this afternoon, my husband announced that the three of us were going to a scooter shop immediately to rent a scooter. After that, things went steadily downhill. After almost five harrowing hours, we are finally home - hungry and tired - and my son is in bed (albeit way past his bed time and with an empty stomach).

Prior to this past weekend, we hadn't been considering getting a scooter. After experiencing the crazy traffic, we decided we weren't ready for a scooter. Instead, on Saturday, we went to a Costco-like place and bought a bicycle for each of us (we took the little one home with us, but the two big ones are being delivered tomorrow). Then, on Sunday, a friend dropped by with a three-wheel scooter for us to try out. After talking and thinking about it, we decided that my husband would get a two-wheel scooter to make it easier and faster to go grocery shopping and school with our son in the mornings.

Well, I didn't think that was going to happen for at least a few more days because we were getting our bikes soon and had been fine relying on taxis this past week. So when my husband made that announcement so suddenly this afternoon, I was skeptical. What was the urgency? Also, it was already past 4 p.m., and he was told it would be a 20-minute drive to the scooter shop (which, to me, meant at least 45 minutes since it was rush hour). But he insisted because he got hooked up with this particular scooter shop through a teacher at school (husband of the high-school assistant principal) and could get a good deal on a rental.

The arrangement was for my husband to call the scooter guy once we were in a taxi so scooter guy could tell the taxi driver how to get to his shop. So we called a taxi and the guy started driving us while talking with scooter guy. After a while, scooter guy asked for my husband to get back on the phone. Why? Well, because he had to tell him that the taxi driver was refusing to take us and that we had try to get another taxi. Should've known right then and there that nothing good would follow. But the taxi driver hailed another driver who agreed to take us, so off we went.

On the way there, I reminded Husband that it was already almost 5:30 and that we hadn't had dinner. He thought we could rent the scooter, have dinner somewhere, and then get a taxi to go home. I told him I thought that was risky. We may have more drivers refuse to take us home since we already had one driver who refused to take us there, and it wasn't even dark yet! I figured that by the time we were to leave the shop, it would be dark (the sun sets fairly early here, for some reason - usually by 7 p.m., it's pretty dark out), making it less appealing for a long ride out of town.

The ride was very long. What was supposedly a 20-minute ride took about an hour and 180 baht (approximately $6, which is pretty pricey for a taxi ride here; we usually spend $3-$4 on a 15-20 minute ride). We went through many interesting-looking areas (wish I had brought my camera), was bumper to bumper in traffic most of the time, and ended up somewhere we've never been or seen before, far away from home. It all felt very remote and strange (not that where we live now doesn't still feel a little strange to us). The "scooter shop" turned out to be a restaurant run by an Australian guy and his Thai wife who also sell/rent scooters on the side (they also rent out three rooms above the restaurant, as well as own a bakery down the street, but that's another story).

The wife showed my husband the scooters they had, he tried one on for size, and then we did the paperwork and set a time for delivery (9 p.m. tonight, to be exact!!). The entire thing took about 20 minutes, tops. Meanwhile, our poor little guy was tired and hungry. I thought about just having dinner at scooter guy's restaurant, but by this time, the sun had set, and dark, thick clouds were rolling in, so I was desperate to get home.

We stood in front of the "scooter shop"/restaurant for a few minutes, but no taxi was to be found, so we walked to the main street that intersected the side street we were on. After 10 minutes or so, we finally got a taxi. But the minute we told him where we needed to go, he shook his head and took off. The second taxi driver that stopped didn't even roll down his window, and just took off after stopping for a second. A few more taxis that were empty drove by without even stopping. 20 minutes passed. I thought I was going to start crying, but I didn't want to scare our son, so I held it together.

Finally, another taxi stopped. My husband told him where we needed to go. He hesitated, then shook his head. My husband asked him if he would at least go halfway, we pleaded and begged, and the guy seemed to waver. My husband then turned to me and said, "I'm going to offer him 200 baht for the ride if he agrees." Which isn't even that much, if you think about it, since our ride there was already almost 200 baht. I shook my head no, saying that if we started bargaining, he would sense our desperation. I continued to plead and beg, and I really thought the guy was about to agree to take us. Then my husband opened his mouth and offered him the 200 baht. That was the end of everything. The guy immediately shook his head and doubled the price, and my husband started to negotiate with him some more. I finally stopped him because the driver could see how desperate we were and was not going to budge. And as desperate as I was, I wasn't going to get taken advantage of and pay such an unreasonable amount. Stupid, maybe, but I still had my principles if nothing else.

After the driver took off, I made us go back to scooter guy to see if he could help. He seemed to know everyone and everything there. The minute we told him our problem, he walked out of his restaurant to the middle of the street, without even looking, stopped all traffic, got a cab to stop, said something to the driver, and got us a taxi home. I was so grateful I could've kissed him, but we were in the middle of the street and cars were honking at us. It wasn't a good time.

Then, as if all this wasn't enough, on the way home, around 8 p.m., scooter guy called and said the scooter had been delivered (it was agreed that it would be delivered to the entrance of our development, and my husband would have to pick it up there himself), an hour early!! It had been left with the guards at the gate of the entrance. Great, I thought. With our luck, it would be stolen by the time we got to it, and we would've gone through a nightmarish afternoon and paid a chunk of change for nothing.

Luckily, everything turned out fine in the end, and the scooter is picked up and safe and sound here. All I have to say is that this had better be one hell of a scooter that can fly us places or something because no vehicle is worth what we went through this afternoon!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Stories, Advice, and Tidbits

Having been here for almost a week now, we have experienced a few interesting things and heard many, many stories so far that I thought I'd share.

***
Ever since we arrived, we've been trying to get a cell phone, but something always comes up to keep us from getting a cell phone. Thursday morning, we finally had a chunk of time before we were to move out of our hotel at 11:00 a.m., so we decided to get a phone. There is a mall (called The Mall...very original, I know) within walking distance of the hotel that apparently has everything in it, and everyone had already been there, so we decided to go there to get our phones. We were advised  to take the shortcut and that we would see the shortcut because there is a sign that says "Mall."

So we get a simple map from the hotel front desk and are on our way. We walk, walk, and walk, past a stinky canal, over a bridge with very steep stairs, broken and narrow sidewalks, and brave the traffic, but see no sign for The Mall. Finally, my husband stops and asks a Thai woman in his broken Thai. There is a lot of gesturing for a few minutes. Finally, she probably decides we are too dumb to find it and proceeds to walk us at least half a mile to The Mall and only leaves us when we are right in front of it. Luckily, we know how to say "thank you" in Thai, which we do profusely.

By this time, it is 9:45 in the morning (we started out around 9:00), but we notice that the entrance to The Mall is still locked (with a padlock, no less). My husband thinks it will open at 10, at which point he thinks we can just go in and quickly get a cheap phone, then return to the hotel to pack and move. By 10:10, I'm thinking the mall won't open until at least 10:30. We find a person who can speak English, and he confirms that it's open at 10:30. So we leave without having gotten a phone. 

On the way back, we find the shortcut. It takes us only about 10-15 minutes of walking, but it requires taking our lives into our own hands. We walk on a ramp with traffic coming behind us, no sidewalk, and a six-year-old who is still confused about which way to look when crossing the street back in the U.S., let alone here. There are motorcycles zipping by us. I'm sure we were on the ramp for only a few minutes, but it feels like an eternity. I've never prayed so much in my life. The dirty sidewalk of the very busy main street never looked so good when we finally get there.

***

When we first arrived, we were advised to get on the house hunting thing because we would have lots of competition due to all the other teachers arriving and also looking for housing, so we decided on Tuesday, our second day here, to do exactly that. It was apparently the first day of the rainy season, according to my friend Amy in the States (I had no clue, not having watched television or read the newspapers in over a month). 
When we initially went out with the realtor in the afternoon, it was fine, but by the time we were looking at our third house, it was POURING. By the time we were to return to the hotel, there were several inches of water on the streets (up side to this - everyone drove considerably slower and stopped weaving in and out of traffic!). Our realtor drove us to a taxi station, which is basically a roadside stand that has covering, hoping to have one of the drivers get us back to the hotel. They all refused to even budge from their chairs. The realtor had to drive us around for several minutes around many blocks until she found a taxi driver that was willing to work in the rain.

Of course, it hasn't rained since then, now that we know how to time our outings to prevent the same situation from happening again. Overall, the weather here has been pretty pleasant. It hasn't been very hot at all, and the humidity has been tolerable. I'd dare say that, in the five days we've been here, I've sweated less than any day in D.C. in the week before we left. And while it's been overcast every day, it hasn't felt gloomy or dark. When the sun actually came out yesterday (Friday), it almost felt too bright!

***

Speaking of taxis, they are everywhere here. There are the traditional taxis, taxis that look similar to tuk tuks, and water taxis. A teacher told us that she was advised to be sure to keep her mouth closed if she ever takes a water taxi because of the typhoid. My husband calls them "typhoid taxis."

***

There are three animals here that, should you ever be bitten by any of them, require an immediate trip to the hospital and treatment for rabies. The three animals are bats, monkeys, and soi (meaning street) dogs (but my brain always thinks "vegetarian hot dogs" whenever someone mentions them). [Luckily, there are no bats or monkeys where we are. 

There also are king cobras lurking about that we should watch out for.

***

My son has been spending time at the school day care with other teachers' children while we run our errands. One of the teachers was talking to the day care provider about giving her toddler healthier foods. The day care provider responded, "I know about healthy, I have fried chicken for the children."

***

Health care here is very good and very affordable. The teachers at the school, as well as their children, are provided health insurance, but the spouses are required to pay for theirs. There is a teacher whose husband decided not buy insurance because health care is so cheap. He was in an accident once that hurt him pretty badly - he was scraped up everywhere and possibly broke some bones. So he went to the hospital, where he made a bet with his doctor that his bones weren't broken. In an effort to prove him wrong, the doctor performed every test under the sun. The guy basically received a very thorough physical exam. The total cost for all those tests? About $25. And in the end, the doctor owed this guy $10 because he lost the bet! Only in Thailand!

***

According to a former colleague who's married to a Thai woman, children of ex-pats, especially the boys, get very spoiled here from all the attention they get from the locals. A teacher friend who's been here for a year confirmed this. His little girls are like celebrities in this area, where farang people (foreigners) are not as common outside the school. Going down the street, people will point and giggle. People here will just come up to the farang children and touch them on the cheeks and arms. They will also grab the children for photos without asking! My son, being half Asian, has only had his cheeks stroked and touched a couple of times, for which I'm grateful, although he's been offered things such as food and toys. He's not as "exotic-looking" as the blond, blue-eyed children. 

The locals don't usually give me a second glance because I look like "one of them." It is only when they realize I'm with my husband, who is Caucasian, that they do a double-take. Then I can feel their eyes following us, checking us out, trying to figure out what our story is. I haven't experienced this type of scrutiny since the mid-1990s!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Our House!

We moved all our stuff into our house today! Cost us $40 to hire the hotel van to transport everything. I had previously mentioned that we had looked at three places in this particular development called Perfect Place. One of them had a bath tub and an oven, which are very rare in Thai houses, but we ultimately decided to go with this house. There are also other neighborhoods that are more urban and have more of a night life, but being parents, we're not getting much of a night life anyway, so we settled for family-friendly suburbia.

Our landlady is super nice and helped us set up internet connection, hired a person to do the yard for us, and bought us some food!

So without further ado, here are the pics of our house:

From the side.

Front.

Kitchen.
Kitchen.

Living Room.
Living Room.

Downstairs bathroom with shower.
Dining room.
Master bedroom.

Master bedroom, to the right of the bed.
Master bath.
Shower in master bath.

Bedroom #2.
Bedroom #3.
We also went with a friend on a tour of the markets, but that will have to wait. Good night!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

International Teachers and Trailing Spouses

Today started the school-scheduled activities. This morning, the school sent three vans to pick up all the teachers and their families from the hotel to go to the school. We met a bunch of other new teachers whom we had not met before. One of the best things so far is meeting all the new teachers and hearing their stories. These people are some of the most interesting people I've ever met. Hubby and I are downright bores compared to them.

One woman - who will be an I.B. and A.P. chemistry teacher at the high school - is particularly interesting. For the past 20 years, she and her husband, who is a carpenter who builds houses, have lived in the bush country in Alaska. They have lived in a tent with their two little girls (one of whom was a baby at the time) and two dogs in -20° weather! They have built a cabin and grown their own foods! Ultimately, though, they decided to leave Alaska for a while. One reason that drove them out of Alaska is how expensive it was for them to live there. Milk was almost $7/gallon when they left and gas could be as high as $9/gallon sometimes. However, teacher salaries had not kept up with the rising cost of living and had not gone up since the 1980s!

Most of the teachers are teaching internationally for the first time, but one couple is from the U.K. and France and have just come from teaching in China. Another couple just came from Peru and have been living here for the past month because the man was taking a class to get certification to teach. They were traveling throughout Cambodia and just returned to Thailand three days ago.

Except for us, every single American that we've met so far is from the west coast - Washington state, Oregon, and Colorado are the most common. I joke that east-coasters are usually too anal-retentive to do this sort of thing.

One thing I've noticed among some of the more experienced international teachers - they seem to have a sense of self-importance that you don't tend to find with teachers in the U.S. Their attitude actually is more similar to that of many lawyers I know in the U.S. - they think they are God's gift to mankind. My theory on why these teachers have this attitude is that they have become accustomed to and expect the respect and reverence that their profession receives in many parts of the world (as they should). Just in the last three days, we have heard numerous times how much teachers are respected in Thailand, and have gotten advice on how to get good deals for services by mentioning that we are "educators." Just today, one of the teachers - whose wife is the high school assistant principal - told us that on Teacher Appreciation Day (but they don't call it that), all the teachers sit down in one area of the school while their students kneel and bow down in front of them and present them with flowers! He also told us that when parents have concerns, they will go directly to the principal and bypass the teacher, not because they don't feel that talking to the teacher would be ineffective, but because they respect teachers so much they don't want to confront them and question them. So different from the U.S. and a totally different mindset.

We also met several trailing spouses, which is what we call the non-teaching spouses of the teachers. Interestingly enough - though not surprising, I suppose, considering that most teachers are female - I am the only female trailing spouse amongst the group. In the U.S., I'm used to seeing the women be the non-working spouses. Among the group, there is one man who used to teach, but is staying home to care for his infant son. Another was a bank manager in the U.S. I also met an older Canadian man who actually is a consultant for a website IT company based in Canada, but was living in Connecticut. He is starting a branch of his company in Asia, so his wife got a job teaching 7th-grade math here. I jokingly asked him if he is looking for legal counsel for his company because I am a lawyer. Just thought I'd put it out there. He seemed a bit interested and intrigued. :)

As a trailing spouse myself, it has been interesting for me relating to the teachers. Upon hearing that I'm not a teacher, some of them are actually a bit dismissive and even look at me like I'm some kind of freeloader! I'm not used to being in this position. Since graduating from college - with the exception of law school - I've always been the bread winner of the family (though I am definitely NOT career-oriented at all), and my husband had usually followed me. It is different and a bit uncomfortable for me. There also is a sense of uncertainty as my role changes and evolves, and my sense of identity changes. I hate uncertainty.

But there also is a sense of freedom. This is a great time for me to explore and learn more about myself, take on new roles, and pick up new interests and activities. I know I would like to get involved with the school in some capacity. If we decide to do this long-term, I would like to find a job, possibly start on a fourth career. ;) The possibilities are endless!

 




Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Past 48 Hours

So much has already happened and it's only been two days. Feels like we've already been here at least a week. But let me start from the beginning.... Monday, our first full day here, was a rest day. We started our day by having breakfast in the restaurant downstairs:


There was an eclectic mix of western (bacon, corn flakes, sausage, eggs, omelet, waffles) and eastern foods (fried rice and miso soup, which I love!). Hubby gets breakfast for free while we're here, Son gets it half price at less than $2, and I get to pay full price at around $6. Not that I'm complaining, of course. It's a great price for an all-you-can eat buffet with waffle and omelet bars.

After breakfast, we decided to explore the area outside the hotel a little bit. This is the street outside our hotel, which is the tall building on the right:




The first thing we did on our walk was buy some bottled water at the 7-Eleven, where, apparently, not only can we buy food and alcohol, but we can also pay all our bills! This is also where we noticed that there are A LOT of stray dogs everywhere here, just lying about or wandering around. Kinda reminds me of the Taiwan I remember from 30 years ago.

The 7-Eleven is located on the main road where everything appears to be. The school where Hubby will work is somewhere further down on the same road. Side streets are numbered, followed by the name of the main road, followed by the number of the building. Took me a while to figure that one out.

Traffic wasn't bad at all on Monday because of the holiday. Notice the pedestrian walkway above the street so people aren't taking matters into their own hands when trying to cross the street. I noticed there aren't any actual pedestrian crosswalks like in the U.S.



This appears to be a street market, tucked into the corner of a garage. Would you like some food with your exhaust?



 Buildings we saw as we walked:


Of course, with our six-year-old being the car fanatic that he is, we had to stop to look at cars at a Honda dealership.


He also noticed that the model names are different than those in the U.S. For example, the Honda Civic equivalent is called the Honda City here. The license plates also are different, obviously:



At this point, it started to rain - our first rainfall here! We were already prepared with our raincoats, though, so we decided to keep walking. But it started to pour pretty heavily, so we turned back to the hotel, hung out, and watched the rain, which stopped within 20 minutes or so.



For lunch, we ate again in the hotel restaurant. We haven't been feeling adventurous enough just yet to go out for street food, but the food at the restaurant is really good.

It was then that we encountered our first language barrier. We were trying to find out whether a certain dish includes tree nuts, which our son is allergic to. I swear we had to summon half of the hotel and restaurant staff just to ask that one simple question. But the Thai people are truly the most patient and helpful people I've ever encountered. It actually made me feel bad that I don't know more Thai because the wait staff just stood there looking helpless and apologetic.

At least I got this simple, yet delicious, meal for less than $3!



That afternoon, I got a chance to nap while Hubby and Son went to the pool. The pool is so pretty, but I don't have a picture of it yet. That nap was just glorious!!

I paid the price for my nap this morning, though, when I woke up around 3:30 and couldn't fall back asleep at all. Our little guy also was up by 4:30. After attempting unsuccessfully to go back to sleep, we decided to go downstairs for breakfast around 6:30. Breakfast this morning was even more interesting: there was crab with veggies, eggs with squid, some kind of congee, and of course, miso soup. Crab at six o'clock in the morning is just as good as it is at six o'clock at night!

This morning, we decided to go to the school to meet the finance person there. She is in charge of setting up bank accounts for the teachers AND she also handles their bank accounts for them. Any time we need to pay a bill or transfer money to another account, we just tell her and she does it for us. So she has the info to EVERYONE'S bank accounts. That just seems a little weird to me, so we may try to do our own banking. If we can figure out where the bank is, that is.

We went with two other teachers in taxis to the school. That was when we truly experienced the Traffic of Bangkok. It is truly scary. Lanes and turn signals seem optional. Some taxis don't have seat belts. And they all drive so freaking fast, zipping in and out of lanes. Then there are the scooters and motorcycles that squeeze in between lanes and cars. They are so close that you can reach out of the car window and touch them. My eyes were closed half of the time we were on the road. Here is a picture, but it doesn't give a true sense of the craziness at all.


After about 20 nail-biting minutes, we finally got to school, where we learned that The Bank Lady was out sick today, so we were taken to the principal's office at the high school on a golf cart...because the campus is that extensive.

This is one of the gate entrances to the school. There are eight gates altogether.

Another gate and parking.
The administrative building.


One of two high school buildings.
 I was most impressed by the canteen. There is a high school canteen area, a middle school canteen area, and an elementary school canteen area, though all the kids can eat wherever they want. On the left side, there are a variety of food choices, including sushi, noodles, soups, and sandwiches. Teachers and the older students can choose to buy lunch here. The younger elementary school students have a prescribed menu.


This is one of two outdoor gyms:


The elementary school building:






An all-weather sports field:


One of the two pools at the school. This is the 25-meter pool, which is generally used by the teachers and their families.


The 50-meter pool, used by the swim team:


The elementary school indoor gymnasium with a climbing wall on the far side:


The fitness center for staff and students:


The tennis court:





A multi-purpose building, which has a theater and professional recording studio in it:


Rice paddies behind the school campus:


The principal's wife, who teaches second grade at the elementary school, also gave us a tour of a couple of the housing developments around the school, where many of the teachers live. She took us around in a golf cart, which she uses to get around her neighborhood and to get to school! We're considering getting one ourselves. It was fun zipping around in one of those!

One of the developments is called Perfect Place. It is a gated community within walking/biking distance to the school, has great amenities (including a spa where you can get an hour-long foot massage for $6), and is very family-friendly. Here are a few pics of what's there:

The clubhouse.

The entrance to the community.

A house in Perfect Place.

The lake.

This is the main street to get into Perfect Place. It has everything you can ever need, from hardware stores to salons to grocery stores, vets, and pharmacies. One interesting fact about pharmacies here: you can get anything you want over-the-counter. The only exception is psychotropic drugs.





Yes, we're still riding in the golf cart amidst the crazy traffic.



This afternoon, we called up the realtor who works with the international school teachers and met her at a 7-Eleven to see some houses in Perfect Place. It was during this outing that I hailed my first cab (which you do here by waving your hand downwards) and was mistaken as Thai twice.

However, because there is a 7-Eleven around every corner, she went to the wrong one. After waiting around for half an hour, we luckily ran into the high school assistant principal and elementary school principal on a scooter, who rode down the street to convey the message to the realtor. She showed up a few minutes later and we were on our way to see houses.

She only had three houses in Perfect Place that rented for the same amount as the housing allowance we will receive from the school. Of course, we can always pay more, but we really don't want to. There were also two other families looking at and considering the same houses we were, so competition was pretty fierce. After seeing all three houses, we went back to the first house again, and then decided to rent that one. So tomorrow we return to the realtor's office to sign a lease and move in Thursday!! (I will post pictures of the house another time. When we went to see the house, it was pouring rain. By the time we were done with seeing houses, some of the streets were actually a little flooded and one cab driver refused to drive us back to the hotel!)

So that's what we've been up the past two days. I'm pooped just thinking about all this! I think I will go to bed now, and it's only 8:30.