My New Apartment

On March 17th, I finally moved into my own apartment!  I've been living in the Shorts' guesthouse since moving here in August, but they have many visitors coming over the next few months, and a good opportunity came up to rent this apartment with a friend as my landlord.  I've somehow managed to acquire quite a bit to move just in the few months I've been here.  It only took one vehicle, but it was crammed quite full!  The house came furnished with the big things--a fridge, stove, couches, two arm chairs, two beds, some linens and a couple of fans, but I'd been shopping for some pans, cooking utensils, some small plastic carts for the bathrooms, etc.  The Shorts are letting me borrow a folding table and chair until I can get a table (there might be one in another apartment that can be moved in, but we'll see).  They had also saved some items from when another mission team in Mbulu had left more items that they could use when they left Tanzania a couple of years ago, so I inherited a set of dishes, a set of glasses (if you ever visit, DO NOT stack the glasses!  They stick together!), a mixer and a few other kitchen and organizational items. 

The Shorts as well as three young guys that were hanging about (Sheki, Amadeus and Camara) that Tammy roped into helping came to help unpack everything and do things like wipe out dusty cabinets.  (I gave the boys enough money for the three of them to go get dinner from one of our local restaurants as a thank you--about five dollars).  Deborah, who is ten, washed nearly all of my dishes, and then came back the next day and washed all the rest.  That might have been a bad move on her part, because now we all know she is capable of washing dishes well.  But it was much appreciated!

Sheki and Amadeus were very helpful.  Rebecca had hidden Camara's phone, and apparently, he is paralyzed without it.

As you can see, the walls throughout the house are a light sage green color; I'm glad it's not white, and the color is neutral enough that nothing clashes too badly with it.  I really love the floors--they are tile in a three-toned wood pattern.  I know the couch probably seems a bit loud in pattern, but trust me, this is surprisingly neutral and tasteful compared to many examples I've seen locally. There are two bedrooms, so if anyone comes to visit, I have space for you!  

The outside of the house is a pale seafoam green color, except for on the porch, where it is tan. (?)  Not sure why. We had these doors propped wide open while moving in, but in general, I'll use the side door through the kitchen.  These doors off the porch have a wide gap underneath, so there is a towel stuffed under for now, so it'll be easier to just use the other door on a daily basis.  The house has a high wall around it (seven feet or so? No one can see over) and its own gate as well as outdoor lights all around, so it is quite safe. 

So far, I'm really enjoying having my own place again.  It'll be nice to be able to entertain, as well; I enjoy having dinner parties.  I also hope that I'll be able to feel more like part of the community, as I'll be stopping for bread at a different duka (small neighborhood store) and have new neighbors who won't see me as just an extension of the Short family.  It's only a five to ten-minute walk back the Shorts' house, though, so I'm not too far away.  

Potential New Apartment

Living room

Today, I visited an apartment, managed by Beth's husband, Tizo, that I may move into.  While living in the Shorts' guesthouse has been fine, they have a lot of visitors coming over the next few months, and I'd like to have a more permanent place.  The apartment looks great; I'm sitting down with Tizo soon to discuss the details, so hopefully, it'll work out.  Enjoy a look around!

Bedroom

In the living room, there are these interesting sconces on each of the four walls, each a different animal.  Of course the rhino is my favorite.  They are a bit odd, but I love them as they certainly make the room unique.  I love living places with interesting quirks. 

See, there's an antelope on that wall!

New chairs!

Yay!  My new dining room chairs finally arrived!  My old ones were falling apart--literally.  Two were in more than one piece, and a third (that didn't match the others anyway) has a big crack on one side.  I'm very happy to now have four matching chairs (well, matching each other--they don't quite match my table, but at least they don't clash) that I don't have to worry that my guests will suddenly end up in the floor.  

Now, they are sitting in the middle of my living room looking dusty, so I need to get on with it.  Also, the water just came back on after been off from 7 last night to 11 this morning for some sort of plumbing maintenance that affected the whole neighborhood (which apparently was scheduled, but YET AGAIN someone (Veronica, cough cough) forgot to tell the foreigners who can't read the notice on the campus website in Chinese.) so I need to get the washing machine going and see if I can't reduce this pile of dishes.  

Through the Peephole

Since I haven't had to actually go to work the last couple of weeks, I'm usually home during working hours.  And, since I'm not used to hearing any noise at all on the landing as I've been the only one up here on the fifth floor for the past year, I notice whenever anyone comes or goes to work on the apartment across the hall.  Micah is moving in across the hall from me as soon as the repairs are finished and all the furniture arrives.  

Whenever I hear someone out there, I spy out the peephole on my door to see what they're up to.  Then I usually end up giving up on being stealthy and just go over there and stick my head in the door to see what they're up to.  I've taken to snapping pictures on my phone and sending Micah updates.  I took a few the day they put in the new carpet, and on the day they delivered the bed.  I didn't get any of the new fridge and washing machine, but they were just in big boxes anyways.  I felt really bad for the guy who carried A REFRIGERATOR on his back up FIVE FLIGHTS OF STAIRS. By himself.  Wow.  I should never again complain about my job.  The guys who shoved the mattress up the stairs didn't look like they were having just a ton of fun, either.  

Today, they delivered the new couch.  I like it!  Very classy.  Anyway, I don't know if Micah wants his home shared with the world, but, he hasn't officially moved in yet so it's free game.  I'm enjoying spying through the peephole.  

New Ink for the Printer

Well, it doesn't seem quite real yet, but today was the last writing classes of the semester.  How in the world have thirteen weeks passed already?  Normally, I'd still have another month to go, but we double up the first four weeks to end early, for the sake of one of my Chinese coteachers who is expecting a baby in December.  I thought today would be crazy since I was trying to fit in two lessons, exam review, taking up papers, and making various announcements, but I actually had a bit of time to kill (which I did by making them listen to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") in both classes.  Of course, the semester isn't really "over" for me, I've still got piles and piles to grade before it's really over.  Which is, of course, what I should be doing now, but I'm not.  I did a solid hour of grading earlier today, though!

What I'm doing right now is printing stuff.  I finally got around to ordering more ink for my printer, so I'm finishing up all those little decorative projects that got put on hold when I ran out of ink a month ago.  Now, I will finally fill that weird white hole in the living room wall collage you've been seeing in all the pictures.  I've also printed several Christmas decorations--I think I'll put them on the living room window.  I just wish I could spend more time in the living room to enjoy the decorations--it's hard to get it really comfortably warm in there.  I spend most of my time holed up in my dining room with the door closed--the heater in here works great for heating just one room.  Anyways, enough whining; I could pull the plug-in electric heater in there if I really wanted to sit in there so bad.  

I've also been printing more decorations with Good Words...I need to be reminded of them more often, and work on memorizing more.  I really like the stuff I found on Flourish Cafe; if you click on Flourishing Abode and then printables, there's some really cute stuff.  She also has a ton of great stuff on the Cafe side, if you want to pay for them.  I'm always amazed by the internet--the opportunity to find so many interesting people making so many interesting things.  I often feel a bit guilty that I haven't learned more--there's so many things I want to learn, to study, to know--and it's all out there, if I would just dedicate myself to learning it all.

Here's some stuff I edited with pixl-o-matic.  I added the words with my paintshop program.  Unfortunately, I'm using a buggy old version from computer-before-last; I have a newer version I bought with my last short-lived computer, but I couldn't find the cd to load it on this one.  One of those annoying situations in which I remember moving that cd around and it being in the way, and then once I needed it, it didn't turn up in eight months.  Sigh.  Anyways.  So, the stuff:

Cribs--Jerry Style

Sooo, some well-meaning, I'm sure, Chinese English teacher assigned his or her students the project of interviewing a foreigner.  The interview must be videoed (is that a word?), and be 7-8 minutes long.  They could work in groups of two or three.  This much I've gathered, because I've been bombarded by requests from students in my mythology class to do interviews.  I've lined up three groups so far, and done two of the interviews (next one tomorrow night); hopefully I'll avoid any more.  Oh well, it's at least a way to spend a bit more time with my students.

I did the first interview last week; it was a bit awkward as they hadn't really prepared anything and were trying to figure out what to talk about.  They even asked me at one point, "So, what do you want to talk about?"  I don't know, it's your interview.  However, they did invited me to go eat with them afterwards, and they showed my another hot pot restaurant on campus, so that was definitely worth it.

The second interview was Monday night.  This was was with my student Jerry.  Jerry is easily my nuttiest student.  He seems as if he's going to explode with excitement at any minute, whether the cause of the outburst is my Christmas tree or the exploits of Odysseus.  At least I never have to worry in my mythology class that no one will have an opinion or comment to contribute--on the contrary, I have to find ways to cut him off once he gets on a roll.  He is always the last to leave, and usually walks all the way down the stairs to the door with him, still asking questions.  I don't know that I've heard many people who can talk faster than Jerry, especially not switching back and forth between Chinese and English is the same sentence without stopping for breath. Not that I'm complaining--it's great to have an enthusiastic student.  All of this is just to warn you that he's not entirely mentally stable...

However, he is creative.  He decided that sitting on the couch talking (as my other students have done) was boring.  So, he came up with the idea of doing the interview like an episode of "Cribs", you know, the one where they visit the homes of celebrities and are given a tour.  And he does nothing halfway--he even started out in the stairwell with an intro, and then I had to open the door (all rehearsed), and then show him around.  Fortunately, the girl who was with him doing the video was also quite good.  She was panning in and out and making it look quite professional.  Altogether, we got nearly twenty minutes of footage; I don't know how exactly he plans to edit it for his assignment.  The interview part at the end (which involved moving furniture around to make a Barbara Walters-esque set, with the Christmas tree in the middle, and the whole "please welcome our next guest..." dialogue) was fairly boring, and is a really long section of tape I don't feel like editing at the moment,  but the "Cribs" part I'll share.

Flickr wouldn't load the whole thing, so I had to split it into three parts:
Jerry hosting Cribs 1
Jerry hosting Cribs 2
Jerry hosting Cribs 3

So, there's a guided tour of my apartment, or at least the parts I would let Jerry in. :)

My Vacuum Cleaner

Alright, this may be a little bit weird, but I'm excited about it.  I bought a vacuum cleaner today!  With all of these English parties, my living room carpet was getting to be a mess, and a broom just wasn't cutting it.  So, I found a cheap little vacuum at Carrefour; isn't it cute?  It even rolls, has more than one attachment, and best of all, the cord retracts with the push of a button! :)