My very own residence in Thailand!

Jan 9th 2016
I started teaching on the 4th but didn't have my own place yet, so was staying in a hostel while I searched for an apartment. Fast forward to Sat, 9th Jan (that's how the date is written here). After four hours of trials and tribulations (I'll save those for a later post) I had a place that was mine. All mine. No shared showers. No bunk beds. No other people. Just me! To put it in perspective, this was the first time in over 52 days that I'd been on my own and it was amazing. My apartment is a studio, located on the 8th floor of Prime Suites, a 9 story apartment complex, located on soi 18. It's in the heart of Bangkok, just minutes from the Asok BTS and Sukhumvit MRT (both are forms of public transportation; the BTS is an overhead skytrain and the MRT is an underground subway). It's fully furnished with a really soft bed and TWO proper bed pillows (this is a huge deal because many temporary accommodations in Bangkok have a box spring only- one place we stayed didn't even have a pillow!) I have a full bathtub (which is very unusual) and my building is piped for hot water showers (a lot of buildings in SE Asia are not and therefore each shower has to have its own heater box). I have a tiny balcony with my very own washing machine! On the roof is a pool that looks out on the city and a gym that looks out at a concrete wall (you can't have everything!) Did I mention my commute to work is less than a ten minute walk?! Six of the teachers I work with also live in my building which is incredibly convenient. All in all, I'm so lucky to have found this place! Here are a few funny stories to go along with my move:
1. Next to my bed is a small box (that functions as a bedside table). When I moved in, there was a buddha sitting on it. All buildings in Thailand have buddha shrines where locals give offerings of food and money. "Is that what this is? Am I allowed to move buddha? Should I be sharing my yogurt with him?" These were all questions I asked myself. I decided to collect all of the asian inspired items in the apartment and place them on the table with buddha. I also decided to move the box ever so slightly closer to my bed (so it could accommodate my phone when it was plugged in!) Fast forward to two days later. My landlord (thai man in his 70s) and apartment manager (thai man in his 30s) come walking in. My landlord starts pointing to the box and speaking to the manager in thai. The manager is responding in thai and moving closer to the box. "Shit. I moved the box. Shit. I moved buddha. Shit. I should've shared my yogurt." I'm trying like mad to decipher what the two are saying while simultaneously coming up with a convincing list of reasons as to why they can't kick me out or have buddha curse me to return in the afterlife as a cockroach. (As of now they haven't done the first, and I don't yet know about the second.) Either way, the conversation ceased and no one gave me evil eyes so I must not have committed too bad of a transgression against their religion and culture. Phew!
2. When I first moved in I didn't have a stove top so my landlord offered to get me a hotplate to use for cooking (he's such a nice guy!) He dropped it off while I was at work so when I got home the manager offered to set it up for me. First, he sets up the snack tray that the hot plate will sit on (the legs are wobbly so we're shoving paper underneath to even it out). Then, he unpacks the hotplate. Last, he takes out a roll of aluminum foil. I'm thinking "oh that's so sweet, he got me foil to cook with". Next thing I know the manager is taping the foil to my wall. Wait, what? That's definitely not what we do with foil in America. The manager explains that they don't want the hotplate to spray the walls with oil or grease so the aluminum foil is a perfect barrier. Umm yeah of course. Why didn't I think of that? So now I've got my snack tray with wads of paper under the legs and an aluminum foil backdrop to complete my kitchen. #jankydoesntevenbegintodescribeit