It’s been 421 days since I left the United States.

That’s 421 nights that I’ve:

  • Slept in a strange bed
  • Not unpacked my bag, only pulling heaps of clothes out to wear
  • Showered in foreign bathrooms – how I have avoided a foot fungus, I do not know but I am grateful!
  • Not had a kitchen and have eaten out – except when I stayed with friends and we cooked
  • Not had a television – although I’ve decided TV’s squash creative energy and are mind numbing.  I’ve already put mine in the closet.

Anyway, you guys get the point, I’ve been gone from a normal living environment and in a homeless vagabond sort of state for a LONG time!   But today all that changes.  Today I moved into an apartment here in Chiang Mai.  Hurrah!!!!!  Do you realize what this means?  I don’t have to pull my panties out from my ‘clean panties only’ special pocket in my bag anymore; I can put them in a drawer – a drawer!  I can buy some quality moisturizing products and take care of my skin! This traveling is not conducive to maintaining feminine beauty.  I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Oh, and the best part, the apartment is $323 a month!

Ok, ok, I’m calming down now.

Apartment hunting was challenging here, as you can imagine.  I viewed alot of apartments and let me tell you, there is some ugly stuff here – wow!  They seem to have two categories of apartments; really old outdated with a high grunge factor, or completely renovated with modern furnishings.  I was hoping I’d find something renovated and nicely done in traditional Southeast Asia decor, but that doesn’t seem to exist here – not in my budget anyway.  So, given the two options I went for the renovated contemporary place.

It wasn’t quite as easy though as just picking an apartment and moving in.  In this case, although the Realty company had this unit shown on their website, no one had keys to the unit. Not even the building manager.  Long story short I ended up having to hire a locksmith to open the door and make new keys.  Then when I finally was able to see inside the unit, it was evident no one had lived there in ages, so it was filthy.  A window had been left open so little geckos and other critters unknown had made it their home.  The electricity had been turned off for non pay, so I had to pay the back charges to get the power turned on.  Thank goodness there were 13 air fresheners scattered throughout the unit! Oh, and I had to negotiate the terms of the rental with the Italian owner using google translator.  Whew, it’s been an exhausting week!  But it was all worth it. I’d seen enough bad apartments to know this was the apartment for me.

So, I’m getting settled now.  Well, actually, I’m already settled.  When you only have one bag it doesn’t take very long.  Wow, I’m tellin’ ya’ people, I found things in that bag I haven’t seen in months!  A risqué tiny calendar my friend Cindy gave me in Italy – that was in September; a shirt my friend Laura sent me for Christmas; the list goes on and on.

Now I can focus on what’s really important in life – a new wardrobe!  LOL  I’ve been wearing mostly the same clothes for, well, a long time now.  You guys know, you’ve seen the pictures. It’s time to ditch some of this stuff and restock. Only problem I see is most of the clothes here are made for little tiny Thai girls.  I’m not sure I’ll find anything for my big boobs and my ‘real woman’ hips, but I’m sure I’ll work something out.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks.  Stay tuned to ‘As the World Turns in Chiang Mai’ to see what I get up to next.

Lots of love to all my peeps around the globe… xoxoxo

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