My short, short house
It's a one-story building, which is pretty unusual for the city. The most common building height seems to be closer to six. There's a red wooden gate on a concrete wall that surrounds the house, leaving a few feet as walkway all around. Lots of other walls have broken glass embedded in their tops, but ours doesn't (and it was a good thing too, when once I forgot my key).
To stop dirt in its tracks, as soon as you get in, there's a little area for changing your shoes. Outdoor shoes have a rack next to the umbrella stand, but it's always overfilled, so shoes are all around. Same thing at the computer lab at school, so everybody's in socks or barefoot. There there's a bigger rack, but nobody uses it, so there's a sea of shoes as you step in the door. At the house though, there's another rack with slippers to change into once you step up into the hall. A set is in every bathroom too, neccessitating a change. None quite big enough for me, but I'd brought my own.
Walking into the house the first thing I noticed was that I had to duck. The doorways are couple inches too short. David's (my landlord) as tall and has to duck also. Doesn't take long to get used to at all. Only one bump after the first day.
My room is at the back of the house. Sliding wooden door with swinging screen and a hanging cloth screen in between. It's maybe the size of a college single, off-white paneling and (besides the doorway) high ceilings. Furnished with bed, wardrobe, fan and desk with light and chair. Window is big and sideways-sliding, though only opens half because of air conditioner. AC has a remote control where you can set temperature, fan speed, and up to sixteen hours on the timer. Minor annoyance is there's only one outlet, so after my clock/radio, only the fan or the desk light gets the other slot.
Big annoyance are the bugs. Cockroaches aren't much of a presence, especially outside of the kitchen, but the ants can find everything. Have to make sure all bags are really sealed. Trash is harder because I don't want to take it out every time I eat an apple. Managed to hide some cores for a whole day hanging in a mesh bag from a hook in a corner of the ceiling. Ants still found it, but I keep it b/c as long as they're far from the desk and bed, we don't meet much.
I guess I'm lucky with pests though. Adam and Ryan (other two from Rutgers), in addition to ants and cockroaches, have fruit flies and mice. A mouse jumped on Ryan's face in his sleep. I should mention that the cockroaches can fly. Only saw it twice, but once I was walking down the street and saw one run three feet to, then three feet up a wall at cockroach-fast speed, then leapt off in flight, sort of like a lightning bug, but 100-times heavier (and scarier, if you're in an enclosed space). Anyway, cool.
Shower room is just that. No curtain separating it from the door or the sink. Told this is Taiwan normal and is OK by me, but my friend tells me that at her house the toilet is in her shower room too. Though our bathroom doesn't have a shower over it, it still doesn't have toilet paper. Same for the hostel the night I got in. Don't understand it, as it's not that expensive.
We do get a toilet paper bin though. Same everywhere. Some bathrooms have signs saying it's because there's a low-powered flush or because the system can't handle it, but I'm not sure about that--think it's just from habit. Though it does make sure all bathrooms aren't the sweetest-smelling.
Besides mine, there are five other rooms for rent, four filled. There used to be other people, mostly Canadian English teachers, but they've all moved out by now. Only one Italian guy has been here longer. Now there are two other Japanese students, Miku and Leo, who also go to my school, and Mike, another Canadian, who goes to another school. They're all very friendly, but we don't run into each other very much.
David also has a room and is home the most of anybody, though he has another place, so doesn't stay every night. Studied in the States, so no trouble communicating. Likes to remind people to turn off lights and to only use the shower room sink for brushing teeth, but easy to live with. He has a bird in a cage out on the front steps and a bunch of fish in the living room that I feed when he's not in.
OK, gotta go.
Love,
Laszlo
No comments:
Post a Comment