The Move
This is perhaps the biggest and most significant event in my life in the past few months. Yep, I moved. Into an apartment in Mountain View, which i had never been to before. An apartment that i had never seen. With roommates that i'd never met. And with absolutely no idea what to expect. Save for the roach problem, everything has worked out really well thus far. WHAT ROACH PROBLEM?! you may ask. Mm...my roommate and I are now very coolly nonchalant about the irritating pests that plagued us upon our move in. We didn't even cook for 2-3 weeks because of these unwelcome kitchen guests. Well, I can now bite the heads off cockroaches with my bare teeth. Nah, not so powerful yet lah. Luckily they're the small German cockroach and not the huge-ass singapore flying ones. We've tried fumigating, roach bait, roach killing powder and insecticide...and ironically the problem got better once we started cooking. MMm...my cooking ain't that bad right?
Anyhow, living in this apartment has been pretty safe, and it has nice amenities such as a pool and a playground. It's been fun living with my new housemate, Emiley, who i believe has a Singapore obsession, apparently triggered by a fascination with our very own SDU. She knows so much about the country, and loves the food. We've even made plans for makan at Banana Leaf tomorrow night! Yar..and she even tried to make me record the answering machine message in a strong singaporean accent, just to amuse her and her friends. harhar.
It's also been fun furnishing my room from scratch. Cheapskate lil' me plowed though Craigslist everyday, and now i have a cosy little room with a glorious queen sized mattress and twin futon amongst other things....all for less than $50. Just put up pictures of ABC, my parents, the canoeists, and so on...they add warmth to a boring room.
If i could choose, i would stay in a furnished studio. (Yes, and become even more antisocial) At the end of a long day at work, i just want to have my own private space, without having to be cordial and constantly worrying if i'd be stepping on someone else's toes all the time.
One thing i hate about the whole moving process though, is meeting up with prospective co-tenants or roommates. With every person i meet, i try to be really friendly and open, so that they get a good idea of who i am and where i come from. Also, on their side, they have to open up their homes, and provide a glimpse of what life for them is like. It hate it especially since i feel much of it is just superficial courtesy rather than real i-like-you-so-muchnesss. There was this little old lady whose room i went to see. The house was okay, the room was okay, but she was nice, eager and sincere. I felt so terrible turning her down, coz she actually was so honest and open to discussing all the terms of rental since she had a good feeling about me. I felt bad for a few days after that.....but i really wanted to stay in a studio by myself. Later i met another old lady that made me feel very unhappy. She had a great studio, a cute doggie, and well, seemed friendly enough. We talked for quite a while, and i would have probably gotten the place if not for what happened next. I mentioned that i had to wait for a phone call from another renter before i could give her my answer....that was an earlier arrangement that i had made. This old lady suddenly became someone else. She folded away my application, stood up, picked up the dog, turned off the light and abruptly ended our meeting. She could not even spare a smile from that point on. I was disappointed at the way things turned out. I don't understand how people can be so hypocritical. Oh well, at least i got to know what my prospective landlord would be like before i learnt the hard way. No more old ladies for me from then on.
i'm dead serious.