Going Domestic

Week the Third

It’s still too hot here. I’m trying not to have the air conditioning on all of the time when I’m at home, but it’s hard to resist – things like doing the dishes (no dishwasher here) and managing the laundry are enough physical activity to promote sweating. Blah. That’s my current excuse for ignoring the floor, which does need a wash.

Still no word on when our furniture (and computer) will arrive. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my kitchen equipment, as the very small amount of pots, pans, and accessories that we sent via air really limits the variety of things that I can prepare for meals. And I am dying to be reunited with our own mattress. The loaner bed that we have here is as hard as concrete, and my back is killing me. I’m not sure if it’s coincidence, but the loaner sofa we have is also harder than what I am used to!

I don't go into central Bangkok everyday, but when I do, I can't help but wonder what driver education is like here. Do the instructors actually teach the aspiring motorists to turn into on-coming traffic, or is that just something a person learns later? Vehicles cut other vehicles off all the time here, but no one seems to get road-rage. No one even honks their horn. It's just the way it is ...

Week 2

I’ve been trying to visit all of the grocery stores in my area, seeing who has what and for how much. So far, I’ve scoped out Tesco, Villa Market , Carrefour, and Tops. All in less than ten days. Our driver must either think that I’m seriously mad, or else that we eat far too much!

The only difference that I can see, so far, between grocery shopping in BKK and grocery shopping in Calgary is that here, one has to take their produce to a “weigh station” to receive a proper price sticker. At home, the produce is weighed and priced at the check-out.

It’s still too hot here. I’ve been a bit over-friendly with the pool and thus have a rather bad sunburn. I never remember to reapply sunscreen!

Not having a computer continues to suck, but we do have a new television set and DVD player (which thankfully does play our discs from home). I’ve yet to grow tired of watching re-runs of The Office.

Thoughts from the First Week

Things that have been troubling me:

The heat. It’s much much much too hot here. And humid. I remember thinking, shovel in hand as I was clearing several feet of snow from our driveway in St. John’s, that I wasn’t going to miss shoveling snow. Turns out that I like shoveling snow more than I do being sticky.

The big apartment. It’s about 2.5 times larger than our house, which means that there is a lot more floor to maintain, and my Swiffer isn’t here yet (coming in our sea shipment), and I loathe washing floors. There are five toilets in this place. I don’t know how I am going to do this house-keeping thing.

On a related topic, the floor. It’s laminate, and is imitating walnut-stained hardwood, and by the end of the day, our feet are very dirty from walking on it. It doesn’t appear to be dirt. Maybe it’s walnut stain? Will it ever get better?

We don’t have a computer. We intended to send it in the air shipment, and thought that we had, but I guess this was a miscommunication with the moving company in Calgary. We had many of those, and I’m still frustrated by that. If we’d only had an extra month to get our stuff ready at home, this move would have been a lot more pleasant. Anyway, I’m very sad to be cut off from my friends and family – email has always been a great comfort to me.

Cool Things, to balance it all out:

I’ve seen monarch butterflies, speedy little lizards and geckos, and huge snails. Very cool!

Some grocery items are really inexpensive. I paid about $1.50 for a package of three skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Whee!

The parking lots are very orderly. You get a little pass to be admitted, and then you return it when you leave the lot. None of that invent-your-own parking spot thing that I often saw in Calgary.

My new mobile phone is blue.

endings and beginnings

So, we leave for Bangkok tomorrow! And our computer is taking a slow boat across the Pacific, so I might not be able to post again until August. That probably means avoiding an onslaught of Laura-the-grumpy-frustrated-expat posts, though I wouldn't be able to write about all of the nifty fruit I find in the grocery stores or about how awesome the curry is, either :)

Au Revoir, Canada. Can't forget that part either ...

filling up the suitcases

Apron Model
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic

I found myself in downtown Edmonton yesterday afternoon, mainly to get my hair trimmed, but also to help my sister out at the farmers' market. It wasn't the busiest day there, maybe because the weather was hit-or-miss and it's the Canada Day long weekend, so many people head out of town. Julie came back from her lunch break with this cute little apron for Madeline. It was from the market vendor with the "Miss Fit" product line. I walked by their booth myself later, and saw a lot of handmade textile goods for little people. The fabrics were really delightful, and the apron, while a simple construction, is well-made. And it was affordable! Madeline really likes it. I guess that I'll have to whip up a batch of muffins with her now :)

Leaving for BKK a week from today. The thought of leaving Canada is really weird, but I'm also looking forward to not living out out a suitcase much longer ...