apartment and a new city

Today started with-- well never really ended from yesterday-- getting off a bus on the outskirts of town at 5:15 at a bus stop we presumed to be the correct one. We arrived at our hotel at 6am, checked in, took showers, and tried to relax after an all night bus ride. Our orienter, Yim, came at 10:00am to pick us up to look at some various apartments we may be interested in. We climbed into his beat up nissan sunny, which sounded like it was going to die every time he let it idle naturally (I surmised dirty idle control valve). He took us to the ACE office, where we will be working from, and gave us an idea of where he was going to take us.

As we progressed through the 5 apartments we ended up looking at, each seemed to get better as they went. They all had their various strengths and weaknesses, and after some confusion, much help from Yim, we arrived at a deal at a very nice place with a view of the mountains. Each room (we got two) is about the size of a hotel room, with about the same amenities as a hotel room, excepting a mini fridge. Although this is quite small for our standards, to be economically feasible, this was the only real option. I lived in a similar sized room in Germany and it didn't kill me. There I had a kitchen in my hall, however I didn't have the availability of $1-2 food outside my door. I feel very comfortable with the situation and I think we made the best of it. Our rent, including electricity and internet is going to be about $200/month. Chris has a very similar room a few floors down, which he will be renting to December.

Thus concludes our whirlwind apartment/dorm search of Chiang Mai. Without the prep and the help of the internship I can only imagine how long it would have taken. My guess is, once we had found a reasonable place, we would have jumped at it, not wanting to take the effort to seek out an unknown residence. This worked out as perfectly as could be. We are within walking distance of our office, grocery stores, and pretty much everything we could want. There is even a bakery in the downstairs section of our building, as well as an art store across the street (katie).

Now we are charged with the task of navigating this city, learning its idiosyncrasies, and making it home. It doesn't seem like its going to be a very hard task, as this is much more of a "charming" city than Bangkok and has a much more local feel. The traffic, noise, congestion, pressures, and danger are all substantially less than that of Bangkok. As Vermonters the surrounding mountains don't hurt to make us feel at home.

More to come, but things are looking very promising.

Oh- I also ate a REALLY hot pepper at lunch today that made my head numb.