We are in the process of looking for a new apartment as the lease (read: prepaid & FREE) on our current location is about to expire. It can be a bit of chore to find a place, and as is true anywhere, it's all about whats available when - and how much you're willing to pay for said availability. Thankfully, we have wonderful friends and teammates who recently made moves of their own, and are willing to help us negotiate the finer points of contracts and "ma-tongs". (This is a word we love - its the word for Western toilet, which literally translates as horse bucket. Fantastic).
The whole process is really quite similar to the US, you meet some agent at a real estate office who shuffles you around to various apartments, all in various states and ends of your price range. Like many homes for sale or rent, previous owners leave a sundry of items behind . . . occasionally making you wonder if that particular locale is inhabited by squatters. And if I'm entirely forthright, the left behind "treats" have always given me the creeps. When you're looking to buy or rent something, you're trying to picture it as yours, not try and figure out what was for dinner based on the dirty plates in the sink.
Last week we had the pleasure of looking at one such apartment, and despite the remaining personal items strewn about, it was a great size and layout. It was advertised as as a 3 BR/2 BA (I know! We're moving up in size from the 'Ville!), but after an initial walk through we only found 1 bathroom, and not with the advertised horse bucket.
That is, until Baxter opened the built in wardrobe in the master bedroom. Yes, exactly like the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe . . . a secret world lay behind those doors. Unfortunately, it was a secret world we wished we'd never seen. Our friend Tim walks in first (I'll admit, I was already freaked out, it was really dark!) and just dies laughing. He tells us he's found the bathroom and the matong, but we weren't too sure when he emerges with tears in his eyes doubled over in laughter. After steeling ourselves for what might lie ahead we all nervously shuffle in, totally unsure of what might be so funny. Sure enough, there on a TILE on the wall of the shower, was a picture of an asian woman . . . and not just any picture, but you know, one of "those" kind of pictures.
(Yes, this is way WAY more tasteful than what was in the shower.) After our own uproarious/uncomfortable laughter, we came back into the bedroom to realize . . . hmmm . . . the bed is on a funny platform . . . and what are those bottles next to the bed . . .NOPE, definitely not going to look around ANY more!!
Thankfully, that was one of the more eventful apartments we've looked at, and we feel quite confident we can find an apartment WITHOUT such "personal" items left behind. I thought all such silliness was behind us, until today I passed a butt/buck (your choice) naked man walking down the street. I couldn't decide what was weirder, that he was naked walking down the street in a city full of clothed people, or that he was tan everywhere. But don't worry, he passed me heading right towards the block where the police station was . . . I doubt his "personal" parade made it much farther.
Here's to hoping for week without seeing any naked Asians . . . or naked anyone for that matter!
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