Places to live...

Check out the blog titled HELP!  That is my room.  It’s the one right by the sign.  Probably the best room in the house.. big windows.. it’s a big room.  Clean, lovely.  However…

It’s a motel room.  It is on the highway.  It costs $35 a night and I don’t care where you are in the world, $35 does not buy you much. 

Not like my buddy on the golf course. 

I have mentioned my Muslim buddy.. the one I met in KL.  She is settled already.. well into the job and living on .. a golf course.  Her schools are small and located in rice paddies and isolated areas around a nice sized city on the freeway.. Did I mention she lives on the golf course.

Got her place all furnished and ready to go.  Another teacher was leaving as she was arriving and just handed it all over. 

No one is leaving my area: at least no one with a place on the golf course.  I haven’t actually seen a golf course. 

I am hopeful though.  Some of my teachers know of places I could live.  At least that is what they say: I hope they aren’t just being nice.  I am calling one of the women tomorrow. I want to get out of hotels!  Besides.. the sign squeaks in the night. 

I have visited all my schools.  They are lovely and the people are very friendly.  They have been patiently waiting for me to arrive.  They knew other schools had ‘native speakers’ and I was expected.  Which is good. 

I took my shoes off at the door.. ate rice with my hands, took cream and sugar in my tea..  I could get used to this.  I will get used to this.  I talked to a group of student teachers.  I have met a number of really lovely people and will get to know just 15 really well, as we spend the next three years together developing our own way of presenting English to a new generation of Malays. 

But first, I need a place to live. 

A place on the golf course, fully furnished?  That would be good.  However, just a place to call my own.  A place where I can unpack my suitcase.  A home with a fridge and milk.. that isn’t chocolate (don’t ask). 

A place where the sign doesn’t squeak in the breeze.  A place that rents by the month, maybe 400 Ringett a month.. not 100 a night.  A place where I could set up an office.. a kitchen.. a garden.  A place to call home: for a while.

It really doesn’t have to be on a golf course. 

But it could be…. Any time now!!!