I was told in early November I could move into my apartment Dec. 1st. I asked them when the other tenant was moving out. They said the 21st. So I asked why can't I move in the 22nd. We need to clean they say. I said I would clean it if I could move in earlier. They said they would let me know. So about the 19th 20th, they say I can move in the 27th. So on the 25, I arrange for my tuk tuk driver, tell the hotel I am leaving and pack all my crap. So, get this - On the evening of the 25th, I get this text message telling me I could move in on the 2nd of December. I call the realtor up and read him the riot act, and he said he would ask the people. So he texts me again and said that they asked me to please wait until the 2nd. So I call the realtor up again and tell him I needed to talk to him. So he meets me at my school and I told him that what they did to me was not fair, it was rude and it is illegal in the U.S. (yeah, yeah, this is not AMERICA). I told him if I move out before my lease is up they keep my deposit - that is what is call recourse or compensation. They reneged on their agreement to me, so where is my recourse and compensation. I told them to go tell them to either pay my rent for the next five days or give me back my deposit. I also told him that he should have told them that they couldn't do that; that the person who was still living there had to leave - not me. What makes him more important than I am. THAT was the agreement. He finally admitted he texted me instead of calling me because he knew I would be livid.
Anyway, the people offered to let me stay in an empty bedroom that had a bathroom attached and I didn't have to walk through their house to leave. OK, I can live with that. Some people just do not know not to mess with a Young. Ha Ha.
But they are a very nice family and last night at 8:30, they knocked on my door and told me I could move in right then. So the whole family carried my stuff upstairs. Funny thing is was that I said I would clean it myself if I could move in early. Not only did I move in late, but it hadn't been cleaned. It wasn't horrible, but the refrigerator will take some time to clean and there was a sheet and two pillows on the bed that looked like they had been on there for a year at least. I just took them off and used a blanket I bought when I first came here. So this weekend I have to go out and get towels, sheets, at least one pan - hey I might want to warm up a can of soup.
For some reason the lady was impressed with me and wanted to rent to me. After all - how much trouble can a little old lady school teacher cause.
My apartment is one of the nicer ones and I am so glad to be in my own place after living in a hotel out of a suitcase for two months.
Showing posts with label Housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Housing. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
My Roommate
Myat Myat Soe is a girl I have been sharing my hotel room with for about three weeks. She is 31 and from Burma (now called Myanmar). She is the sweetest, kindest thing, but is she ever naive. I think that is the way that Burma wants it to be. She got married three months before she came here to study with Language Corps. She has never lived with her husband. She lives with her mother and he lives with his parents. Her mother does not want to live alone, so Myat stays with her. Get this - Myat's husband pays her mother's rent and gives her money for food and clothes and the mother will not let him live with her and Myat. I told her that would NEVER happen in the U.S.; that the husband would tell his wife to take a flying leap (not in those words, of course). The woman is not disabled and she is 52 years old and widowed.
She asked me what I did when I decided not to have any more than three children. I had to explain what a tubal ligation was. Then I told her it was easier for a man to have a vasectomy because it costs less and is less painful than a woman having her tubes tied. She asked me if it was 100% foolproof. I told her that a couple is advised to use protection for a couple of months to make sure he is shooting blanks (also not in those words). So she says - then they can never have children? So I explain to her that there is this thing called in vitro fertilization and how it works. She asked me - how does it (the embryo) get in there. Her eyes were wider than saucers.
Then she asked me when I got married to my husband did I really love him or was I forced to marry him. Can you believe that? I told her that no one in the U.S. is forced to marry anyone except for a few small groups of people who believe the president of their church speaks for God and tells these 14 - 15 year old girls to marry these old men and they do it because they truly believe it is the word of God.
She did not know what the halocaust was or the Khmer Rouge; what was a Nazi or anything about the concentration camps. She never heard of Saddam Hussein, Stalin - or many other wicked men who wanted to control the world. We have had hours and hours of conversations; then, she tells me she wants to grow to be just like I am. (Don't die laughing over that.) I think that since she knows so little about the outside world, she thinks I know everything. But I constantly tell her that I really know nothing compared to what there is to know.
But we spend a lot of time talking about the power we have inside ourselves to be the person we want to be. She told me the most important thing I taught her was not to let anyone ever treat her as if she were "less than" they are. I told her they could be richer, thinner, prettier, smarter, yada. yada, yada - but that no one is "better than."
So the day she moves out, she makes me sit on the bed and kneels before me, puts her palms together under her chin and bows three times, as if she is praying to Buddha (yes, she is Buddhist). She tells me she is sorry if she ever said or did anything bad to me. I told her she didn't know how to do or say anything bad. She is without a doubt one of the finest persons I have ever known. She calls me "Auntie" (well, it is better than grandma.)
Talk about getting an education.
I doubt I will go to Nepal or Tibet at the end of my contract. After being here for nine months, I don't think I can go to another third world country for awhile. Like I said, I am planning to go to Viet Nam in December and Burma between Christmas and New Year's (if I can find someone to go with me, the girl from the U.K. I was going with can't go with me).
More than enough of this for now.
She asked me what I did when I decided not to have any more than three children. I had to explain what a tubal ligation was. Then I told her it was easier for a man to have a vasectomy because it costs less and is less painful than a woman having her tubes tied. She asked me if it was 100% foolproof. I told her that a couple is advised to use protection for a couple of months to make sure he is shooting blanks (also not in those words). So she says - then they can never have children? So I explain to her that there is this thing called in vitro fertilization and how it works. She asked me - how does it (the embryo) get in there. Her eyes were wider than saucers.
Then she asked me when I got married to my husband did I really love him or was I forced to marry him. Can you believe that? I told her that no one in the U.S. is forced to marry anyone except for a few small groups of people who believe the president of their church speaks for God and tells these 14 - 15 year old girls to marry these old men and they do it because they truly believe it is the word of God.
She did not know what the halocaust was or the Khmer Rouge; what was a Nazi or anything about the concentration camps. She never heard of Saddam Hussein, Stalin - or many other wicked men who wanted to control the world. We have had hours and hours of conversations; then, she tells me she wants to grow to be just like I am. (Don't die laughing over that.) I think that since she knows so little about the outside world, she thinks I know everything. But I constantly tell her that I really know nothing compared to what there is to know.
But we spend a lot of time talking about the power we have inside ourselves to be the person we want to be. She told me the most important thing I taught her was not to let anyone ever treat her as if she were "less than" they are. I told her they could be richer, thinner, prettier, smarter, yada. yada, yada - but that no one is "better than."
So the day she moves out, she makes me sit on the bed and kneels before me, puts her palms together under her chin and bows three times, as if she is praying to Buddha (yes, she is Buddhist). She tells me she is sorry if she ever said or did anything bad to me. I told her she didn't know how to do or say anything bad. She is without a doubt one of the finest persons I have ever known. She calls me "Auntie" (well, it is better than grandma.)
Talk about getting an education.
I doubt I will go to Nepal or Tibet at the end of my contract. After being here for nine months, I don't think I can go to another third world country for awhile. Like I said, I am planning to go to Viet Nam in December and Burma between Christmas and New Year's (if I can find someone to go with me, the girl from the U.K. I was going with can't go with me).
More than enough of this for now.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Things are looking up!
As hard as this has been for me, I am amazed at my good fortune. I have no doubt that I was blessed to be working at the best school (at least for me) in all of Cambodia. I was the first one in our whole class of 27 to get a job. The other classmates fell off their chairs in shock (well, that is what they get for thinking they are so smart, ha ha). Okay, so American Pacific University was desperate. My contract is up the last week in June. I told Hayley and she asked me - are you coming home to stay? Who knows? I am pretty sure that being in a third-world country for nine months may have cured me, but . . . . one never knows. I am hoping to go to Nepal and Tibet before coming home. Going to Viet Nam for Christmas.
I have about 10 students in the morning and about 8 in the afternoon and a full-time teacher's assistant. They seem to follow the same plan every single day, so I am slowly trying to change things because I can't see that they are learning much. I went out and finally found some crayons (at about the fifth store I went to). She had them coloring with colored pencils, which meant that it took them twice as long to get the page colored. She had been teaching them the alphabet - but in capital letters - so I told the her that I wanted to start over and start with the lower case. I hope I didn't offend her, so to make sure, I asked another teacher who blatantly told me, "Cheryl, you are the teacher. She is the assistant. You make the decisions, not her." She is very good at what she does, and she has control over the students that I am still learning, so I am very grateful to have her. I am always praising her, so I hope she will be okay with the changes. I mean - how many times can a person be forced to sing: "There Was a Farmer Who Had a Dog and Bingo was his Name-o? They sing it in assembly and then after taking attendance and then after recess and then we go through the same thing again in the afternoon. So, I taught them, "I am a Little Teapot." Each week we will work on a new one. And they sing that blankety-blank ABC song more than that.
I move into my new apartment sometime between Nov.22 and December 1st. The guy who lives there now moves out the 21st, but she said she wanted to clean it. She doesn't speak English, so I told the realtor that if she let me move in the 22nd that I would clean it. I haven't heard the verdict yet. Hotel living gets old after awhile. But get this, it has two beds in it and I am paying $10 a night. It is just as nice as the one I stayed in in Ontario, Oregon when I was there in September for $69 a night.
The apartment was a little higher than I wanted to pay. Most everyone here pays $200 to $250 a month for a one-bedroom place, and she wanted $300, so the realtor got her to consent to $280 - but she told me I couldn't use her washing machine (she would have to pay the water). I can have this laundry place do my laundry for that amount and it comes back dry and folded. It was the nicest apartment I saw and it takes about one minute and 30 seconds to walk to work; that alone will save me $2/day on a moto - and with two artificial hips, those things are hard to get on and off of. I could almost walk it, but there is this four lane highway I cannot cross by myself. It is not the distance so much but the heat and humidity would kill me.
And the kitchen is so small - you have to go outside to change your mind - but the only reason I have a kitchen anyway is because it came with the apartment. I mean - who cooks?. Not only that - there is a KFC right around the corner. The best thing is that it has a veranda to die for and you walk through a garden to get to the apartment - most everyone else walks through a cement hallway or two of three flights of stairs that look like the way to a dungeon.
More later - the heat has taken it's toll on me for now.
I have about 10 students in the morning and about 8 in the afternoon and a full-time teacher's assistant. They seem to follow the same plan every single day, so I am slowly trying to change things because I can't see that they are learning much. I went out and finally found some crayons (at about the fifth store I went to). She had them coloring with colored pencils, which meant that it took them twice as long to get the page colored. She had been teaching them the alphabet - but in capital letters - so I told the her that I wanted to start over and start with the lower case. I hope I didn't offend her, so to make sure, I asked another teacher who blatantly told me, "Cheryl, you are the teacher. She is the assistant. You make the decisions, not her." She is very good at what she does, and she has control over the students that I am still learning, so I am very grateful to have her. I am always praising her, so I hope she will be okay with the changes. I mean - how many times can a person be forced to sing: "There Was a Farmer Who Had a Dog and Bingo was his Name-o? They sing it in assembly and then after taking attendance and then after recess and then we go through the same thing again in the afternoon. So, I taught them, "I am a Little Teapot." Each week we will work on a new one. And they sing that blankety-blank ABC song more than that.
I move into my new apartment sometime between Nov.22 and December 1st. The guy who lives there now moves out the 21st, but she said she wanted to clean it. She doesn't speak English, so I told the realtor that if she let me move in the 22nd that I would clean it. I haven't heard the verdict yet. Hotel living gets old after awhile. But get this, it has two beds in it and I am paying $10 a night. It is just as nice as the one I stayed in in Ontario, Oregon when I was there in September for $69 a night.
The apartment was a little higher than I wanted to pay. Most everyone here pays $200 to $250 a month for a one-bedroom place, and she wanted $300, so the realtor got her to consent to $280 - but she told me I couldn't use her washing machine (she would have to pay the water). I can have this laundry place do my laundry for that amount and it comes back dry and folded. It was the nicest apartment I saw and it takes about one minute and 30 seconds to walk to work; that alone will save me $2/day on a moto - and with two artificial hips, those things are hard to get on and off of. I could almost walk it, but there is this four lane highway I cannot cross by myself. It is not the distance so much but the heat and humidity would kill me.
And the kitchen is so small - you have to go outside to change your mind - but the only reason I have a kitchen anyway is because it came with the apartment. I mean - who cooks?. Not only that - there is a KFC right around the corner. The best thing is that it has a veranda to die for and you walk through a garden to get to the apartment - most everyone else walks through a cement hallway or two of three flights of stairs that look like the way to a dungeon.
More later - the heat has taken it's toll on me for now.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Finally Student Teaching
I finished my first week of student teaching. It was only for an hour a day for five days. I loved the kids and they were bright ESL students. It was an orphanage school. When I left I gave them each a stick of gum. Get this - they didn't know what it was. The teacher had to explain to them that you are not to swallow it but chew it until the flavor is gone and throw it away. (I can't help but wonder just how many of them swallowed it anyway.) It never crossed my mind they would not know what chewing gum is.
This week I am student teaching at another orphanage. It is a lot poorer and the kids are not as nearly advanced. It's down by the Mekong River and you wouldn't believe the poverty. Families living on small boats. It never ceases to amaze me the things I see.
Cheryl
This week I am student teaching at another orphanage. It is a lot poorer and the kids are not as nearly advanced. It's down by the Mekong River and you wouldn't believe the poverty. Families living on small boats. It never ceases to amaze me the things I see.
Cheryl
Monday, October 12, 2009
Movin On Up
(Written 10-9-09)
I spent the whole day alone today. All the other students went to the countries they signed up for - Thailand, Viet Nam, or China. There are only about 6 of us that are staying in Cambodia. I am moving tomorrow out of the guest house that I have been staying since I got here. I will be in a building that Language Corps. owns. The only advantage is that I will not be walking up 3 flights of narrow steep steps every time I go in and out. I will not have a TV in my room or my own bathroom. But I think it will only be for two weeks.
I doubt I will ever learn to type of this @#$^&*( laptop. I WANT MY ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD.
-Cheryl
I spent the whole day alone today. All the other students went to the countries they signed up for - Thailand, Viet Nam, or China. There are only about 6 of us that are staying in Cambodia. I am moving tomorrow out of the guest house that I have been staying since I got here. I will be in a building that Language Corps. owns. The only advantage is that I will not be walking up 3 flights of narrow steep steps every time I go in and out. I will not have a TV in my room or my own bathroom. But I think it will only be for two weeks.
I doubt I will ever learn to type of this @#$^&*( laptop. I WANT MY ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD.
-Cheryl
Monday, October 5, 2009
Hello From Cambodia
(From E-mail originally sent 9-26-09)
The humidity is stiffling. Took 25 hours to get here.
Went to two museums yesterday that were monuments to The Killing Fields. Had to walk away a couple of times when the guide was describing the tortures that went on.
Reminds me a lot of India.
My room is small, but the bathroom is so funny. It is only big enough for a toilet and a sink and you have to move sideways to close the door. The shower is a hose hooked to the wall and the water just goes over the toilet and sink. The stairs to my room on the third floor are so steep and narrow. By the time I get there I have to take a rest before I can do anything else.
There are 26 people in my class. I am by far the oldest. My own kids are older than they are. Oh, well. I told them if they needed any motherly advice to come and see me; I would set them straight.
When/if you answer, please do so on my gmail account so I can get all the addresses transferred over. travelingcheryl@gmail.com
Later, Cheryl
The humidity is stiffling. Took 25 hours to get here.
Went to two museums yesterday that were monuments to The Killing Fields. Had to walk away a couple of times when the guide was describing the tortures that went on.
Reminds me a lot of India.
My room is small, but the bathroom is so funny. It is only big enough for a toilet and a sink and you have to move sideways to close the door. The shower is a hose hooked to the wall and the water just goes over the toilet and sink. The stairs to my room on the third floor are so steep and narrow. By the time I get there I have to take a rest before I can do anything else.
There are 26 people in my class. I am by far the oldest. My own kids are older than they are. Oh, well. I told them if they needed any motherly advice to come and see me; I would set them straight.
When/if you answer, please do so on my gmail account so I can get all the addresses transferred over. travelingcheryl@gmail.com
Later, Cheryl
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