Uptown girl

Could I have imagined that one day I would be living in one of Bangkok's nicest areas? No, but the truth is that I am. My fancy condo is located on Sukhumvit 40 and it takes me less than 10 minutes to walk from there to the skytrain station, my fast connection to the rest of the city.

I loved the place as soon as I laid my eyes on it. By lunchtime on Saturday, I had already agreed to meet the landlord on Sunday morning and pay him one month's rent plus deposit. In exchange, he would give me a one-year contract plus keys. When I found out on Saturday afternoon that I was not able to withdraw the money I needed, I was not happy. And this was the reason why I ended up spending a couple of hours wondering if I would be able to secure the place, if I would be able to stay in the hotel if needed and, most importantly, if I would be able to use the card again (by then, I thought that there was something wrong with it and that I would need to get another one; I wasn't aware of the fact that there's a limited amount of money you can withdraw per 5 days. Live and learn).

When I met the landlord on Sunday morning I was feeling pretty anxious. Fortunately, he was very understanding and agreed to let me move in the next day under the condition that all would be solved by the end of the week.

So on Monday - my first teaching day - I checked out of the hotel and hopped on a taxi with the intention of dropping my luggage at the new place just before heading towards the school. As Julia Roberts put it in "Pretty Woman", big mistake, big. Huge! Let me just say this, if you haven't been stuck in traffic in Bangkok, you have never been stuck in traffic; I mean, at some point the cars were just not moving. At all. For 20 minutes. Can you imagine how frustrating it felt? On my first day at work no less? Eventually, I got to the condo, dropped my stuff, changed clothes and made it to the school just in time for my first class.

And this morning I was finally able to withdraw the money I needed so I'll be sorting everything out with the landlord very soon. It definitely feels good not having to worry about finding a place to stay anymore; and it feels great not having to worry about safety, etc. - after all, I'm living in a white bread world...

"And when she's walking
She's looking so fine
And when she's talking
She'll say that she's mine..."