Our new digs...

So... here are some photos of our new place...

Our front door comes right into the kitchen. I like the kitchen. It's an open plan with LOTS of counter space (SUCH a nice change from every apartment I lived in in Latvia!) We have an oven and gas stove stop. I'm glad for the oven, I wasn't sure if there would be one. There is plenty of cupboard space as well, and the fridge and freezer are both a fine size.

This is the view onto the dining/living room. There are so many windows/doors in this place- it's bright and sunny all the time! Off the living room there are three sets of sliding glass doors. We'll have satellite tv on the tv there soon (we need to pick up the card from somewhere...). And yeah, you can see Joel's scarves all around. (Mook, we've already agreed that someday when we have our own house, he will have his own special room where he will hang them, for now, since there isn't such a space, they get to be in the living room.)

There he is now, at the tech corner he's set up for himself (computer, speakers, cameras, ipod, etc all in one place for him!) And here you can see our dining room table and chairs as well... we have room for four! Visitors? :)

Here is the bathroom... pretty simple. I do wish the shower was just a tad nicer... the shower head is really high up on the wall (not just because I'm short, but it is really WAY up there) and it's also quite small, so by the time the water hits me, there isn't much pressure. It's also just a little stand up one- so you have to be careful about the curtain being tucked in well, otherwise the floor floods, etc. I miss my shower in Shanghai. That was probably the best shower I've ever had.

Here is the bedroom. The bed is nice enough- I slept ok last night, so it's comfy too. There is lots of cupboard space as you can see, and it's nice- although it's a lot of kind of small spaces. We almost don't have enough space for our hanging clothes, but they just fit. Anyway, regardless of the practicality, I like the look. :)

This is the view from our bed. Another pair of sliding glass doors looks out onto our "back yard". Unfortunately, I don't know how much we will be able to keep these curtains open because, well, our little triangle of backyard isn't exactly private, and everyone else's backyards are right there too...so, we'll have to see what the deal is with privacy.

And here it is, our little triangle of backyard. You can see there is a fence that denotes our area- but it is open on the sides, so we (or anyone) can get in and out easily. There are a few flowers planted there- it sounds like people do tend to "garden" their little spaces if that is what they're into. Joel already said, "Can I mow this?!?" So I guess we'll see how much we end up doing with our little space. The grass, by the way, is a very different grass than what we are used to- it's kind of crunchy, really big blades, and by the looks of it, lots of blades grow out from one root system.

Here's the grass. :)

Here is our patio. Those two pairs of sliding glass doors open into the living room. It's nice to have that outside space- but again, there isn't anything we can do out there that would be private, so we'll just have to see how that goes.

For now the other teachers are not back yet- but it will be interesting to see how the feel of the place changes once we have neighbors, instead of just empty houses.

There are little things to get used to - like spiders running around the house. We also are still figuring out how to deal with the mosquitoes...we have one door that has a screen on it, but of course, just having one door open doesn't do much for getting air moving inside the house. So right now we have another door open, and already one fly in the house- I don't know how many mozzies are flying around now during the day- haven't seen any yet. But last night we had one door open a bit too late, and got a few mozzies in, who promptly decided to buzz our ears at 6am. Maybe we won't even need alarm clocks. :)

Like I said, the other new teachers are meant to be back sometime this afternoon- and the colleague we met yesterday at lunch time invited us over for beers tonight if nothing official is planned- so we'll see!