Operation: Move

My employer really likes Matthew and because of this we were offered a bigger place than advertised during the interview. The place was under renovations and has been ready since the beginning of this month. However, there was no furniture, nor had the air-conditioner or internet been installed. We had been pressured to move but we were waiting until everything was set, and for a bed at the very least. Finally one arrived (the contract states I am to be provided a furnished room, and I don't personally want to go out of pocket for something I won't be able to keep), but it was much smaller. This was going to be a bit of a problem because my boss wanted us to bring the mattress from our old place to the new place. Apparently we were responsible for its transportation. The mattress we have is a king size and the bed he gave us was a double. So, it wasn't going to fit. Matthew refused to use that bed (he hates headboards), so we assembled it and left it in an empty room on the main floor; it's going to be used by my boss (if he gets a mattress for it) when he needs to stay in town overnight. My boss actually lives two cities over which is about a 1.5 hour drive. He had mentioned that he will take one of the two rooms on the main floor for himself.

Anyway, the whole process was sketch to say the least. Not that I should be surprised. The housing standards here are on the cheap side for sure. It's a fun place but the architecture is definitely not pretty. I am quite the fan of architecture (having studied it as a student of art history in university) and there is nothing worth looking at here. The cities have some buildings that aren't bad, but they are mostly office buildings. The condos are just plain hideous and boring. But, they just don't seem to care about aesthetics when it comes to anything here.

Moving to the new place was quite the workout and perhaps a little ridiculous. We had already given our new neighbours reasons to doubt us with our rooftop shenanigans and if anyone saw us this past weekend, they have even more reasons to doubt us: Matthew and I decided to carry our king size bed to our new place.

We had spent the day moving all of our personal things, and some "furniture" from the school which they don't use. Pretty much everything was at the new place except for the bed. We were exhausted but I wanted to have a good night's sleep and it wouldn't happen on tile flooring. Plus, I didn't want to have to do it after work the next day, and Matthew couldn't carry it alone. Our old place is about a 20 minute walk from our new place, but carrying our bed, which only comes in two pieces, turned into about an hour trek for each piece. It was about one in the morning when we finally got the whole bed to our new place. Assembling it was a breeze (you just place both pieces next to each other and put the mattress on top, no screws or anything). After the bed was ready, I took the most refreshing shower of my life and slept like a rock.

Now that we have a bigger place, doing things are a lot easier. I even went out and bought an oven so I can bake. I know that what Matthew misses most from back home is the bread. Bread here is almost like a cake. All of the breads are sweet and have a sponge-like texture. He also had a junk-food craving last week and couldn't find any fresh cookies (he doesn't like boxed anything). So, he was disappointed to say the least. Cookies are very simple to make (I made some the other day and they were the best peanut butter cookies I have ever made), but bread always seemed like a lot of work (without using a bread-machine), but I will try it. I can admit, it would be nice to have some toast without any sugar in it. I will let you know how it goes, if I manage to find all the ingredients that is.