Signed, Sealed, Delivered....well, kinda!

Okay, so who woulda thunk it...we just signed a lease agreement in a foreign country for this next year.  THAT was an experience!   I went last Friday to look for a place while David was in class then we all four went on Saturday.  We saw some interesting places!  The most memorable was a house.  Let's just say before we got out of the car I told David, "This is not an option, k?!"  He agreed.  We went and looked just to be polite.  Afterall, he drove us all the way there and "there" was...a bit toooooo remote from civilization for me us!  We drove down narrow alley ways- like lots of them!  We twisted and turned, honked every 5 seconds for either a motor biker, dog, rooster or something to get out of the way until we got to this huge red gate- a locked gate. I must say it was a totally different word "behind the gate".   It was quiet, peaceful, simple- loved that!  There were four small homes with beautiful gardens, gazeebo, and swing.  You literally couldn't hear a thing while we waited for Mr. Ahn to get the key and let us inside the home.  All that said if that had been back in the states where things were somewhat familiar, THAT would have been the place we would have chosen.  BUT....in this case, too many dark, back alleys with nobody that spoke english and nobody tall and blonde....I'm thinkin' maybe not the best choice for a newbie.

So....I took David and the girls back to a couple of places I thought would be possibilities.  He liked, I liked, both girls liked...we slept on it.  We negotiated yesterday.  We signed the deal today and will move in on the 23rd.  Merry Christmas to us!  This place is NOT the typical apartment here at all!   I can't believe we found such a nice place.  We feel very blessed.  Most places don't have ovens and dryers.  The two gentlemen who took us apartment hunting have been great.  They speak english- one better than the other.  It's been a bit of a challenge to communicate our needs, but overall it's been an interesting experience.  David's company reviewed the contract just to make sure we knew what we were signing (yes, it was in both languages!). 

If you'd ask me one year ago today I'd be living where we are, I would have never guessed it.  It's not shocking to me or David, but I don't think I would have ever guessed where.  It's been such a great first week.  I feel like I've already lived so much life and have experienced so much...and I have!

back to apartment living!

 bad picture but in front of Abigail is a huge window that overlooks a lake...the realtor is standing in between the kitchen and the dining area...up those stairs is kinda a loft.  That will be our school/playroom!

Looks like a fairly normal kitchen, right??  Well, it's pretty "not normal" to have an oven!  Man, I thought I would be off the hook for cooking for awhile : )  Also, pretty rare to find a place with a dryer.  Well, we found one, and it's in the kitchen.

This is standing right in front of our new "home" looking down the street (lake is on the left).  Don't ya just feel you're right there with us...HA!  We're so grateful for this place.  It's waaaaay better than we both thought we'd find!  HE is good to us!

Where we'll park the motor bike...


and by the way...my blog is driving me crazy.  If anyone knows how to upload the pics without leaving the "borders" off, let me know!!!! Probably nobody has noticed, but it bugs me!

So apparently this is an asian thing because this happened to us in China last year.  Send out your clothes for laundry (well, some of them...I've done it the old fashioned way in the tub this week and they're still not dry!) and they come back to you vacuumed wrapped!

Doesn't he looked relaxed???  He's got a huge test tomorrow, and he's alseep at 7:30pm!  Next time allow a weeeeee bit more time between checkride, flight overseas and beginning of training.  The jet lag and stress of it all is a killer.  I know you'll do great.  you always do!