Fitting the Apartment

So, one day to go before the course and I have found an apartment and fitted it out with the bare necessities. My flat is "brand new" by which one means, it is left pretty much as one would leave a building site with concrete dust everywhere and marks and stains on the concrete floor. No hot water system and no curtains on this ground floor flat. Still, the nun at Thosamling assured me that it was one of the best she had seen, so I went to town - literally - to get everything I needed.

A few days later it was done, curtain rods drilled in place - a frustrating task especially with a blunt drill bit and precious little in the way of drilling skills - a hot water system "installed" ($80 for the system, $5 for the bolts to hold it in place and $5 for the hoses) - just drill the bolts to the wall, chuck it on, screw on the hoses and plug it in. Mmmm hot water - out of a bucket on a cold stained concrete floor - I feel sooo decadent. Speaking of decadence, I have to also confess that in a moment of weakness I lashed out and bought a toaster. Makes the dodgy bread a little tastier though.

Otherwise, I was surprised at how much I had to buy and how empty my apartment feels. OK, so I only have one piece of 'real' furniture - a coffee table - but I feel I have been flat out buying stuff since I moved in. Glad I have the table though - it it weren't for that, the folding mattress I bought as the living room couch and a tin chest for my clothes, I would never have been able to get up high enough to drill in the brackets for the curtains.

Living in full view of others does have its advantages. One of my neighbours is Jangchub, and 8 year old Tibetan boy who poked his face against the window a few times before plucking up the courage to drop in and stand around and watch the crazy Injee (Tibetan name for "English") squat down and scrub his entire concrete floor with a bucket and chux wipe to get the dust off (it worked though). Today, LM and I put Jangchub through his paces as our Tibetan teacher this afternoon as the final drilling was completed. He is a little shy, but soon got the hang of it - although remained rather bemused by our efforts. Unfortunately since the time of writing this draft, Jangchub has done "house changing" and gone up to McLeod Ganj to live at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts ("TIPA"). It was hard to tell whether he was happy or sad about it. I think maybe a little apprehensive, but ok.