Home decorating

So I have found an apartment and am moving in two days. What a way to start a blog entry, eh? I'll try to  make it more exciting from here. Probably through the copious use of exclamation marks.

I am trying to figure out how to decorate a new apartment! With extremely limited funds. Extremely limited. So limited that I won't actually be purchasing anything in the new few MONTHS, so I guess how to decorate my new place isn't a very pressing concern.

But it's fun, dangit.

Here is what I know will go into my new apartment.

1. A table.
2. A laptop.
3. Clothes and other personal items.
4. A sofa or futon.

Well that's about it so far. There are multiple reasons for my lack of prospective furnishings. One is that everything I had owned has been procured by other people in my family due to my absence overseas. I'm a little bitter. Two is that  I only have a little car, and lots of stuff won't fit into it. So I'll have to bring things or buy them later. Three is that I have only a bit of expendable income, and that will go towards purchasing an itty bitty futon or sofa and that is what I will sleep on until I can buy a bed because... I won't have a bed.

But I will have some curtains! I should add that to my list.

5. Curtains.

Boracay Island, August 2009

Well, tomorrow I'm off to sign my contract for employment, and find myself a place to live. This is a daunting task, as I've already called several places and most told me that they wouldn't have any spots available, or some were simply too big for me, and too expensive. But I have a feeling that I may have to settle for too big, since that's preferable to no place to live at all. Or living in a car. Or a tent. Or a house made of sticks, because I hear those aren't very good at keeping predators out. Here's hoping for good luck.

I'm pretty sure I'll have to decorate a classroom? Not sure how that's going to work out. Am I going to have to go buy some motivational posters of kittens hanging off a tree? In Korea, we'd print off pictures of different rooms in a house and laminate them with big labels to identify them. I think that might be a little simplistic. I'll have to gain some ideas from my coworkers, I guess.

At this time last year, I was coming back from a trip to the Philippines. I am hoping at this time next year to be coming back from a visit to somewhere. Korea maybe, but... it could be anywhere.

In the meantime, I will reminisce over that past summer vacation.

This is the hostel we stayed at, the Boracay Butterfly Gardens. We didn't see any butterflies. The hostel itself was very nice, and it was right on the beach. This wasn't the main beach on Boracay, White Beach, but Bulabog beach, which was quieter, and filled with boats. Fortunately, White Beach was only about a 10-15 minute walk away.

Here is a view of some of the boats at the beach. We went on one of these later , and went island hopping and snorkeling. And for the record, I get seasick like whoa. Knowing that previously would have basically killed my desire to go island hopping or snorkeling or to even set foot on the boat. Unfortunately, I only figured it out once we were out at sea and entering the choppy waves. That part was not so pleasant. Also, please note the cloudy skies. Apparently, if you go to the Philippines in August, it's rainy season. Fortunately, while it does rain every day, it's usually brief and warm, and we still went swimming during the showers.

Here we have a small bit of sun off of White beach. And a sailboat. There were also lots of kiteboarders, which I had never seen before. It was really amazing, until one of my coworkers got hit by one. Which was still pretty amazing.
White Beach was beautiful but windy. During the rainy season they have to set up windbreaks to keep the sand from blowing in off the beach and smacking you in the face. Which, while I'm sure is nice and exfoliating, isn't so pleasant when you're scratching sand out of your eyes. And your nose. And your teeth.
The main stretch of beach has tons of shops, restaurants, and little bars. I stopped for a henna tattoo, and we all got mango shakes and wow. Mango shakes are awesome. I also bought tons of dried mangoes to take back to Seoul for my coworkers... but I ended up keeping most of it for myself. Let them get their own dried mangoes, those were mine!

He sells fresh coconuts to the tourists out snorkeling.

During that ill-fated island hopping expedition.

 

 

 

At least I didn't get hit by a kiteboarder.