marinegirl

I finally have a proper place to live! I’m officially an ex-ex-pat!Until now I’ve been staying at Harold’s Tourist Mansion - the back of the staff t-shirts reads: “Any cheaper and we would be sluts” ! It’s actually not as bad as it sounds, but I’ve been itching to move into a place where I can spread out and have a kitchen to cook in - it gets pretty tiring going out to eat every night, especially after a long day.

I seem to spend far too much of my life searching for houses. I found a lot of places that “accept lady lodgers”, but sadly no charming and affordable houses for rent. After looking at a few places, and ruling out a few others on location (one was next to the cock pit!), I eventually settled on an apartment on Rovira Drive. Well, two apartments. My landlord had a one bedroom place available, but on the 14th December a Korean girl in one of his two bedroom places wants to switch to the smaller one. So I’m in the one bedroom until December 14th, then in the two bedroom one! Luckily both apartments are off the same courtyard, so it won’t be too much hassle.

It’s more expensive than I would have liked, and less charming (I liked the idea of a nice little nipa hut by the beach…) but it’s really close to the marine lab, has a great kitchen (with an oven, which apparently is unheard of for a rental place in Duamguete, most just have stoves) and a night guard. Actually the apartment I’m in for the first few weeks is probably nicer than the one I’ll end up in, with wooden flooring from trees grown in my landlords orchard 18 years ago!

I’ll try and get some photos taken soon.