Feeling the pressure & the rain

Wow, what a day I had yesterday! 

So I went by myself to an area off the skytrain (Ari) that I was told was a good place to look for apartments. It was a beautiful area, sort of like the Thai equivalent to NYC's East Village, with a lot of tree lined streets, hip coffee shops, and what seemed to be a lot of Westerners. I thought, great, this is the place for me. So I just wandered aimlessly trying to find apartment buildings. I went in to a few lobby's and, again, through hand gestures and pointing, was able to find the office of about half of the ones I tried to find. The other half went like this:
Me:"APARTMENT.....FOOOOR......REEENT?? (slow and drawn out)
Thai person working there: Nods head while smiling and speaks to me in Thai.
Me: staring blankly and then repeating..."AAAPPPAAARRRTTMEEENNNTTT?" while smiling.
Thai person: Again nods head and smiles.
Me: Nodding head and smiling while walking away.

I can see how people that just move to the States and speak no English feel! I will be much more aware of
what immigrants go through now!  Anyway, the ones I went in were WAAAYYY out of my price range. My price range was $5,000 - $7,000 Baht per month. These apartments were $25,000/mo. and up. I pounded the pavement in the rain all day and by 5pm my shoes were soaked through and ruined, my hair was wet, I was sweaty and smelly and dirty from trudging around in the rain all day on foot. Needless to say, I was starting to get really discouraged. I thought, there is no way that someone like me, that doesn't even speak the language can find an apartment without help of some kind.

So at my darkest hour, a ray of hope descended on me when an apartment finder agreed to meet
me when he got off work to show me something around where he lived. This was amazing really because when
I called them earlier they don't have anything less than $10,000 B/mo. so he was just doing me a favor by
showing me a building that was close to where he lived on his way home. Anyway, long story short, the
apartment he showed me was absolutely amazing; more than I was every hoping for, for only $6,000 b/mo. (for
some idea as to what that is American money, it's $200 dollars a month, but you figure, I'm only making the
equivalent of $1,100 dollars a month so it's all relative.) It's furnished and even has a kitchen table, nice bathroom, hot water, fridge, tv, nice wardrobe, big balcony with great view, fast internet, brand new building, gated. I mean for what you get here, it's great to have all these amenities. A lot of places don't have hot water or a table or a nice bathroom with a western type shower and toilet so I feel blessed!

Stay tuned for pics of my new place!