a mostly dry morning

Well, we awoke to a dry living room floor despite the heavy storms all night.  What a relief---though not really a surprise because neither of us really slept last night.  I gave Chris the cold I had, and he's absolutely miserable---like I was!  We couldn't have the air conditioning on in the bedroom because of concern for the water dripping onto all of our books (being us, we brought quite a few books over here!) which are piled on the dresser because we can't have them in the living room because of potential flooding.  So, we put the air conditioner on in the living room to at least get something cool (and we can't open windows in the bed room because they don't open).  Chris got up at one point in the night to check on the living room and found that water was pooling on and around the TV from the air conditioner.   Fortunately for us, the TV comes with the place and it isn't ours to get damaged!

Now, it is nearly 9am, and we have no lights in the bedroom or in the bathroom because that circuit breaker that kept tripping last night, tripped again last night just before I went to bed.  Apparently, the light on the balcony got drenched in the rain and the whole thing needs to be replaced as the power switch on the inside (the one that is used to turn the light on and off) is what keeps shorting out.  We don't even use that light or the switch, but for some reason, it is on the same circuit as the bedroom and bathroom lights even though they are on opposite sides of the apartment.  So, we are using the flashlight when we go to the bathroom and shower.  

Just to show, this is our apartment building's site:

http://www.oakwood.com/serviced-apartments/furnished/TH/Bangkok/prop7228.html

All of these things---the mail forwarding company, the serviced apartment, the car and driver---were supposed to make the "living in another country for a job" easier, and it seems, in a few ways, we would have been better off just doing it ourselves!  That is most definitely the case with the mail!  We should have just left money and a stack of envelopes with someone in Philadelphia, and once a week, they could have sent the important mail to us.  Eh, live and learn.  I mean, on the up-side of things, thank goodness I was home yesterday!!  And, it could always be worse.  Again, I am reminded that living in another country is quite different from being a Tourist.  We are trying to live "normal" lives in a place that most Westerners who visit, only visit on vacation.  And, we are learning important life lessons---such as: If there is a next time, we will pick an apartment that we like as opposed to one that would be good for the company (we thought it was more important for Chris to live near the hotel where the company always sends people so he'd be close to his coworkers for meetings and such).  Again, not saying that the other apartment wouldn't have had similar issues, but at least we would have liked the neighborhood better!  (Chris showed me on the map where the other apartment is...)

Also, no matter what, this is a good experience to have.  And now, we are wondering yet again: do we (well, it would be me doing it) pack up all our stuff and just put it in storage and just live out of our backpacks the last month?  Do we move to the hotel?  Do we change apartments within the same apartment building?  Or, do we just deal with this place and just wait?

Well, no matter what, we have about a month left here, and we have to decide sooner or later how we want to spend our last days here.  I am doing my best to resist announcing that I just want to be home.  Or, I just want to be on vacation with Chris---here in SE Asia.  There is still so much to see and do.  If nothing else, this experience has reminded us a thing or two about expectations and the need to be flexible yet again.  It looks like another cloudy day ahead of us.  Hopefully, it will be a dry one indoors!