Kindof Sortof....

I'm kind of in my new place. It's been an interesting 24 hours.

I checked into the apartment yesterday - everything was nice and clean. The landlady, her secretary, and my realitor all were there to help show me how everything works, go through the checklists, etc. i was nice and listened "attentively" as she showed me how to turn on the TV and turn the channels, etc. I'm a guy, don't need help in that department. She did translate the button diagram for the remotes controlling the airconditioning in each room. That was nice of her - so no complaints. The instructions for the all in one front loading washing machine (located in the kitchen next to the sink) were in English. So I tried to figure out how that thing worked.

Now this place is BRAND NEW on the inside - completely redone from top to bottom. I'll be the first person to live in there. So we had to plug the stove in (electric), the washing machine in... I noticed the water wasn't exactly flowing into the washing machine. Well nobody had turned the valve going from the sink to the washing machine. As I turned that on, I noticed a tube coming back from the washing machine that was unattached. I asked what that was for, we got the land lady and she claimed it was extra and assured me that the return tube connects below and won't be a problem. Yes, this is what you call "foreshadowing" and I'm not very good at it.

As the washing machine ran, the internet wasn't working either. ADSL, so it's not my normal cup of tea and even I couldn't figure it out on first try. But they would call and get the cable guy to come out in the morning - so off to dinner to "celebrate" we went.

After dinner, my realitor went back to the train to head home (it was after 8pm) and I went back to my apartment to find it..... FLOODED! So yeah - American Dude 1, Chinese women in my apartment at the time 0. Funny part is that there is nowhere to attach that return tube, otherwise I would have connected it or made a stronger point of it. My guess is that who ever connected the washer, noticed it wouldn't connect, but forgot to convey the message onto someone else to make sure it got fixed. Kind of like hooking up a garbage disposal but forgetting to put an electrical outlet in underneath the sink.

Well - back to the hotel I came. I was far from a good mood at that point. Today was actually a day of improvements. By the time I went back to the apartment at 1pm to wait for the internet guy, the place had been cleaned up, the rug was hanging up to dry, and started to look respectable again. The sink was now unusable as the return pipe for everything was tore out (should be fixed Friday morning I was told). Then the bonus was that I actually got my wireless router to connect to the internet by myself and I am now fully wired/wireless in my apartment in the middle of Taipei!!!!! I accomplished this about 2 minutes before the internet guy showed up. He verified my settings were correct, then went on his way. Sure, I felt bad he came all that way - but he'll get over it.

After work I did round 1 of shopping. Pillows, Sheets and comforter (I did the bed in a bag thing), and an assortment of other stuff (new phone and answering machine.... get this - phone menu is all in English, but the lady that talks on the machine to tell you how many messages you have, etc. is all in Chinese. It works, how hard is it to check messages and delete them?

She thought she was doing me a favor by buying me a queen sized bed (which was perfectly fine) but it's "extended". All she did was make it very difficult to buy sheets. But at the moment, I have king sheets on there - and it'll get the job done short term till I find an alternate solution. I'll be making another trip to Costco this weekend sometime to get towels, and other things to fill the place.

So that's my story - and I'm stickin' to it. Tomorrow I head to a supplier for the day, so don't expect a blog till later. Depends if we go out or not. I'll be traveling with 2 IBMers from Taiwan which will make the trip more enjoyable!!!

It is May Day today - May 1st is also Labour Day in Taiwan. Most of the IBM team was working, but most of the rest of the facility that we exist in were not working. Including banks and mail service. So I have to wait till Monday now to get my green card thing and get on with the settling in. Oh well - this has been a great lesson in patience!

Have a great May Day!!! Hopefully no more snow in Rochester! It's warm and humid here!