Oh Me! Oh My!

Pictures at last!

My new neighbor, Cathy, is off to Cebu for the weekend and dropped by my house this morning to ask if I'd like her to put all her Internet cordies and gadgeties out on the porch for me to use while she was away. Um, yes please!

So here I am, sitting on a bench, listening to chickens and cats scratch about in the yard, on an uncommonly cool day as I browse the list of Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program graduate programs online. Not too shabby as far as Saturday mornings go.

I've been in Clarin five days now, but somehow, in the best way possible, it feels longer.

I think this whole transfer thingy might just be working.

The town is pretty and green, the people curious but friendly, and even though the population is twice that of Lila, its distinctly more rural feeling due to a prevalence of overgrown lanes and persistent manifestations of jungle life. I'm enjoying the amenities as well. The convenience store, bakery, and Internet cafe all mean that I'll have to travel to Tagbilaran less frequently now that I can actually do my grocery shopping and communicating in Clarin itself. Which means a lazy Saturday morning at home may become a tradition instead of an anomaly.

And now, for some pictures of my new house. It's actually quite a bit smaller and more rustic than my place in Lila, but those are both bonuses in their own way. I just love it.

My first decoration: My monthly call-in sheet, covered over in blue crayon through August 2011. When the right side is all filled up, I come home.

The wall between my dining room (space, area, walkway...? "Room" is a bit generous) and my bedroom.

My kitchen is a concrete room with a sink, to which I added a double burner electric stove. (The man outside is fixing the water.) The lack of refrigerator has altered my diet pretty dramatically, but it's an adventure. It's all a bit rough, but lends a quality of perpetual camping to my existence that I find appealing. No surprise there.

Necessary implements

My first breakfast - out on the porch with oatmeal, coffee, and Sir Ernest Shackleton

This little shelf was a doily-bedecked Mother Mary and Jesus shrine when I moved in, but Abby and I have reimagined it since into a more subtle presentation. The wooden figure is still Mary, but with the addition of a Found Image Press vintage American flag postcard, lucky bamboo, and my version of a doily - the circular design cut from a favorite tee shirt that met its death when I leaned into black hair dye in a salon in Taipei.

The dresser in my bedroom. I'll start sleeping in this room when my new bamboo bed is finished.

The desk in my bedroom. Moleskine central.

My bathroom! It's cleaner than it looks (that's a rust stain, not dirt), and smells like bleach and fresh paint. The extreme lack of water pressure makes that shower head just about useless, so I'll still be bucketing, but the really important thing here is the flushing toilet complete with toilet seat!!!! That's right, I'm fancy.

That's all for now!