It’s a been a long couple of days! I’m getting ready to move into a new apartment, learning a new job and language, adjusting to a different rhythm of life. I’m finding that sometimes even the seemingly simplest of tasks feel like a major undertaking. Just getting from one place to another, reading signs, asking for directions (this is important when you’re as directionally-challenged as I am), figuring out what to order from a menu all take on an added complexity when you throw in symbols that have yet make sense and words that, spoken with the wrong intonation, can take on unintended meanings!
After lunch (vegetarian AYCE buffet under 3.00 USD) I went to order internet service and look into getting a cell phone. Although I was told that someone at the local telephone company could speak English it was a good thing my HR rep went with me. Two hours later (!) I had a phone, the promise of a phone call to set up internet and cable installation, and a headache! Total monthly cost for all three services: less than 80 USD/month. Now if only I could find a store that sells manila folders to store the volumes of paperwork generated by those transactions!
Asia's best kept secret... 