I suppose it was the easiest shift/move of my life--one carload, complete with two men from the office to carry it all in for me. Setting up living quarters in two rooms is taking a little longer, but I'll tell you about that at a later date--after I've had time to straighten up a little.
For now, I thought I'd try to give you an idea of the setup of the houses here. I would have had a hard time finding nicer accomodations in Chennai than those that I enjoyed for my first month over here. I had a lovely, large room with attached bath. And I was treated like royalty by my hosts (except for the part about being locked out, I guess). But that was meant to be temporary right from the start. And the great thing about my new long-term place is that I'm within the same gate as my friends from Orlando and Switzerland. The guys don't have to walk me home at night any longer, and I can stop over for short visits easily. So here's your pictorial, outdoor tour.
My hostess is a widow in her 70s. She's a lovely Christian woman who is very concerned as to my comfort. This is her home, from the street. You can't really tell from the picture, and even in person would have to be told initially, but this is a somewhat upscale neighborhood.
Here's the gate to her home. It is locked at night and sometimes during the day. Apparently there can be a problem with theft otherwise.The car belongs to her son and is usually parked inside the gate. It's nice having a black and white gate, as it is a little different, and so, easier to distinquish. Yes, I have a key; this one would be hard to scale, even with a boost!
Once you step inside the gate and look straight in from the street, this is what you see. The house to the right is where I'm staying. The one straight ahead is where Steve, Mary, and Alain live. These are the only two homes behind this gate.
Now if you walked in just a bit and then looked directly to your right, you'd see my hostess' front door on the street level, and her son's home up above. The style of the second floor is a little different, because he built it right on top of his parents' home, years after they had built theirs. It seems that that is common.
This view is at a little different angle.
My room is at the back--first floor, obviously. This is a view of my window--with wonderful, brand new air conditioner unit--taken from the door of my friends' place, looking almost out toward the street.
Conversely, here's their door, taken from just outside my window. If I were of a mind to enter my place via the window--there are metal bars, so it's not going to happen, no matter what doors are locked--I would have to take about ten steps from their place to mine. Actually, I use the front door of my hostess' place, so I have a walk of 30 to 40 feet, but all within the gate.
4 comments:
That was a welcome treat to see your living arrangements. It was interesting to see all the blocks that make up the walkways; do they have any grass in the yards?
I was surprised that you have TWO rooms in your new living quarters?
No, I'm not sure anyone has what we would call yards. No grass to speak of. There are some trees and a few other plants in the ground, but most of the plants are in clay pots. Some people, such as my previous hosts, have nice gardens up on their roofs, with plants in walled-off planters or pots. I suspect it's a fair amount of work to keep things alive. There just isn't much green here, but a whole lot of grey.
Well, I have a bedroom and an adjacent bathroom. From those, I'm fashioning a kitchen, of sorts, and laundry room. Oh, there's a desk, so I have an office, too!
Looks like a really nice place. How big is your room? Are you planning on doing much cooking when your "kitchen" is set up? What appliances do you have?
Yes, it is nice. You were joking about the cooking, right? I guess my room's about 13' x 10'. I'm going to wait to further answer your questions about the place until I do a whole blog entry on it. That way people won't be so apt to miss it. Glad to know you're interested.
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