Tales of a Travelin' Teacher: Da House

Simply put I love my house. It is cute and big. (Don’t worry…I have included pictures!) I have two roommates…Carmen and Stephanie. Carmen is an amazing cook and has a car! She is from Louisiana and teaches Bible and Art at school. I think she leaves at the crack of dawn and returns well after the sun sets. Stephanie is my biking instructor and is a constant encouragement. She is from the Memphis, TN area and has a BFF that I went to Union with. She will be educating 10 little kindergarteners this year.

When I arrived to my house my air-co (air conditioning) was already running and bed was made. That was a huge blessing since it was about 3am! I have an attached bathroom which is a blessing. I am not sure we have decided about a housekeeper. It is culturally accepted, but the roommates are discussing it. I support cultural roles. J I still am waiting for my shipment of stuff so I don’t have that homey feel yet. No “after” pictures of my room…yet!!

We do have some unwanted house guests – cockroaches. They are called cock-a-lock-a here. (I am picking up the important phrases here and there.) I have killed 6 family members. One is currently playing hide and seek in my clothing closet. We also house a gecko family.

Our neighbors keep to themselves but their pets do not. Our next door neighbor has (I am guessing) three dogs. I think they are trying to beat the rooster across the street by barking in the wee hours of the morning. I wanted to open my window and yell some English phrases at them, but since they probably only understand Dutch I didn’t do such a thing. Our neighbor (with the rooster) works for the Dutch embassy and has a guard 24/7. It makes my street feel important…ok…I feel high class. J

The commute to school is the longest compared to the rest of the houses the rest of the teachers are living at. As of now, the plan is to have all the girls move into another house around Christmas, but I think we are secretly hoping we don’t have to mess with that hassle. Not to mention that our house has a dryer…that is a big deal here! The dryer is on speed or something because it takes 20 minutes to dry a large load and doesn’t ever turn off. Maybe I can pack the dryer with me….