You may be wondering what happened with the apartment that was I supposed to move into. It's a funny story really.
I started to move my things into the new place on a Thursday and officially moved in the following Sunday sometime in the early evening. I loaded all of my things into a taxi and headed over. The son of the landlord even drove me back to my old place to pick up my motorbike.
I brought everything into my new room and began to put my stuff away when I started to notice a few things. The floors were absolutely filthy, my small window faced the wall of the building next door, so no light was going to make it to my room, the fan was so old and the switch would only work on the first setting...which was the highest, the air conditioning unit blew out dirty air and had no controller, and the building was off a very busy street with no parks or lakes nearby to walk to. I sat on the bed only to realize it was just a foam mattress. No, I did not try out of the bed before I decided on this place. When I asked for a mop to clean the floor the family had no idea what to give me. They handed me a vacuum cleaner instead, but I told them that's not what I wanted. I found an old broom on one of the landings and tried to clean the floor of my room with that. After I finished sweeping I looked around and thought, "What did I do?" What did I do? When I had made the immediate decision to move into this place I was still angry at the cleaning ladies for eating my food. Granted, it was the last straw because there were other annoyances, but I realized that this place would bring it's own set of annoyances. The funny thing also is that after I had decided to move I told my original landlords and the reason why and two days later they brought back the cleaning ladies that I liked and got rid of the one who ate my food! I was so fixated on getting out of my old place that I did not think or even care where I was moving to. Even though I would only stay in the new place for two months, and it was much cheaper than the original place I was willing to pay more just not to be miserable. I became so upset with myself over my quick decision because I normally think things through a bit more first. I felt regretful. I went to bed early that night.
When I woke up the next morning I realized that I could no longer stay there. I spoke to my new landlords who were confused, but understanding. The woman of the home asked me to stay another night and that maybe it would get better for me, but I just couldn't. She asked me to pay only for the $40 fee Vietnamese families have to pay the police in order to have a foreigner stay with them. I packed a few things up and brought the bags with me to IIE. When I arrived at IIE that morning I called Huyen, Ben's girlfriend, and asked her if she could call my old landlords and ask them if it would be OK if I moved back to my room. She called me back to let me know that my room is still available and that I would be welcome back. Phew! Resolved!
After IIE I went back to my old apartment, sheepishly said hello to my landlord, dropped off the few things I had brought with me that morning, returned to the new place via xe om, packed everything up and got another taxi back to my old home....where I will remain until I am ready to leave Ha Noi.
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