Good Night Tampines, Good Morning Bedok

Ben and I have finally moved to a new flat! Yay!

It was a bit of a pain dealing with agents and finding a flat that had air con, internet and would allow an unmarried couple to live there (sometimes it feels like we're in the dark ages here, I swear...) but we did it!

One interesting story that occurred on the way:

In Singapore you can't just rent out a flat, you have to have an agent who represents you and finds you a flat, and the people who are looking for a new tenant for their flat has to hire an agent to find people to rent it. It's all a very silly system in my mind and it means that you end up paying someone hundreds of dollars that you would really rather have spent on buying shiny IKEA things for said new flat, but when in Rome.

So, we found this possible new flat and went to sign the papers. The agent representing the landlords of this flat was a total knob. Super rude, really standoffish and trying to constantly insinuate that our agent was incapable of doing her job (by the way, our agent was my roommate from my previous flat). It got to the point where he was arguing with my agent about some silly paper that the landlord needed to sign for her company and everyone started yelling in Chinese.

This is the part where having a boyfriend who speaks Chinese comes in handy. The agent was interrupting me at one point and that was when shit got real. Ben started yelling at him in Chinese, which I don't speak but I understand enough of to know that he was telling the guy that he speaks Chinese too and that he understood what was happening and that this guy was being a dick essentially. Super hot. Ben FTW.

At the end of it all, we've found a really nice flat in Bedok. We are sharing a flat with an older Chinese married couple and they seem like just the nicest people you could ever meet. The wife made us food a few times already and the husband has been showing us how to use everything and where all of the circuit breakers are and such, and all of the books on their shelves are things like "Living a Life of Happiness" and "The Way of Happiness" or stuff like that. There is also a really neat Buddha shrine. I feel like living with a peaceful couple who are interested in finding happiness and cooking with you is pretty damn nice.

The frustrating part is that now I have to get up way earlier in the morning to get the bus and MRT to school and now I have no idea what buses to take from all of my usual places in Singapore so it's a whole new learning journey of getting lost and confused to find my way around again. On the brightside, all of that is a lot easier to do when you have a partner in being lost. Also, an iPhone.