Just what you’ve been waiting for – the rare post from the queen of the house! There’s so much to write and this won’t cover it all, but here’s a little of the nitty gritty details of our life here. The rest will have to wait….and wait…and wait. Well, hopefully not, but no promises. 
The Place:
We are on the 29th floor of Emporium Suites and it is great! We are downtown off Sukhumvit, one of the main streets here. Benjasiri Park is “next door” – it has a loop for walking/jogging around the perimeter, exercise equipment stations, 2 playgrounds, grassy areas, sports courts (fun to watch these guys play Squash), and a large pond with turtles that the kids love. It is close to the BTS – SkyTrain – station and attached to The Emporium, a 6 story shopping mall with food court, grocery store, and mostly expensive stuff. On top of the mall (yes, on top – the 7th floor) is the hotel’s pool which is also a favorite attraction of ours.
Our room/apartment is large – it has three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, a dining room and living room, fabulous storage cupboards, a kitchen with an oven (not standard here) and a washer/dryer. We have an awesome view of the city. Well, part of the city anyway; it’s huge and sprawls in every direction. We have a balcony with a 3-4 foot high glass barrier wall and it is a little surreal to stand up 29 floors with only that between you and the ground. There aren’t any other tall buildings close by so with all the open air we really feel that “up high” feeling. It’s unique and we are enjoying it while we are here since we don’t anticipate living in a high rise again. This is the view from our balcony, and Little Miss going on the Skytrain.
Laundry:
Laundry here is a little tricky. It seems like a strange topic, but with 6 people dirtying clothes each day, it’s
We have a washer/dryer all in one unit in our room. The cons: I have to do 1-2 loads every day or I will be hopelessly behind. It takes 4 hours for a load and even then, it’s not always completely dry. The clothes are pretty wrinkly and the “stick them back in for a little while to smooth them out” trick doesn’t work. I have had to iron, which in my case, means they must be really wrinkled since I really dislike ironing.
The pros: We have a washer! I don’t have to wash all the sheets and towels! I don’t have to worry about forgetting to switch the clothes from the washer to the dryer, which also means I can even put a load in at bedtime.
The Weather:
It has been a little cooler and drier than I anticipated. It’s about 90 degrees and humid, so it is definitely sweat-worthy, but not like it will be in the spring! Give me several months to ease me in. You’d think coming from hot and humid Houston I’d be used to it, but I don’t feel like I ever adjusted there. It is rainy season now but we haven’t really had that much rain. Like in Texas, when it does rain, it is a bunch all at once and then it’s over. We have had a couple storms here, but not as big as the gigantic summer ones we got in Houston. Here’s our windshield during one and the sky before another one.
Overall:
I am trying to take in the downtown scene for the month we are living here. It is different from our norm, so that’s exciting and fun. There’s plenty to do and see nearby, and we won’t run out of places to go. It takes a lot of mental and physical energy to go anywhere with the kiddos, though. Personally, I think it would be exhausting for me to live downtown for 2-3 years. It’s obviously a very individual preference, and if we didn’t have 4 young kids it might be another story. But I’m a country girl at heart anyway, and I think we made the choice that will work best for us. This week we’ll try to get in a little more city life, and then Saturday we’ll be moving on and getting settled into our final place.
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