9. Move accommodation

So, it was decided that I would move in with this aunt on the condition that I would start paying rent once I started working and earning an income. For me, that was a very good offer. That afternoon, the aunt took me to pick up my belongings from the backpackers in Hastings to move to her house in Napier.

          To repay the aunt's kindness for letting me stay for free while I was waiting for work, and even feeding me, I took the opportunity to clean the house. Actually, it's a task I do regularly and don't feel bad about at all, because I feel good being in a clean and pleasant place. I'll digress a little on this point.

          If I find myself in an unfamiliar new place and feel that cleaning and tidying it up a bit would make it more livable, I usually do it right away if I have the opportunity. Personally, I think it's well worth the time to spend half an hour or an hour making a place I need to use every day cleaner. For the sake of that short amount of time, I get to experience good feelings many more times in the future when I'm in that place again.

After spending over 2 months in a Western social environment – by which I mean living with foreigners in shared accommodation, communicating in English, and interacting with people from various backgrounds and countries – I had to admit that I felt more comfortable and warmer being back in a Thai atmosphere, speaking Thai and eating familiar food. I don't mean to say that my time with the foreigners was uncomfortable. It's just that I didn't feel the need to adjust much. As they say, sometimes it can make you feel good when you can return to familiarity again after being in a new place for a while.

I'd been staying at the aunt's house for almost a week, wandering around wherever my heart and legs could take me. Finally, a woman who was an agent the aunt knows contacted her to say that the new season's work was about to begin, and the first job would be weeding the pumpkin patch.