The New Casa

This might be old news to some, but we moved from our apartment into a house a couple of weeks ago. Here's the scoop: many of the folks from our organization go back to their home countries over the summer but since we arrived mid-year we'll be staying the whole summer in Hanoi. There was a family heading back to the states that asked us to housesit for them for about three months, and we consented. Given that we would be upgrading from a one room apartment to a three storey house without having to pay any rent, they didn't really have to twist our arms.

Thus it was that we packed all of our worldly belongings (which amounted to a couple backpacks, a couple duffle bags, some inherited wicker cabinets and a few assorted odds and ends) into a big taxi and made the mile and a half jaunt across town to our new digs. All told it was the easiest move I've ever made.

The new place is…well, it's great. It's quite nice--about five times the size of our old place--has three bathrooms, a full-sized kitchen (rather than the one person "closet kitchen" in our apartment), three bedrooms, an entertainment room with comfortable furniture (a huge bonus), an office and a formal living room that we refer to as the "throne room." The landlord happens to be the Vietnamese ambassador to Canada. And we get to live here for the rest of our time in Hanoi without paying rent. Crazy.

It's been an interesting lesson on perspective for us. If we had moved straight from the states into this house it's likely we would have thought, "Well this is a pretty nice place," and left it at that. But after three months of living in a single room (albeit a fairly large one) it feels a bit like we've moved into Buckingham Palace. We never knew that something as simple as a showerhead that hangs on the wall, a stove with more than two burners or a kitchen that fits more than one person could seem like such a luxury.

We'll try not to grow too accustomed to luxuries like full-size kitchens, however, as we'll soon be moving to Quy Nhon where word on the street is we'll be returning once more to one-room apartment living. But for the time being we'll live it up, enjoy the soft full-size couches and appreciate what we can only describe as a lavish and undeserved gift.