Things are slowly coming to place. It's like being in a family though each of us are so different from the other. For those who've had the pleasure of staying over at my place, you would agree that living here is like being in a typical home.
The landlord, though not married but retired, is like a father to all of us. He's the most generous kindest Japanese I know, and all my friends tend to agree with me as well. It's really nice when he cooks for us, or brings us out for meals. Sometimes when we get home late, the next day he would ask us what time we came home. Or what our plans are the coming weekend.
Some may take this as prying or being too nosy, but I think he means well. He just wants to talk and practice his English. After all, that's why his requirement is that his tenants be English speakers. I think that's fair enough since he has this desire to improve his command of the language. But we honestly think his English is better than the average Japanese. Though he's always being modest and insists it's not.
When I first moved in, Danny & Adam were my housemates. Even though I was the only grrl in the house, and I know my Mama is worried at times, I give her no cause for concern. One of the reasons why I agreed readily to move in was because these were such nice decent people. The ones I've stayed with in the previous guesthouse seemed so aloof and unfriendly that you'd wanna have as little contact with them as possible.
I was closer to American Adam because I grew up with American TV. So we are pretty much on the same wavelength. But seriously, him being American meant he had that dry wit to him which gave us more reasons to have verbal spars. But it's all in good nature. Danny is pretty cool too, and sometimes I try to practice Mandarin with him. I think the first time I spoke Mandarin to him, he was shocked because I suddenly switched from English and didn't give him fair warning. But he's slowly opening up and getting better at his English.
Unfortunately Adam moved out early last month. BUT I have a new housemate from Spain. So the house is a bit balanced coz there are 2 grrls now. She's half Spanish-half Japanese and yes, for those of you who are curious, she looks pretty exotic. Being chatty and outgoing, we got along quite well, and it's been fun so far. In fact, last weekend was quite a mad hatter in the house as she was hosting her Spanish friend, and my Thai friends were bunking over as well.
Just the other day after work, I was expecting to come home to an empty kitchen. Coz usually when I get home, the rest of the people would have already finished dinner and gone back to their rooms. So I was pleasantly surprised to see everyone in the kitchen at that hour. Watanabe-san was clearly enjoying the atmosphere even though he didn't talk much. Danny bought something from outside and the Spanish were eating their pasta. As I joined them with my tomyam dish, I expressed my delight at having the full house together and wish we could have this everyday!
No comments:
Post a Comment