Since I came back from Thailand, most of my time has been consumed by my upcoming move to Detroit. Last weekend, I went up there with my parents to find a place to live. I ended up going with a place called Tree Tops apartments in Northville, MI. I have a 1 bedroom loft, which just means the the bedroom is upstairs and overlooks the living room downstairs. I have a nice view of a quite little stream, and a nice “historic” downtown area is about a 10 minute walk away. All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with it so far.
I’m not going to be doing a photographic tour like Jared did because I lack the camera equipment. So you’ll have to come visit me if you want to see it.
It turns out though, moving domestically is actually more of a hassle than moving internationally, at least for me. In Bangkok, I showed up, picked an apartment, and moved in over a weekend. It’s taken a lot more effort than that here. There was organizing the moving truck, connecting utilities, etc.
The rest of the time I’ve spent visiting my family. It’s pretty nice to catch up with them after being gone for so long. We had a big family dinner last night, and my mom cooked a traditional Christmas-style dinner since I missed that event this year. It was a nice time, even though I didn’t get any presents. The food was really good, better than I remember it usually being. I might have to cook turkey dinners every once in a while up in Detroit.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Yeah, moving is a pain for sure. I just extended the lease on my apartment for another year, even though they raised the rent $100 on me. It was a rather significant increase, but the moving hassle would have probably been worse, so I sucked it up.
Out of curiosity, how much bigger/nicer is the place you’ll be living at in Northville compared to where you lived in Bangkok?
June 12th, 2008 at 7:59 am
My new apartment is about 3x bigger than my old apartment in Bangkok. The rent is about 3x higher as well, though.
My apartment in Bangkok was fully furnished, and it had a much better view. It had a king size bed which was really nice.
The biggest step up for me is having a kitchen and separate rooms for the bed and living. The place in Bangkok felt like living in a hotel sometimes, and I didn’t have a sitting area. That made it more difficult to have friends over, especially to eat.
I would say the “nice-ness” is roughly equal in the two. They’re both clean and well appointed. I was happy with the place in Bangkok, and I think I’ll be happy with the place in Detroit.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
were you able to bring furniture you had in your room in herrin, or do you have to go out and buy all your furniture when you get to detroit?
i just drove my car out to washington, and it was nice not having to rent a truck because i had no furniture or bigger things to move.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I’m using a hodgepodge of old furniture. I have a twin bed that I used in college, a couch from my parents, and a chair from my sister. I don’t want to take the furniture from my bedroom because it is too big and heavy.
GM is paying for the truck, so it’s no big deal to rent it. Actually, it’s cheaper for me to use the truck because they will pay for the gas. If I just drove my car, I’d have to pay for the gas myself.