I tried to Flickrize these, but I ran out of bandwidth, so you’ll have to settle for the low-res versions for now.

First, the neighborhood. So far the only notable landmark I’ve discovered is this place . . .

. . . which at first I thought was a Swiss Army officer candidate school, but which turned out to be . . .

. . . a Salvation Army officer candidate school.

Now, on to the apartment. The first thing you see when you come in is, of course, the bathroom.

Aside from the lack of storage space (a theme to be repeated), it’s a clear win over the bathroom at my place in Seattle. Note the orange shower curtain. Orange (hi, Greg) is also going to be a repeated theme here. There’s an orange-and-white bathmat, too but you can’t really see it in the picture.

Turn right to see the main bedroom. This picture was taken after they delivered everything except the one piece of furniture I really needed, namely the bed.

This is the first wardrobe I’ve ever owned. Coincidentally, this is the first place I’ve lived (and that includes the 20 m² rathole I rented on my first solo trip to Japan) with zero closet space.

Note that at least one, probably two, and possibly all three of the doors are upside down. By the time I’d assembled it that far, though, I already had one Band-Aid on my thumb from using the can opener on my Swiss Army knife as a screwdriver. Plus, I’d burned through more than half of the second season of Futurama, and I wasn’t going to go through the rest of it taking those doors off and putting them on again.

Bed! Delivered yesterday, at long last. Exactly the same model I had in the States, only this time I didn’t screw up and slice through some of the straps holding the slats in place. I was going to get something cheaper, but once I saw this one again in the showroom I decided a little breath of familiarity would go a long way toward making me feel at home. Anyway, the frame wasn’t much of the overall cost and the cheaper mattresses all sucked.

Note the sheets, pillowcases and whatnot. This is how the orange thing got started. What can I say, it was dark, cold, and wet when I bought them, and Manor was having its Blaxploitation “Feel Africa” sale:

The sale runs through the end of the month, so after my next paycheck I’m definitely going back for more orange stuff. (Actual plates, for instance — eating off paper is entertaining for a little while, but it gets old. Besides, right now I’m not getting any mileage out of my dishwasher.)

The view from the bedroom’s balcony. When the weather warms up I’m going to get a little table and a couple of chairs for it. And a pitcher of margaritas.

Leaving the bedroom, or turning left from the front door, we have the living room. Was I smart enough to take a picture from an angle that would make narrative sense? No.

Instead we get this angle. That’s the door we came through to the left of the bookshelf, with the umbrella on the doorknob and the coat hanging from the back. Not a lot of books on the shelf yet, but I’m working on it. The other door leads to the guest bedroom.

There’s nothing orange in here yet, unless you count the orange logo on the Coop bag, but I’ll fix that before too long.

And another angle on the living room, this one taken from the kitchen and showing off my fancy metal-and-glass coffee table and my fancy cheap-ass chair that’s supposed to tide me over till I get a couch. (Note also the printer on the kitchen table — both power outlets and flat surfaces are in kind of short supply at the moment.)

If I stick my head out the living room window, I can see this clock. Don’t know what the building is, but the clock’s surprisingly handy. Not only can you set your watch by it, it rings out every quarter-hour (one ring on the :15, two on the :30, three on the :45, four on the hour) and tolls the hour. Kind of nice to be lying in bed and know that it’s only three AM without having to get up and look at a clock.

The kitchen! No garbage disposal, of course, but everything else — you can see the dishwasher peeking in to the right of the sink. Had a bad moment when I thought the oven was busted, but then I found the circuit breakers. Note again the printer. (Having my own printer again is almost as exciting as having my own bed.)

My enormous refrigerator. (Well, enormous compared to the tiny dorm fridge in the company flat. And while I’m sure it’s significantly smaller than the one I had in Seattle, it feels like there’s at least as much usable space. I think having it more or less at eye level — freezer underneath — is a nice touch.) Note the emphasis on packaged foods — kind of unavoidable when I haven’t got any pots or pans yet.

Now, leaving the kitchen and crossing the living room (hopefully remembering to close the refrigerator door), last but not least, we have the guest bedroom:

Okay, maybe it is least. But by the time you come visit there ought to be a desk and some more bookshelves and maybe even a guest bed. Also by then I ought to have gotten rid of this junk:

Actually, there’s even more junk now, since that was taken before I started in on the bed. But I’ll get it cleaned up — honest.

Finally, in case there was any doubt as to where all that furniture was coming from: