Home Sweet Home

Okay, in actuality, my home is neither particularly sweet nor super homey at the moment. Allow me to try to explain my apartment. First of all, it is pretty far away from the main campus of the school. The staff homes are scattered over the hillside anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes away. And, you guessed it, Mt. Hermon (yay home!) is on the far end of the spectrum. It's uphill from the school so it takes about 20 minutes to walk down in the morning and more like a half an hour to walk back up at the end of the day. And it is UP. Incline the whole way, sometimes quite steep, sometimes stairs. I was seriously winded and sweating yesterday after my first climb. But I'm still attributing some of that to altitude adjustment. The plus to our location is that the view is spectacular. Out one side of the house, you can (on a clear day) see the snowy peaks of the upper Himalayas. Off to the other side, you look out over the Doon Valley which stretches out below the school.
I live in an apartment, one of 5 in our "complex." I'm not really sure what to call Mt. Hermon as a collective. It is sort of house-like, but ranch-style, all on one level. It used to be a dorm, so the setup is a little strange. It's pretty old and somewhat dilapidated. Actually, quite dilapidated. I almost cried when I first saw it from the outside because it wasn't too welcoming. Inside is much better, aside from the pervasive smell of mildew (yay monsoons!). My apartment consists of a living room/sitting room with a couch, two upholstered chairs, a coffee table, a dining table with chairs and a wood-burning stove. Quite cozy, really. Then I have my bedroom, one wall of which is all windows. The bedroom is great except that the floor is tile and will be mighty chilly in the winter. I have a small bathroom (just toilet and sink) right off of the bedroom. The main bathroom is off of the sitting room. It's quite amusing because I have two sinks, two toilets and two shower stalls (in addition to what's in my bedroom). So it looks funny, but there's nice not water--you just have to turn the heater on 20 minutes before you want a shower.
I share a kitchen with house-mate Zoe and a common room with the other three: Ethan, Joanna, and Chris. My apartment is definitely the most, uh, minimalist. I've only been in Ethan's and Zoe's but they're both much nicer than mine--nicer furniture, fun colored walls, etc. But they're all contract staff, as opposed to volunteer like me which means they'll be here longer and so get nicer accommodations. I suppose it's fair.
I promise to try to have some pictures soon!