My own house in my own world

Last night I stayed at the Cozy Planet Hostel for the second time. Again, the room became too cold from the A/C. Apparently, even 28 degrees C is too cold. 29 seems to be my ideal temperature. Of course, I could have put my shirt on. But that’s uncomfortable =\

I had a dream where I had inherited or been given a custom old building in a different world. It’s a world where the laws of nature are a bit different, a fantasy world somewhat like Narnia or Harry Potter. Owning a property in such a world was a pretty fascinating idea, and I was determined to make the most of it.

It was messy and dirty though, so I was making up plans in my mind for completely remodeling the whole thing. It’s a tall building with stairs, so I was going to take advantage of that somehow, with distinct purposes for each level. Maybe put in glass, like we’re doing in Vietnam, to section off formerly-outdoor areas.

The building looked old on the outside. The technology, though, was fairly modern, kind of like something out of Star Wars. The front door has a keypad, and there’s a web interface for resetting the keypad code. The keys look like normal mechanical keys, but I guess there might be some kind of RFID or electronic aspect, since resetting the keypad code also causes old keys to stop working.

The first time I found my building, it was late at night, and I was a little scared. Is anyone inside? What’s the neighborhood like? There wasn’t really anyone around, probably because they were sleeping at night. Yet I hung around the building, observing what it looked like, imagining how it was being used in the daytime, despite its musty appearance.

Then an old lady stepped out, much to my surprise. She ended up giving me a tour of the inner side of the city. I guess she is a good friend of my mother, since they seemed to talk later, when my mother came to visit.

(Perhaps these things in my dream were culled from real life, since yesterday I met Sam’s mother at the Cozy Planet. She’s helping to run his hostel.)

It was fun solving the mystery of who can access my building, since there was someone using it before I came, even though my dad was the rightful owner. I guess they are his good friends, or maybe even relatives.

It was also interesting to try to remember my way back to the building. It’s amazing how real it all seems in my dream. It was a real challenge trying to find the place, even the 2nd time. And, of course, it ended up being consistent: the place was still in the same location.

When I came to the place a 2nd time, I was surprised to find that a lot of the old junk had been taken out, maybe thrown away. It’s like they– the previous tenants– knew I was coming, and they emptied out in preparation for me to take over. It was a retail space, some kind of “traditional” storefront where “old” goods were sold on the street.

Going inside the building was super-awesome. Inside, it was like a whole world by itself. All the buildings were connected on the inside, kind of like the human world in the Matrix. There were hallways and large connected areas, all within the walls of the outer shell of buildings. And there were multiple floors, going both above-ground and underground, and the person showing me around– an old lady, who is a native of this strange world– didn’t even remember (or know?) how many floors there are in some areas. Twenty-something, she guessed. Maybe some floors are private or secret in some way.

In my dream, my grandpa gave me a large ceramic pipe, for leisure smoking. It was pretty odd, and I told my mom I’d never use it. It’s a cultural thing, perhaps, but I still thought smoking wasn’t a healthy idea.

I have a strong attraction to owning my own little place. A man is king in his own house, as they say. The Cozy Planet is a cool hostel, though the location seems to have originally intended to be used as a standard 3-bedroom apartment. It’s awesome to re-purpose buildings and spaces for new uses. Maybe that’s why I love hackerspaces so much.

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Yesterday I woke up later than expected, a bit after 9am. Betty drove me to the Cozy Planet Hostel directly, to ensure that I got here before noon, so that I could do laundry. Very nice of her. After having lunch near school, I attended my 3rd Chinese lesson. I feel a little bad. I’m not able to make progress as quickly as hoped. I really need to dive in and put forth my full effort.

I will have my 4th Chinese lesson later today, at 1pm. After that, there will be only 1 more left. A Chinese lesson at 8am on Saturday. Imagine that!

On Sunday, I’m going to the aquarium near Kenting for their overnight program. I found a guy on CouchSurfing who will join me. Hope it works out, even though I don’t speak (much) Chinese!

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