the chemicals between us

So I managed not to throw up at work, but I only ate crackers all day...and then I came back to the apartments, had dinner (some asian-inspired noodle dish), and promptly felt sick again. I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow, and if this is the worst I get while I'm here, I'll be v. happy.

In other news, the apartment is really nice; I have a large bed, a desk, a closet, a tv, my own bathroom, and a balcony. There are a lot of people coming in and out, which is very disconcerting; I believe this is good 'research' for my romance novel, not because there is any romance but because there are actually servants. That's a very weird concept for me and is perhaps the hardest thing to get used to. Oh, I think it's great that someone will make my bed, since that hasn't happened since I was too young to remember, and it's also nice to not have to cook. Anyone who has ever lived with me may also note that it will be impossible for me to collect mold like I used to, since I sincerely doubt that the housepeople would allow a cup to sit half-full of sugared tea for the requisite months necessary to grow a thick black mold paste at the level where the liquid once was. So, despite the sharp increase in squalor outside my apartment, the amount of squalor within the apartment has decreased exponentially.

Not that my apartment is usually dirty, but I definitely don't clean the bathroom every day, and the aforementioned mold cups are admittedly disgusting (but fascinating). Despite the benefits, the concept of having people here to take care of everything is just hard to wrap my mind around. It's a good thing for us that there are these people, since I wouldn't know where to go to buy groceries or toiletries, and wouldn't have time anyway since I'm at the office 12+ hours/day...but I work the same amount at home, and there isn't anyone there to make my bed and run errands for me, and I seem to manage okay. But the cost of servants here (I don't know how much they're actually paid, I'm just guessing) must be so worth it for the company, since the less we have to do outside the office, the easier it is to work harder. More than that, it gets into all these economic and philosophical arguments; while I could make my own bed (or rather, ignore my messy bed), the person who makes my bed now gets a salary to support him/herself, and if I did it myself, they'd be out of a job. And they almost certainly need a paycheck more than I need some sense of autonomy over household matters.

I'd wager that my feelings on this matter right now are similar to those of a certain group of nouveau riche; not the ones who decide to lord it over everyone else when they strike prosperity, but the ones who worked hard to get where they are and suddenly don't know how to handle all the smaller social cues that are inate to those who were born wealthy, such as handling servants and underlings. Granted, my difficulties are compounded by the fact that a) I have an understanding of servants stemming solely from books about medieval serfs or 19th-century housemaids, and b) this is a completely different freaking continent, so even what I have read in books probably isn't applicable.

This is good to know, though...if I ever get super rich (which you would have to be in America to have servants), I may have a housekeeper come in to make the beds, vacuum, and do the dishes/laundry, but only if I'm too busy to do it myself. The mold cups, however, will be completely off-limits.