After moving in for seven weeks, I can finally use most of the space in this apartment.
這個經驗讓我對這裡 "附家具" 的定義有的新的認識，因此就從 "附家具" 這件事開始談起吧。
This experience changed my definition of "furnished" in Adelaide.Therefore, let's start with "furnished".
以我住在台北的經驗來說，附家具指的就是家具，像是沙發、桌子、床、衣櫃、洗衣機、冰箱、冷氣等這些大型的物件，通常還會附床墊，電視有的房東會附，但我通常選不附電視。我也住過幾年附家具的套房，寢具、廚具、消耗品這些東西自備，有些物件雖然會號稱可以一個皮箱入住，但即使附廚具數量也很有限，床單、棉被、枕頭這種個人衛生用品我則是沒看過有台灣的房東附的。這是台灣對附家具的定義。
In Taiwan, "furnished" means with furniture, like sofa, desk, bed, closet, washing machine, refrigerator, and air conditioner. Usually with mattress or television. I lived in furnished suite for several years and it was common that I had my own cookery, bedding, and other stuffs. Some property advertised as "move in with one suitcase", but usually there were only minimal items in their kitchens. I never saw our landlords offered personal hygiene items, such as pillows and quilts.
我在德國當交換學生的時候，住的是黑森林的小城中的醫院宿舍，整層樓共用浴室和廁所。房間裡有基本的家具，固定的書櫃和衣櫃，因為是一個月的交換學生，使用的是宿舍提供的寢具。廚房裡提供基本的餐具和廚具。當地曾經來台灣當過交換學生的朋友告訴我，那是城裡最糟的地方了。不過即使他們這麼說，現在回想起來我還是很喜歡窗戶外面超過十層樓高的黑森林大樹。
When I was in Germany as an exchanged student, I lived in the hospital dormitory in a small town in Black Forest. It was a room with shared bathroom and kitchen. They offered bedding like a hotel room and basic cookery in shared kitchen. I met my German friends meeting when they came to Taiwan as exchange students. They told me this was the worse place to live in the city. However, I still miss the 10-floor tree outside of my room.
我在阿德雷得的第一個住處是學生宿舍，附家具，有自己的浴室，共用廚房和客廳。雖然說是附家具，但房間裡面沒有書櫃，因此以有書的學生來說，首先要自己買個書櫃。廚房裡面沒有公用的廚具，學校的人員很明確地說廚具等要自理。房間有附床墊，但沒有枕頭、被子、床單等，這個狀況和台灣的定義一樣，所以我沒有特別的疑問。我當時的室友沒有意願共用廚具，所以我們的房子裡有五個平底鍋、三到四個單柄鍋、五瓶洗碗精、兩個電鍋，每個人還有自己的碗盤餐具菜刀等等，垃圾袋也是每個人各買一份。
The first place I lived in Adelaide was the University Village. Furnished with private bathroom, sharing kitchen and living room. There was no bookshelves in this student accommodation. Therefore, for a student with books, I needed to buy my own bookshelf. It was the same for my housemate. There was mattress in the room but I needed my own pillow, quilt and linens. It was the same as in Taiwan that I didn't think there would be different in definition. My ex-housemates wanted to have their own cookery. So there were 5 flyer pans, 3-4 sauce pans, 5 bottles of dish liquids, 2 rice cookers, and so on. Everyone had our own cutlery. We also brought our own trash bags.
第二個住處是在當地人的房子裡的分租雅房，房間附家具，說明裡也提到可以使用廚房的廚具餐具、房間附枕頭被子床單、並且包含清潔用的消耗品，如廁所的衛生紙、廚房的洗碗精等。不過個人用品像是洗髮精肥皂等自備。搬離的時候因為清單上的物品發生了爭議，或許在這個就是這裡租屋文化的不同。
The second place was a shared room in an Aussie lady's house. Furnished. On the webpage it said including the usage of cookery, cutlery, bedding, also with consumables like toilet paper and dish liquid. I needed to have my own shampoo and soap. When I moved out from this place, there was some argument regarding to the item list in the room. Maybe this was the start of the cultural difference in rental market.
現在這個住處，我找在租房網站找房子的時候，我以 "附家具" 為條件搜詢。去看的房子當中，專門的學生宿舍提供的家具很齊全，有夠多的書櫃，廚房也有提供廚具，數量適中狀況也算好。其中一間和我在台北的認知一樣，附床墊和基本的家具電器，少量的餐具和廚具，不過房東在看房的時候說，這些廚具不需要的部份跟他說，他會帶走。另外這間現在住的地方是房仲處理，看房的時候他也是說，房子裡不需要的部份，包含牆上的畫，櫃子上的調味料瓶子，都可以還給房東。第一次看房的時候，房子裡還有一些裝飾用的書和桌遊，搬進來的時候大部分的書消失了，於是我想，所以這大概就是不需要的東西房東會帶走的意思吧。
When I was house hunting for the current place, I looked for furnished property on the internet. I went several inspections.
A professional student accommodation in the city: reasonable amount of furniture including plenty of bookshelves. Good condition in the cookery they offered.
Another finished unit: as my understanding in Taipei, there were mattress and basic furniture. Some cookery and cutlery. The landlord told me if there was anything I didn't need, they would take them away.
Current apartment: Deal with an agent. During the inspection, he told me I could return items I didn't need, including the painting on the wall. He would return to the landlord. These items were just here to make this unit "homely." There were some items missing when I signed the lease. I thought maybe it was because the landlord would take the unwanted items away.
在我與房仲連絡請房東過來帶走不需要的物品時，房仲開始告訴我，這是文化上的差異，在這裡，若是以 "附家具" 為廣告的話，那就表示大部份的物品都會留在房子裡，但我用字面上的意思解釋真的請房東把所有我不需要的東西都帶走，這裡的文化不會這麼做。
But when I actually contacted the agent to return unwanted items, he told me it was the misunderstanding in cultural difference. In Adelaide (or Australia), "if a property is advertised as furnished, it means most of the items will stay in this house." But I took it literally so that I just returned most of the items in the house. People won't do it here. This was what I was told.
但事後我問了兩位中年的當地人，他們都說沒有這樣的事情，其中一位甚至跟我說，你不是住在旅館，不需要那麼多的枕頭和裝飾，還有啊，那些枕頭不能用啊，那裡面有塵蹣和很多灰塵，很不衛生，快把它們拿出你的房間。總算是有當地人稍微挽救了我對當地衛生水準的印象。
Later I asked my local friends in their middle age. They both told me this was not true. When they didn't need any items in their rental house, they returned them. One of them even told me, "you shouldn't use those pillows. There are mites and dusts in there. Remove them from your room." Finally some local people saved my impression to the hygiene level Adelaide.
回到阿德雷德之後，我開始整理廚房裡的東西的時候，我才發現櫃子裡的東西比我想像中地多，而且難以使用，佔據了超過一半以上廚房的空間：
After back to Adelaide, I started to organize everything in the kitchen. I started to realize there were more items in the cupboards than I thought. They took up over 50% of the space.
There were totally 10 mugs, 8 glasses, 4 small cups (similar to the ones we use for worship gods or ancestors in Taiwan but I don't think there are for religious usage here). More items for decoration, rusted and sticky cutlery.
Total 11 tea tins and jars, more decoration.
11 plates (9 of them had the edge of suspected metal painting), 6 bowels.
More kitchen items, part of them were rusted.
各處加起來總共九個假盆栽，後面還有使用方式不明的拖把和完全不會用的洗衣籃 (浴室因為洗衣機淹水的時候溼掉好幾次)：
Total 9 fake plants. There were also a mop I had no idea how to use and a laundry hamper getting wet several times when water came out from washing machine.
廚房的道具我留下狀況比較好而且還用得到的部份，像是烤麵包機、烤模、長度較長的刀具、放茶葉用的架子、留下的部份也佔了相當的份量，上面的照片只是不會用到的部份。
I kept most of the items in good condition, like toaster, baking mold, longer knives, a shelf for tea. There were still significant numbers of items left in the unit. The photos above were just the part I would like to return.
另外是放在床上、沙發上和穿鞋椅上的大量枕頭及抱枕：
There were also a lot of pillows and cushions on the bed, the sofa, and chairs.
Four old pillows, two of them were yellowish with heavy smell. Eight cushions in different size.
另外還有一幅位置會卡住家具的畫，掛飾，遮光但不保暖的窗簾，同樣也是填充布製品的不明圓形物品及門擋。
Rest were a painting, a wall decoration, the original curtain without thermal technology, and another two stuffing with unknown function (might be the door block).
還在台北的時候，我持續和房仲以email反應瓦斯漏氣、洗衣機有問題、浴室的櫃子因為泡水而損壞，還有需要請他們來帶走物品的需求，房仲回email時問我什麼時候會回到阿德雷得，他要把備用鑰匙送過來，並且來看一下有問題的部份。我用email回覆時間之後，回到阿德雷得的當天也用簡訊確認，當時得到的回覆是最快隔天可以過來，這個隔天一等就到了一星期之後的星期三，他帶房東過來把東西帶回去和討論維修的部份。
When I was still in Taipei, I contacted the agent and the landlord for the gas leaking, washing machine issue, damaged bathroom cupboard, and also the returning items. The agent asked me when I would arrive Adelaide. He would give me the spare key and also he could check these issues. I also texted him when I arrived Adelaide. He told me the earliest time he could come was the next time.
I waited until the next Wednesday when he came with the landlord together.
其他問題的回覆如各自的文章所述，這裡只寫物品歸還的部份。房東對於歸還物品的數目很有意見，讓我驚訝的地方是，這位住在阿德雷得的高級住宅區的房仲口中的高知識份子，認為這些東西都是可以使用的：包含生繡的廚房工具、有含鉛疑慮的碗盤、還有已經泛黃有異味的枕頭。
In this article I only write about returning items. The landlord had problems with the amount of items I was returning. What surprised me was that this lady, who was educated (according to the agent) and lived in the most expensive block in Adelaide, thought these were still usable. These included rusted kitchen tools, plates with suspect lead painting, and yellowish and smelly pillows.
我還是有禮貌地說明，我認為能夠使用的部份我留下來，又或者若妳準備紙箱的話，我可以裝箱減少這些物品的總體積之後放到房間或櫃子的角落。她看了一下這些東西之後，她說她要帶走給下一個房客使用。
I still polity explained that I kept as much items I could use in this unit. Or if she could prepare some boxes, I could put most of the items into her boxes to decrease the space these items took. I could just put these boxes in a corner. She looked around the items and she would take them away and offered these items to her next tenant.
另外因為我從台灣帶了雙層的遮光隔音窗簾來替換原本只有遮光完全不隔熱的窗簾，她看到我把她原本的掛畫和窗簾拿下來放在旁邊的時候，她變得很激動。她說，那是我特別做的窗簾 (不確定她的意思是特別定做還是她自己手做) ，我說，我很感謝妳在特別在這個房子上花的心思，但是這面大玻璃窗很冷，我需要日本特別設計的保暖窗簾來改善這個房間的能源效率。
Also, I brought two layers of Japanese curtains with thermal technology specially designed to keep cold weather outside and keep warm weather inside in winter. I replaced the original curtain without any thermal technology and I explained this to the agent in emails before they came. When she saw the painting and the curtains were already removed, she became agitated.
She said, I made this curtain.
I said, I can tell that you put much efforts in this unit. But it is really cool to have this huge glass window in this unit. I really need these special designed thermal curtains to improve the energy efficiency in this room.
這時房仲在房間的廚房填寫遲了四個星期以上的入住檢查表，於是這位房東太太和我在房間的另一頭，她在房仲不在附近的時候對我說：妳歸還這麼多物品，我還要另外付錢儲藏這些東西，這樣我就不能從你身上賺到那麼多錢了。
The agent was filling the conditional report (after 4 weeks). This lady was with me at the other side of the room. When the agent was not with me, she said, with the amount of items you are returning to me, I need to spend extra money in storage. "I will earn less money from you."
兩週後她終於來把剩下所有東西都帶走的時候，她說 "我不會再為這個垃圾付錢。"
Two weeks later when she finally took rest of the items away, she said "I'm not paying more money for this trash."
我想，這位太太讓我對住在阿德雷得的高級住宅區的高知識份子有了全新的定義。
This lady renewed me impression and definition to highly educated people living expensive blocks in Adelaide.
