New Beginnings Part 1

The Housing Craze

Well. After a long struggle uphill that nearly cost me my sanity a few times, I have finally settled into an apartment. It's been quite the interesting month of March for me. As I stated in my last entry, my friend Kurt rode in on the white horse for me and saved me from a sticky situation of having no where to go. Determined to not be a burden, I found a group living situation after a few days and left Kurt's place. It was not exactly what I would call a travelers paradise. Now, I'm not what most would consider spoiled. However, I think that a locker you can open even when it's locked and a bathtub stained with dirt (or whatever on earth that was) are not at the top of anyone's must have list when it comes to living situations. Nor is an odd columbian who consistently chases you around to introduce him to your female friends. So after a few days, I returned to Kurt's apartment. He and his roommate, Mathias, couldn't have been nicer to me. They let me have my own set of keys to come and go as I wished (which for Mathias, who barely knows me, MUST have been somewhat hard). After a week of not trying to hard, I got back on the hunt for a place to live. To be honest, I could have stayed in Kurt's living room until Christmas and it would not have bothered me. However, I was desperate to get out of there before I overstayed my welcome. I sort of like knowing that if the you-know-what hits the fan again, that I can go back there.

Now one of the unfortunate truths about lodging in Buenos Aires, is that it is much easier to find a place in the nicer areas that I'm familiar with if you have 1) lots of money and/or 2) friends who are also looking that you could share an apartment with. If you are like me and have neither, then I feel your pain. It is not a fun experience. So I finally came across a nice student living situation on craigslist. 5 bedroom apartment near the congress building. Originally I was wanting to rent out the small bedroom for $300 dollars a month. When I went to see it, it had barely been rented out already. So the only other options were the room for $320 and $350, neither of which I was looking to pay. I talked to the Dueña (landlady) about it, and she misinterpreted my desired timeframe to stay in Buenos Aires until xxxxxx (still a secret of when I'm coming home) as my desired timeframe to stay in the apartment. So she offered me a discount to 290 dollars/month. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that I'll still be on a hunt for somewhere else to live.

So, as I said, I went to see the apartment and was shown around by two girls from Quebec, Canada. They were quite nice. I put on "The Alex Show" and tried to make them laugh (you know, that thing I tend to do, Mr. Break-The-Ice) I went back to Kurt's to try and figure out what to do. I had already had 2 failed attempts at living in a hostel, I had already stayed in Kurt's for 3 weeks (off and on) when it was supposed to be a few days, so I decided I would go with the apartment.

So yesterday I make the pilgrimage to the apartment, where I finally meet the Dueña, Eva. She's a German lady who is AAAAAAAALL business. It could have just been the stress, but yeah, this woman never took the section of Learning English we would refer to as tact. For example. When she told me about the discount on the room, it was, "not because I like you, it's because you said you were staying until October." I get what she was trying to say, but it totally came off as "I don't like you," which I found sort of funny. I also found it funny since I never said I was staying in the apartment until October. But I thought, I'm just going to smile and see where the situation takes me in the future. I was too determined to finally have a room to consider my own and get settled. So amidst our talking about rent and all, she kept receiving other people to show the last remaining room to be rented. One of which had a friend of a friend that auditioned for the theatre company that I work for. So this girl, Erica, and I are talking, and Eva comes in asking to use my computer to email people as well as call a potential renter on skype. Now, I'm about as easy going as they come, but is there anything more awkward you could ask someone who has only been living in the apartment for 40 minutes? I let her take the laptop and continue to talk to Erica about what she's doing in BA, where's she's from Etc. We find our linkup to being friends of a friend of each others friends (if that makes any sense at all). Then we happen to see Eva walking past the room, talking on Skype, and giving someone the tour of the apartment on my computer. At this point, I don't know whether to find this funny or just weird.

Later, Erica has left, and Eva and I are getting down to business. I'm renting out the smaller room until the end of March at which point a German girl (who I am praying doesn't possess the same get-to-know-you prowess as our landlady) and I will move into one of the bigger rooms. I actually don't have enough money to put down a deposit because I can't get ahold of my parents to help transfer money from my secret college account (???) into my checking account. Fortunately, she asks for a deposit I can actually give her and I will be able to pay her the rest later (assuming my parents haven't been ubducted by pigmies or something fun like that.) Eva then informs me that I will have to speak in spanish while I am here. Which is fine with me because lord knows I need the practice and my spanish has been starting to slip living with Kurt for so long and working with english speakers. Then Eva informs me that the Quebec girls (the only ones staying after March), specifically asked that she not bring in any "Yankees that don't speak spanish." (Side note: down in South America, any and everyone from the states is a Yankee). So socially, I'm already feeling like a champ!

The apartment itself is actually quite nice. I'm bummed that the cheaper/smaller room was taken from me for April because it's more than enough for what I need. It's modest yet cozy. The only significant downside in my current room that the "desk" is a piece of wood supported by two metal protrusions from the wall that don't go the entire length of the board. Meaning if you put any weight on the end of it, it's coming down. Other than that. I love it. There's a little red couch in here for when I have guests. A cute little armoire closet, a rather tall nightstand, a fan (this doesn't sound like much, but for what I've been working with recently, I'm in hog heaven.) The room I'm going to move into isn't even really much bigger I believe. There's a bigger bed and a less primitive desk, but other than that, nothing too major to report. I have a little bit of fear of it now. Because last night, Alex, the girl who is currently occupying the room, needed help disposing of a "fly" in her room. Now, this thing wasn't really a fly, it was more like a tarantula with wings. Ok, so I exaggerate a little. This thing was what I'm assuming was a housefly, but it was litterally bigger than your average household cockroach. I mean, BIG. So we trapped it between a piece of paper and a cup and let it loose outside. Hopefully that darn thing doesn't know how to get back in because apparently it was just hanging out in Alex's sheets. (*scared face!)

So from what I gather, it's going to be the new German girl, the 2 Quebec gals, an unconfirmed Brazilian, and myself. Sounds like an international Real World waiting to happen. We'll see how it goes. :)

The area that we're in is 1 block away from the congress building, and one block away from the Police Headquarters. So that's pretty darn cool. While I have been told it's not the safest area to be, I felt quite comfortable walking the streets last night to a party. So hopefully it's just heresay. I suppose we'll find out. I need to go on a voyage today and find out where the essentials are. Such as a grocery store, heladeria (for when I get ice-cream hunger pangs), and most importantly, a GYM. I haven't gone running since I got here. That's 6 months months of laziness that NEEDS to stop.

I feel that's enough about the apartment situation. We'll see what happens. Hopefully everything will be fine and we will all get along great.