Looking for an apartment is completely and utterly exhausting and overwhelming. And so is being in a new city, doing everything in a language and culture I am not fluent in. It can just be overwhelming. Even though I'm in this fantastic city, there are still days that are bad. Like today.
Let me explain some things. Right now, I'm staying in a dorm. We're provided breakfast and dinner. I don't usually eat breakfast, but you can scroll back and few posts and read about dorm food. The dorms are nice, but they're kind of like camp. You know you're here for a short period of time, everyone is in an awkward, needy place, so everyone gets along but there can be drama. And, unlike real camp, there's almost always alcohol involved. The dorms are nice, but only 3 weeks are included in our program costs and after the three weeks are up, you have to find your own place to live, and the 3 weeks end on Sep. 13th. We can choose to live here, but it's pretty pricey and the food is bad. So I've been looking for apartments. I have an idea of some things that are definite deal breakers (twin sized bed is pretty high up on the list of vetoes), so I've been trolling the internet looking for what I think I want, and it has been absolutely overwhelming.
I had placed an ad of who I am, what I'm doing here, what my hobbies are, what I want in an apartment, etc. I got literally 30 responses the first day. My mind just shut down at the thought of wading through all that. So what did I do? I took a nap. Then I woke up, reminded myself that I'm a big girl, and just went after it. I didn't bother responding to the ones that I didn't like or couldn't afford, but I managed to send out like 15 or so emails, and got a few responses.
First of all, yesterday was really good overall. I woke up at noon and went and saw two apartments. The first opened right up to the metro that would take me straight to the University, but it had cable internet (no WIFI) and no visitors allowed. But it was clean and the people were nice. The second also opened up to the metro in the same way as before, and the people were great, but there was no heat and I couldn't move in until the 17th, which is 4 days after my time ends here. Problem. And it was a little grungy. The first apartment had someone come clean everyday, but there was no window in the room, so no natural light or fresh air could get in. But, I figured I could put up with both of them if I need to, which made me feel better.
Last night I went out with a couple people from the group, including my roommate, and we had a great time. I once again made foreign friends (I just attract them I swear) and slept peacefully. Then today happened.
I woke up, on my own accord around noon, and had lunch at Burger King (sometimes you can't take 2 hours to enjoy several courses). I had made appointments to see 2 apartments, one at 5 and another between 5 and 7 in the afternoon. After lunch I came back, figured out how to get there, wrote down the addresses and headed on my way. I got off at the first metro stop, and went the wrong way for a few blocks, asked people where a major landmark was who for some reason didn't know (apparently I found a comun of people who live under a rock). I thought I was finally in the right vicinity so I called the guy to see if he could help me get there and he informed me that he had already rented the room. Awesome. Instantly pissed at him wasting my time, I stomped off to the metro to head over to the other appointment thinking that karma will smile down on me and this apartment will be more than perfect and I will be done searching.
Such false hopes. I arrived at the other apartment after another trek through the metro system and up a few blocks to discover I hadn't written down what floor it was on. So I called my friend and had him check my email, and pushed the buzzer, nothing. Waited a few moments, and pushed it again. Still nothing. I just walked away. If people are that rude, I will not go out of my way to rent from them. But I was still mad that I hadn't made any progress today. So I walked to the University and found some Cantaloupe gelato to make me feel better. It made me feel a little better. I made a couple appointments for tomorrow. One of them is in a location JCW (John C. Wilcox) said I shouldn't live, but I already made the appointment so I might as well check it out. The other one I'm hoping is good, it's a couple blocks from the university and the pictures make it look nice. It supposedly has a private balcony and built in storage. But it's a little on the expensive side. Which is so frustrating.
I'm going to start complaining a little, so if you don't like it, stop reading now.
The whole apartment hunting is really overwhelming. I know I'm going to have to compromise eventually, but I just feel like I still have time to look, but I'm kind of tired of looking. It's a slippery slope. And people want so bad to rent the place, but I don't want to live in a place I'm not going to be comfortable in. I know I'll find something, but today was so frustrating and discouraging. And I'm pretty sick of homework, we just have so much all the time and on top of trying to find an apartment and figuring out how to fit in to this city, it has gotten kind of a lot overwhelming at times. I know that once I find a place, and am no longer transient anymore, I'll feel a lot less overwhelmed.
But for now, I'm going to go do some (more) homework and try and go to bed soon. Ciao.
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