UPDATE: I'm not going to be homeless!

I found an apartment yesterday! That I LOOOOVEEE!!!! I'm so excited! Finally, I can stop this apartment hunting madness. Oh, man, that was getting really intense. (Great stories though) ;-)

The place is located in a neighborhood called San Telmo (here, read this), which is a cute, colonial-style part of town with a thriving nightlife and plenty going on! I love it. Well, actually, I've only been there like 3 times, but each time I really liked it! And I hear it's a great place to live, minus being slightly sketchy at night (I promise, Mom and Dad, to be careful). I will also be living only 3 blocks from the famous Plaza Dorrego, mentioned in that wikipedia link, which is where the market is held each weekend, and also is just a fun place to sit, hang out, have a beer, and listen to the musicians.

The apartment is exactly what I've been waiting for. You know, that feeling when you walk in, that you could imagine yourself walking in again and again and feeling like you're really home. I had that feeling. Every other place just felt wrong-- felt dingy, felt like I'd be in someone else's space, felt too cluttered or just not right.

Maybe it's that I'm American, and therefore have sort of high expectations or something, but the first thing that really got me excited was how clean it was. It's brand spanking new! New hardwood floors, freshly painted white walls, and new kitchen appliances-- a dream, compared to some of the nasty, broken down things I've been seeing. Clean bathrooms! A fully functioning kitchen! And a general feeling of lightness and breeziness. Sun was pouring through all the windows. I don't know, it was just... nice.

The room itself is the smallest in the house-- there are 5 all together-- yet still not claustrophobic. It has a twin size bed, a desk, and an armoire, and best of all it has its own balcony! Granted, it's a small balcony, not really big enough to stand on, but big enough to enjoy and put some plants on anyway! I love it.

I'll be living with 4 other people in a very multi-national household. First there is Diego, a 26 year old porteño (local guy) who actually owns the apartment. He's fantastic. He's actually the only one I met, but we instantly clicked. He's traveled a ton and seems like very relaxed guy. He and his sister are opening up their own hosetl around the corner too, which I got to see under construction, and looks like it's going to be very nice. He's quite the entrepreneur, I'd say. Anyway, there will also be another American girl who's around 26, an Australian guy who I think is about 32, and a French woman who I believe is 27-ish. So we're all around the same age, and supposedly everyone gets along very well. Best of all, we're all going to be working, so it won't be some sort of student household.

Oh-- and there is a roofdeck! Granted, it's shared with the entire building, but whatever. I can catch some rays out there. I love roofdecks!!!

So yeah, I paid a deposit, and can go over and get my keys on Sunday. I am reeeeally looking forward to it! It will be fun to have a new neighborhood to explore, and some new roommates to get to know. Hopefully they are all cool. Next week, I'll start moving things in a bit, but I'll stay here in the dorm to sleep, since I will still be in school for one more week, and the school is right next door. Then, I'll move for good next Friday!

Oh, and next Friday I'm also going for a long weekend with a bunch of people from my class to a beach called Necochea, where one of my classmates has a family beach house. Yess!!! After all this work, it'll be amazing to relax and soak up some rays.

The hunt for an apartment

So I need to be out of my residence on March 7th, and I am having so much trouble finding an apartment! I am stressed out and frustrated. Being an American around here is tough, because it puts a target on your back that says, "Hi, take advantage of me. I have money." Which I don't.

I have a fairly modest price range of no more than $1,000 pesos per month (or less if possible!) and just that alone has been trouble. Sure places exist that are well within that range, but again, they find out I'm American and suddenly there are all sorts of other fees, or the price mysteriously goes up.

So far I have looked at 2 apartments, and I have about 3 other prospects on the horizon. And let me tell you, none are particularly appealing.

First, on Saturday I went and looked at a place in a neighborhood called Palermo Hollywood (yes, it's really called that) a cute, kind of trendy area of town. The rent was $950 pesos (sure!) and the room was fairly large and came with a huge roofdeck with a grill and all that jazz. It was a nice space. I'd have been living with a local porteña woman and an English girl. The porteña sat me down and we had a great conversation, and I'm thinking to myself, "This is perfect! Nice place, nice girl, nice price, what more could I want?" and then suddenly she says, "So, by the way, in addition to the monthly rent, you also need to pay me an additional $300 USD." So I say, "Oh, like a deposit that I get back when I move out?" and she says, "No, just give me $300. I did some renovations a while back and I need to recoup the costs." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! So basically she wanted me to just slap down $300 bucks for some "home improvements" I had nothing to do with. Jerk. I thought about it, and realized the whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. I don't want to start off a living situation feeling like already right off the bat I'd been taken advantage of. So scratch that place off the list.

Then, there was the place I saw yesterday. It was in a great location in Recoleta, just a few short blocks from where I'm staying now. The price was only $900 pesos. But I walked in and saw the room, and although it was big and had a small balcony, the bed was right on the floor and there was literally nothing else in the room. No tables, no closet, nothing. Then I realize that it's a woman and her 17 year old daughter who live there and rent out several rooms. The woman started going on and on about how one boy living there now doesn't eat enough so she makes him dinner, and how she likes doing people's laundry. Wait, Mom? Is that you? Then it suddenly hit me, so I asked, "Can I have friends over?" and she stumbled through a long answer about how they could come for dinner, but I'd need to call and ask first.

Um yeah. I celebrated my 18th birthday almost 10 years ago, and am officially an adult. I think I'm all set with moving back in with Mom. Argentina style. Scratch that one off the list too...

THEN there are my beloved/ horrifying prospects. First, there is the 21 year old boy who contacted me asking if I'd like, for $700 pesos, to share his STUDIO APARTMENT, and kindly offered to "put up a screen for more privacy." Is this really what it's come to??

And of course, there is the room that was offered to me with 2 other men, and it sounded nice enough until I found out why the girl living there now is moving out. Apparently one of the roommates, a young French guy, has some sort of sex addiction that he likes to act out almost daily with different women ON THE LIVING ROOM COUCH.

Dear god.

And last but not least, we have the one I'm supposed to go see tonight (and you KNOW I'm desperate because I am still willing to go see this place), where apparently the ceiling is about 5'8", which coincidentally is slightly shorter than I am, and where the roommates all smoke inside the apartment. For the record, I absolutely hate smoking.

So yeah. I'm frustrated, and likely to be homeless in the near future. Ugh.