The New Place

I am finally moved into the apartment that I will stay in until December and it is SO nice to be unpacked and more settled.  The apartment is on the 3rd floor of a small, modern building (I'd guess about four or five years-old).  There are only 6 units, and it's set up with a central courtyard, so luckily I don't share walls with anyone.  My unit is in the back so looks over a little backyard that the ground floor has access to.  I like being in the back because, while the street is relatively quiet, there are buses that go by and the buses here make this sort of wheezing noise when they brake (air brakes I think?) and the noise drives me a bit crazy.

This apartment has the same cable as my old one did, so I can still watch American TV to my heart's content.  I convince myself that I am learning from it because I read all the Spanish subtitles and thereby improve my reading comprehension (yeah, right!).  And I am also making myself put the local news on each morning to try and see how much I can figure out.

There are of course a few foreign country oddities in the place.  A bidet(!), crazy looking light bulbs, and wiring that I don't think would meet any construction codes in the US.  My a/c unit (which is built into the wall) appears to drain into a large Culligan style water bottle on the balcony, which I assume I will have to empty at some point when I start to use it.  Also, there is a little cleaning corner in the kitchen with a separate sink and place to store buckets, mops etc.  Luckily included in the rent is a really nice lady named Noelia who comes once a week to clean and change the sheets and towels, so I shall leave that area to her!

Sadly there is no laundry room in the building, so I have to go to the laundromat about a block away.  The concept of self-serve laundromats does not exist here - you have to hand over your clothes to be washed at a place called the lavadero.  I was terrified that my clothes would come back about 10x smaller, but all went well and my jeans still fit.  The only issue is that they use some seriously flowery detergent, which I am not used to.  But it was lovely to hand over $8 ($4 per load) and get back two bags of clean and folded clothes.

And now....some photos!!  I am far from a pro at taking pictures, as you can tell!

Half of the kitchen (fridge and sink are on the right).  It makes me feel like a giant because the counters are about 6 inches lower than what I am used to!

The "living room" with my orange couch.  If you look closely you can see a Gossip Girl rerun (subtitled!) on the TV.

The bed area - it's pretty comfy and there is a nice ceiling fan and a really large closet on the left.  Also you can see a bit of the folding screen that I could use to block off that area if I had people around to visit.