J'ai mal aux pieds
I found a place! YAY!!!! I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am. It’s with those three other girls I mentioned earlier, one of which I met today. Her name is Penda, she’s this tiny little thing and she is so excited to have an American roommate. The girl whose room I’m taking was super sweet as well; it’s too bad she’s leaving. I haven’t met the other two yet… I guess one was at work and the other is arriving mid-September, which is when I get to move in. I have to call the proprietor tomorrow and arrange another rendez-vous to sign the lease.
So the apartment is small but very nice. It’s fully furnished, meaning that it comes with everything from plates to eat on to a bed to sleep in. I think I seriously scored on this one… The rent is only 300 euros a month, and that includes gas, water, electricity, etc. They call it “charges tous compris.” It’s a hell of a deal and I can’t believe I got this lucky. I was too excited to get a good look at the place, but it’s on the 4th floor, which to us Americans is actually the 5th floor, and there’s no elevator. So I’m gonna be hiking my ass up and down the stairs every day, but hey I could use the exercise. And, it’ll warm me up when get home from walking in the snow in the winter. The kitchen is pretty small, but big enough to fit a dining room table in it, and it has a fridge, a stove and I think I might have seen a microwave but I can’t be sure. My room has a twin size bed, which I’m a little disappointed about but I’m not going to complain, and it has a great view of the Bastille. As soon as I move in I’ll take a picture of my view and post it on my picture website (sorry guys, still in progress). It also has a bookcase and I think it has a desk, which is very nice. The rent includes cable and internet too! I love it! I know there’s got to be a catch somewhere… But for now I’m definitely smiling :-)
I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my entire life! Honestly, I think I’ve done more walking since I arrived here than I’ve done in the past 10 years put together. I already told you about the hike to the Bastille a few days ago, and today I probably walked another 10 miles. There’s a Laundromat on campus, and I hadn’t done any laundry in about 2 and a half weeks, so this morning I got up and walked from my dorm to the Laundromat.. I don’t know how far it was… Maybe a quarter mile there and a quarter mile back. Then we were supposed to have a pique-nique in a park on campus, and I got back late from doing laundry so I missed out on getting to walk over with the group and got TOTALLY lost! I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way and ended up doing a loop around the entire campus and not finding the damn park. So I basically ended up back where I started and called Henry to ask for directions again, and he was nice enough to come get me. So I walked about a quarter of the loop I had just walked and we finally got there. My feet are killing me… Especially since I’m so used to wearing flip-flops all the time (gotta love California), and today I wore my Pumas, which aren’t very comfortable next to flip-flops. Bed is going to feel very good tonight. After the picnic, I went downtown to check my email at Neptune and to get walking directions to the apartment I was going to see and got lost downtown too! I took the wrong tram exit and got totally turned around and for anyone who really knows me, you know I have no sense of direction. And when you’re surrounded by mountains, and there’s no ocean to tell which way is west, and you’re me, it’s a little difficult. But I finally found it, took care of some business, then had to be back on campus by 5:30 for my first language class, which went fairly well. After class though, I had to walk to the apartment, and let me tell you that while mappy.com (the European equivalent to mapquest) gives great driving directions, and is nice enough to offer pedestrian directions, sucks. I walked about 3 times as far as I needed to in order to get to the place and I was about to keel over by the time I got there. Then you have to count in the 5 flights of stairs, the walk afterward across the way to the supermarket to buy champagne so I could celebrate my new home, and the walk back to the dorms.. *sigh* I’m in no mood for champagne. All I want is a foot massage and a warm bed. As I look over my shoulder right now I’m thinking that one out of two isn’t so bad.
Anyways, my new place is right on the outside border of campus, which is really cool because that means I don’t have to go very far for class, and there’s a bus stop close by that’ll take me to the tram to get downtown whenever I want. The supermarket and Laundromat are directly across the street, there’s a McDonalds just down the street (not that I will ever eat there again but it’s comforting to know that it’s there just in case I get a little McFlurry craving during exams). It’s an awesome location. And for those of you who know UCSB let me just put it this way: You know how the bike path separates campus and IV? I basically live at the end of Pardall just next to the bike tunnel that gets you on to campus. It’s that similar of a situation, but a much nicer building.
So anyhow, my warm bed is calling and I think I shall answer. My feet will be happy and so will I. Goodnight all :-) Much love. -Liv
So the apartment is small but very nice. It’s fully furnished, meaning that it comes with everything from plates to eat on to a bed to sleep in. I think I seriously scored on this one… The rent is only 300 euros a month, and that includes gas, water, electricity, etc. They call it “charges tous compris.” It’s a hell of a deal and I can’t believe I got this lucky. I was too excited to get a good look at the place, but it’s on the 4th floor, which to us Americans is actually the 5th floor, and there’s no elevator. So I’m gonna be hiking my ass up and down the stairs every day, but hey I could use the exercise. And, it’ll warm me up when get home from walking in the snow in the winter. The kitchen is pretty small, but big enough to fit a dining room table in it, and it has a fridge, a stove and I think I might have seen a microwave but I can’t be sure. My room has a twin size bed, which I’m a little disappointed about but I’m not going to complain, and it has a great view of the Bastille. As soon as I move in I’ll take a picture of my view and post it on my picture website (sorry guys, still in progress). It also has a bookcase and I think it has a desk, which is very nice. The rent includes cable and internet too! I love it! I know there’s got to be a catch somewhere… But for now I’m definitely smiling :-)
I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my entire life! Honestly, I think I’ve done more walking since I arrived here than I’ve done in the past 10 years put together. I already told you about the hike to the Bastille a few days ago, and today I probably walked another 10 miles. There’s a Laundromat on campus, and I hadn’t done any laundry in about 2 and a half weeks, so this morning I got up and walked from my dorm to the Laundromat.. I don’t know how far it was… Maybe a quarter mile there and a quarter mile back. Then we were supposed to have a pique-nique in a park on campus, and I got back late from doing laundry so I missed out on getting to walk over with the group and got TOTALLY lost! I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way and ended up doing a loop around the entire campus and not finding the damn park. So I basically ended up back where I started and called Henry to ask for directions again, and he was nice enough to come get me. So I walked about a quarter of the loop I had just walked and we finally got there. My feet are killing me… Especially since I’m so used to wearing flip-flops all the time (gotta love California), and today I wore my Pumas, which aren’t very comfortable next to flip-flops. Bed is going to feel very good tonight. After the picnic, I went downtown to check my email at Neptune and to get walking directions to the apartment I was going to see and got lost downtown too! I took the wrong tram exit and got totally turned around and for anyone who really knows me, you know I have no sense of direction. And when you’re surrounded by mountains, and there’s no ocean to tell which way is west, and you’re me, it’s a little difficult. But I finally found it, took care of some business, then had to be back on campus by 5:30 for my first language class, which went fairly well. After class though, I had to walk to the apartment, and let me tell you that while mappy.com (the European equivalent to mapquest) gives great driving directions, and is nice enough to offer pedestrian directions, sucks. I walked about 3 times as far as I needed to in order to get to the place and I was about to keel over by the time I got there. Then you have to count in the 5 flights of stairs, the walk afterward across the way to the supermarket to buy champagne so I could celebrate my new home, and the walk back to the dorms.. *sigh* I’m in no mood for champagne. All I want is a foot massage and a warm bed. As I look over my shoulder right now I’m thinking that one out of two isn’t so bad.
Anyways, my new place is right on the outside border of campus, which is really cool because that means I don’t have to go very far for class, and there’s a bus stop close by that’ll take me to the tram to get downtown whenever I want. The supermarket and Laundromat are directly across the street, there’s a McDonalds just down the street (not that I will ever eat there again but it’s comforting to know that it’s there just in case I get a little McFlurry craving during exams). It’s an awesome location. And for those of you who know UCSB let me just put it this way: You know how the bike path separates campus and IV? I basically live at the end of Pardall just next to the bike tunnel that gets you on to campus. It’s that similar of a situation, but a much nicer building.
So anyhow, my warm bed is calling and I think I shall answer. My feet will be happy and so will I. Goodnight all :-) Much love. -Liv
posted by Liv at 9:55 PM
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