House hunting

Most of Saturday afternoon (with an encore on Monday afternoon) was spent looking for an apartment (not a flat, its an apartment, you get funny looks when you say flat over here).  I didn't think this would be particular hard but I was wrong.  It wasn't that hard just very fast paced and a bit like being trapped in a some sort of twlight zone where everything looked eerily similar.

The apartment blocks I was looking at were in various locations near and far from my soon-to-be office and although very beautiful far from being uniquely designed.  I looked at three and to be honest I don't think I could tell one from the other in the end.  The experience was the same at each location and went a bit like this.  In the entrance we (I had a Realtor with me guiding me through the processes which I'm very grateful for because otherwise I would have been totally lost) were greeted by a well made up young lady with a wonderful smile and sunny disposition, eager to show us around the beautiful and classy apartment block.  Some searching ensued on the computer system to find me an apartment for a short term lease, this proved difficult but not impossible as I was told repeatedly.  The floor plans were shown of studio and one bedroom apartments and square footage was discussed at length.  "Ms Cooper, is 750 sq. ft going to be enough room for you?" to which my response was always "I think so" with a look of total confusion.  Who knows what a square foot is- I'm from the metric generation, work in metres and then you will get a proper response smiley woman!

Then the tour of the apartment block began.  Gym, games room and lounge were all lovely and beautifully finished (a word I have never heard so much in my life until this experience).  Then to the pool areas, and this is where the beautiful people resided.  It was like a snap shot from a American tv show set in LA or somewhere equally as warm.  People using the grill (not BBQ, this things are far superior to our BBQs back in the UK), drinking iced tea, throwing the ball about in the pool and generally have a jolly good time.

I would show you some images from the apartments themselves but I am sure it would be an infringement of copyright or something so I thought I would wait until I moved into one and then bombard you with photos.  Needless to say, the finish was beautiful and for those who can either do maths or already know how big 750sq. ft is, its bloody huge!  Not sure what I am going to do with all the space as the walking in closet (oh yeah) is nearly as big as my kitchen at home.

After deciding on a location, Monday afternoon was spent trying to secure the apartment.  The one I really wanted was signed for no more than 10 minutes after I told them I was interested, damn them.  But never fear, I signed for another flat in another building in the end.  This process involved getting a money order, which is like a postal order, from a pharmacy.  This alone was a strange experience.  A lady named Fallon served me and just kept telling me she loved foreign money it reminded her of monopoly money. Hate to rock this girls world but...

So after all this, I now move into my new pad on Saturday and get to hang out with the beautiful people in the wonderfully finished apartment block.