Apartment plus some...

Knowing that school is getting ramped up back at Whitworth makes me a little bit sad, but school here is going to be ramping up as well so I’m sure that I will have plenty to keep me busy. Well after finding out that I had a job I had to go on and face the next step…finding an apartment. Fortunately, I my friend Matt from home and Whitworth is also new to the city and we were looking together. This is actually quite a daunting task here in NYC because there are so many and yet so few. I have to consider the location, the cost, and the apartment itself. I knew that for me cost and location outweighed the apartment’s look I didn’t really want to end up in a closet. Throughout the past few months friends from TFA have been finding apartments all over the city and some have had it easy while others find it to be a battle. I took almost two weeks to get mine. Craigslist can only get you so far and broker’s fees are expensive. I budgeted for about $1000 a month for an apartment. With TFA friends spending anywhere from 700-1300 a month I figured aiming to be in the middle would be a good plan. Well in the past two weeks I have spent countless hours looking at advertisements for apartments and visited at least ten different places, some nice and others not so nice. I sort of wanted to get one with a doorman and a pool/gym/billiards room, but that was a little bit out of my price range. Matt and I found a great one with a good location and low cost that was not too bad looking, but someone else beat us to it. Yesterday we went to check out a place right next to Prospect Park, the largest park in Brooklyn, that I had found on facebook. It was titled, $1450 / 3br - *Cash* Beautiful 3bed on Rutland Rd. and Flatbush Ave. !*CASH*, and had no pictures. Well after visiting the apartment we were pretty stoked. The maintenance man for the building was the one who let us in and we were shocked at how big it was. So we saw the apartment at 2pm then called the broker afterward to say that we wanted it. We met him at 4pm and put down the deposit which was one month’s rent in cash. (I struggle hand that much money to someone who I just met.) He was a great guy who’s name I still don’t actually know. Then we met again today at 2pm to file our final paper work while in the back of his car and pay last month’s rent along with a security deposit. Money seems to be flying here. So within twenty four hours I now have my keys to an apartment that is unfurnished. Well of course we decide to head to IKEA. Matt and I ended up spending five hours in IKEA and we only really got about half the stuff that we are going to need. This whole process has been a whirlwind. Oh and in case you were wondering if the whole cash upfront thing is sketchy I think so, but apparently in NYC it is actually quite common and I do actually have a legit lease form so it has all worked out. I wouldn’t suggest to friends however that they regularly run around the city with thousands of dollars in cash. I’m sort of over IKEA and all that it has, but I get the feeling that I will probably be back there again in the next few weeks. One more thing to add on to the housing tangent that I just went on, we now have an extra bedroom that we will probably end up renting out and I will be paying about half of what I budgeted for housing. Yippee.

The city as a whole is still a very interesting place. When traveling on public transit you never know what you are going to see. I have witnessed a young boy physically fight the woman he was with (I’m not sure if she was his mother or not). I have seen countless musicians/artist of some kind run into a packed subway car and begin playing expecting people to give them some money. To be a real New Yorker though you need to sit there staring straight ahead and ignore them otherwise they really will come up and get in your face when asking for money. The other day an older woman got caught in a subway car door. You may ask, how does something like this happen? Well I will tell you. I was on the D line heading to Coney Island and we got to a stop and the conductor announced that this train was now going to run on the N line. Well that sucks because more than half the people on the train have to get off and wait for the next D. So we get off and wait. The next D pulls into the station and we all get on only to wait a minute and hear another announcement, this train will now also be running on the N line and we should get out and wait for the next D. So there are a lot of frustrated people on the platform not really sure what is going on, the next D pulls up and the same thing happens only the conductor doesn’t speak very clearly so we are all quite unsure of what is going on. Well I get off because at this point I just want to walk or take a bus. As I get off the train doors close and this old woman is caught in them. She is not just a little bit caught, but a lot bit. Basically the doors are pressing directly against her belly and her backside. Well her head is turning one way then another and she looks very confused. She didn’t look confused about being stuck, but more about whether or not she wanted to be on the train. (Don’t worry, the trains won’t move without all the doors closed so she wasn’t in any danger). Well after about thirty seconds I go up to her and ask if she is trying to get off and she says yes. At this point I realize that this poor old woman was legitimately stuck between these doors that whole time with probably fifty people on the platform and another thirty in the car waited not wanting to step in to help. I guess there is still something to be said for being from Washington and not having as thick of a skin as New Yorkers. I was still willing to step in even if it was a little bit late.

Another fun travel story has to do with me walking down the street and stepping on a rat. That’s about it for that story. Yuck. The neighborhood that I have been staying in for the past few days with a friend from TFA is almost entirely Jewish. I have begun to see the world in black and white. That is really the only colors people here wear. I don’t have a yarmulke or long curls on either side of my head so I don’t really fit in. It is strange walking down the street and hearing Yiddish more than English. I was in a McDonalds the other day where the staff was all black and speaking Spanish. I guess my understanding of diversity in America has grown pretty substantially. Well that is about all I can think to say for now. Hopefully this hasn’t been too long and boring.