8: New Month, New Apartment!

3/1/2011

So much has happened since my last blog post!  I wouldn’t know where to start if time weren’t linear.

SO EXCITED AMID THE MESS

I'm sure I've mentioned several times in this blog that my roommate, Tatiana, had been searching for a room closer to campus for some time.  While Amy and I would have liked to live off campus if such an availability arose, most of the advertisements around the city were for single rooms and we were content to stay in Polo III.  However, last Monday Tatiana heard back from a landlord regarding a place with two rooms available and, though Amy was still in Spain, we figured we figured it wouldn't hurt to check the place out.  So, eagerly awaiting Amy's return, we met with the nicest man I've met so far and absolutely loved the place (and its very cheap rent).  The landlord, whose name we still do not know and therefore affectionately call Senhor Senhorio (Mr. Landlord), is the most delightful little man in the world and so incredibly obliging.  When we told him about a potential third roommate, he not only seemed open to the idea but allowed us to change the larger room into a double.  He also promised to drive all the way to Porto to get us a second bed frame and mattress from another one of his locations.  After speaking to Amy, and showing her the apartment the next day, we decided that this was it.  This was our new apartment.

The most Portuguese shopping cart in the world.

The rest of the week passed: classes, going out at night, etc.  Throughout the week we started to plan what exactly we needed for the apartment.  Amy and I volunteered to take the double room since it was Tatiana that had been doing all the work finding rooms and talking to landlords.  This weekend we began the huge process of moving everything from our residence hall to the apartment.  I don’t know how we accumulated so much extra stuff over the course of the one month that we were here but it seemed as though we had so much more!  However, we enlisted the help from Dan who used his amazing military strength to help us with our first wave of suitcases over to the apartment on Saturday.  Unfortunately only the larger room was available, as the former tenant had until Sunday to move out of the smaller room, so we moved everything into one room and then went to Dolce Vita, the curiously Italian-named mall in Coimbra, to go to the giant supermarket there and buy cleaning supplies for the terrifying prospect of cleaning the common areas.

Of course, the entire floor is not just us.  The apartment has five rooms in total, so we have three roommates.  One of them is Victor, who isn’t around much and only rents the room to sleep when he’s in town working.  The other two are more permanent: Helder, who lives right next to Amy and I, is Portuguese and tends to stay in his room and play his guitar... and then there is Santiago, a Spanish model (or least should be) who is very friendly and seemed excited for us to move in.  He seems to want more interactive roommates with whom he could practice his English.  He lives across the hall from us and makes a point to greet us whenever we were around this weekend.  He’s very friendly and that is all I will say for now. :)

The kitchen

Post-clean.  Really.

Sunday was marked by excessive amounts of cleaning.  We arrived in the afternoon and tackled the kitchen and bathroom.  After straight use by four men for who knows how long, you can imagine the state of things.  I think I killed at least five spiders and countless ants as I scrubbed the stove and pantry and Tatiana cleaned the fridge, microwave, and the huge pile of boxes and bags on top of both machines.  Poor Amy was left alone to tackle the bathroom, but she cleaned it so well that she literally changed the color of the shower, toilet, and walls.  We still have to scrub the floor, but after we left the apartment, those areas were beautiful.  Santiago even popped over and tried to help, but after he swept the floor I think he realized how intense we were and left us to destroy every place that mold had even thought about growing.  Having a Portuguese mother definitely prepared me for such intensive cleaning.  No such thing as “clean enough," right Mom?

Look at that PRISTINE toilet, thanks to Amy.

After cleaning, we returned to Dolce Vita and bought things like sheets, pillows, utensils, and rugs for the rooms, kitchen, and bathroom.  These boys will definitely feel that feminine touch in this apartment.

So sad and masculine.

Can you spot the feminine touches?  (Hint: rug, food in the pantry, multi-colored cups, cooking utensil Lazy Susan, the color pink, and general colorfulness)

The next day, the last day of February, we only had class at 2 PM, so we brought the rest of the bags from our rooms into the apartment and, after History and Literature, we went to check out at the Office of Alojamentos.  However, when we were finally able to meet with Rosario Gomes, she informed us that since we had not notified them two weeks earlier we would have to pay the entire rent for the month of March… even though we would not have keys to a room for any amount of time during this month.  We were obviously extremely upset and went right back to Polo III to speak to the director, Carlos, who informed us that he knew of no such rule, and after we called our program director Ana Paula, who also told us that she was not aware of such a rule.  Obviously my personal political views began to flare and, through the haze of anti-bureaucratic anger, I announced my personal decision to fight the ridiculously unfair and unknown rule as hard as I could and refuse to pay such a fee.  After speaking to each of our parents, my friends agreed and we officially turned in our keys.  I'm sure more drama will ensue, so I will keep you all updated.  I've always wanted to sue someone... (haha).

The window between the kitchen and the bathroom.  Soon there will be an American flag painted up there.

We spent the night grocery shopping, cleaning, and unpacking.  We ended up having dinner at McDonalds with Dan (and I won 10 free digital prints from Snapfish in their Monopoly sweepstakes!  What a night!) and then spent our very first night in our new place.  Now, on Tuesday night, the room is still a rather messy (as the pictures below indicate) and, while my bed still has no legs, Senhor Senhorio promised to fix it.  Tatiana was finally able to get into her room and has been cleaning it all day and Amy and I have been trying to do laundry with the washer, which has no words in either English or Portuguese on any of the knobs or buttons, so that’s been interesting.  At least our drier is nice and simple: three clotheslines outside our window.

View from my new room.

My little corner... color-coordinated, of course.

The room (still being unpacked!)

To summarize: the apartment is a bit of a dump, but its my dump and I love it.  Plus it came with a space heater!

Favorite part of our new room!

The space heater...