I can now add something to my list of Lima firsts. Right after taking a Lima bus, eating cow hearts, arguing with taxi drivers and teaching children, I have looked for an apartment. Growing up, I lived at home and then in dorms, when I moved off campus, my mom found the apartment for me because I was studying abroad that semester. For my first apartment in Lima, Alvaro and his mom found it before my arrival. This was my first real estate endeavor. Needless to say, it was a lot harder than I expected.
I spent the majority of last week trying to find a balance between price, interior and location. Ideally, I want completely redone bathrooms, new kitchen, modern interior, beautiful building and the picture perfect location. Around Wednesday I had a reality check: My teacher budget won´t pay for all of those things. Then I began to make compromises and in this process discovered the one thing I was unwililng to compromise on: location.
I had singled out an apartment and it was the main contender. The location couldn´t be better, the price is right, the decorations are pretty good but the kitchen and bathroom are older. Here was my compromise. I am able to admit that I am horrificly indecisive (somewhere in Nashville my mom is reading this and smiling) and it took the hard truth to accept that this was the apartment, old kitchen included.
But I did it! I signed a preliminary document last week and will get to see the apartment fully ready to go this weekend. Then begins the process of thoroughly removing every shedded Emmaline hair from my current apartment so the owner doesn´t realize there was an expat cat living there for a year. I think she´s worth all the cleaning trouble, but I am afraid my landlady won´t agree.
And that´s that. As I am approaching the one year anniversary of my big leap to Peru, I can add finding an apartment in Spanish to my list of accomplishments.
