Today was utterly exhausting. Mom's pedometer clocked a total of 15,000 steps, mostly around Mainz. Apartment Hunting Day was something I was not looking forward to-what an ordeal, I thought- but in the end, it was successful. But not so quickly. It was a long day.
It began with a trip to an apartment in a beautiful, quiet neighborhood near my school. My room-a loft- was lovely, arguably the best room in the apartment, which was a problem. The master bedroom was tiny, there was no washing machine (and no place to put one), the rent was very expensive, and it turned out that the landlord had no interest in renters for only one year. With regret, I bid farewell to the perfect room; with less regret, to the vaguely creepy real estate agent who smelled of cigarette smoke, and we wandered into downtown Mainz.
Mom and Dad had some errands to run, and we wiled away the time with one thing and another (including jeans shopping-bleagh) until lunch, when Dad made yet another unanswered call to the owners of the apartments we were interested in. We had no other visit to an apartment scheduled until Mom checked her email; within half of an hour, we had an appointment at by far the most promising of the apartments at six o'clock. So, we waited and waited and waited, eventually ending up at a very nice bakery/cafe where we played endless rounds of Hangman on a piece of scrap paper. Finally, finally, the time came, and we followed the much nicer friend of the owner up the four or five flights of stairs.
It had everything: a place to store our at this point theoretical bikes, a dishwasher, a washing machine, a lovely (and partially stocked) kitchen, a master bedroom with a bed (yay!) and a huge dresser, and art already on the walls. True, the bathroom was old and tiny and all that was in my room was a bright red sofa and a hideous tapestry, but the second (and more important) problem and the lack of furnishings in the rest of the house should be remedied with a monster trip to Ikea. And yes, for those of you who were wondering, Ikea is everywhere, like a virus that, once it's caught you, never lets you go, and you just keep walking and walking and walking and walking and never, ever leave... The more perceptive of you might have noticed that I am not the biggest fan of Ikea, but it will come in handy this time. I'm really looking forward to the trip (not).
Well, thirty-six hours in Germany, and we have an apartment. May all our troubles be resolved this easily. We move in Friday.
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