Apartment!

Last night was the first snow of the season. This morning the streets were thick with slush and the ‘bus’ (van, really) was late. The kids were extra squirrelly with the excitement of snow. I didn’t really care though, because Julian had informed me that she found me an apartment. I think Liz was as elated as I by the news. After five nights together in one room filled with luggage, we’d both had enough. After school, we schlepped my stuff through the freezing slush across the street and around the corner—and here I am! My building is directly behind the school. If I’m really in a hurry, I can squeeze between the buildings and dodge a few bags of trash, otherwise I have to make the long trek around the corner. What a drag!

I love my apartment. It’s quite new, and it has a lot more storage than Liz’s place. It’s standard to have radiant heat from the floor, which I especially love, and it has a fairly large washing machine. One of the only things I don’t like is the gigantic refrigerator. All of the apartments I’ve seen, both Japanese and Korean have nice little refrigerators, appropriate to the size of the kitchens. My place, for some reason, has been blessed/cursed with ‘monster-refrigerator,’ and it takes up almost half of the floor space. I have to turn my feet out and shuffle sideways to stand in front of the sink. The sink, however, is larger than the sink in my Seattle studio, and for that glorious luxury, I will put up with almost anything.

Picture: Roshi House-2nd floor, corner apartment