A Place to Live...

      8 days in that hotel was 6 days too long.  It was $45 a night to stay there.  I finally got some responses from some of the emails I sent out for a place to live.  I went to the first place and was kind of excited at first.  Private room on the second floor.  The hosts was an Asian man with a family of 5 plus 2 other renters.  He had a separate kitchen and bathroom outside for his renters as to keep us away from his family.  I just didn't get a good feel for the area when I was walking around.  I knew I would walking late night and I wanted to feel safe. 
     On to the next place...I emailed an ad and the lady emailed me back and said come by the office and we can show u some places and prices.  I wondered around the city a bit before I came across the office.  I went up to the 5th floor not knowing what to expect but hoping to find a cheaper place to live.  The lady I talked to was so nice and very friendly.  She was from Brazil.  She showed me pictures and told me how all of it works and it sounded pretty good. The best part was I could move in that day which was great because I had to work the rest of the week about 13 hours a day.   She showed me pictures of a shared house and a shared room.  I did not want to share a room originally but I was finding the rent was so expensive I just could not afford to just rent a private room.  Everything here is done by week.  Most places I was finding was 250 or more a week but this place was 170 a week.  Still not great but better.  I signed the paperwork, got the keys, headed back to the hotel, packed my shit  (which was a good thing because I had just gotten 2 more roommates in the hotel room), got a cab and moved in to this crazy house.  When I arrived the cabby dropped me off down the street from the actual house.  He threw my luggage out of the cab, on the curb and drove off, but not before charging me $45 for the damn ride.  It was $4 more than the meter said because we had to cross the bridge and on the bridge is a toll.  What the Hell!

Shared room! My side is on the right

   
 I stacked my luggage and dragged in down the street to the house.  It was dark and a little scary when I walked in.  I unlocked my door and the my roommate was there but she was resting.

The dining room

The kitchen

  I felt so bad for waking her up.  She was so nice though, she helped me roll my bags into the room and I asked her where I could buy sheets and pillows.  She said she was planning on going shopping in a few mins if I wanted to go.  So I got my stuff unpacked (mostly).  We headed out.

the shared background with the neighbor house (on left)

The washer.  $1.20 to wash and NO dryer!

 She told me all about the house and the area, how to get places and where to catch the bus.  We went to the grocery store first then to Kmart.  She even helped me carry some of my stuff home.  She said she would cook dinner while I made my bed and got a little more settled.  How awesome.  I thought for sure I was going to like it here.