It's been a hectic and exhausting first two full days, and today is mostly devoted to sorting through the storm damage and trimming our sails for the next few days.
Many uncertainties remain, but it appears we have an apartment that we will be able to move into Tuesday morning. Our friend Chung was a fantastic help acting as unpaid renter's agent, local guide and translator in a twelve-hour marathon yesterday. She set up appointments to look at several apartments with three owner's agents, and we crisscrossed District 1 in a total of 8 taxi rides. There were numerous misunderstandings, incorrect addresses, and surrealist rabbit holes. We made our selection and began serious negotiations, which resembled something like the game of telephone using actual telephones and a language barrier for spice -- Ilene and me to Chung to the agent to the landlord's sister to the landlord, who was supposed to be on holiday but I'm beginning to think is somebody's alter ego.
Once we came to terms, we piled on motorbikes (we also accomplished buying our own new helmets) and took a long trip out into District 2 to the landlord's sister's place, which was on the 14th floor of an apartment tower with a gorgeous view of the sunset and a serious AV set up. Cans of Ba Ba Ba and Pepsi were passed around and we sat down to write up a promissory note to sign a contract later when the landlord returns. During this process all of the misunderstandings that were seeded during the game of telephone bore fruit and the deal nearly fell apart. (Most worryingly, they insist on being paid in U.S. currency, which I didn't bring nearly enough of and which I thought was impossible to acquire here. I'm now told otherwise, so tomorrow's errand is to navigate of the international banks downtown. If I don't succeed, we're back at square one.)
As for the apartment itself, I'll tell more after we move in and get pictures. Suffice it to say that we avoided the lure of a foreigner's enclave and that the word "charming" will be often used -- whether sincerely or ironically remains to be seen.
As usual, jet lag has us dropping like stones at about 9 p.m. and waking up at 3 a.m. We lay in bed quietly out of courtesy to the rooster who lives across the street from our hotel, and when he starts his day we get up and start ours.
We acclimate quickly, though. We heard via Skype this morning that it's snowing in Connecticut, and it felt a little like news that aliens had landed. I couldn't quite imagine it. 28 Celsius and cloudy here, all day, every day, with humidity to beat the band.
-Robert
