Apartment Hunting

Remember how people used to find apartments before Craigslist? No, you don't, do you? Well, they looked in various newspapers for listings, called numbers posted in windows, heard about things word-of-mouth, and scanned bulletin boards.

That's what we have been doing (there are a few listings on Guanajuato Craigslist, but hardly any -- most are for San Miguel de Allende, and hour away from here).

I have been too shy to call the numbers in the listings myself so our current hostel-landladies were nice enough to call for me. Not much luck there, though. Today, I got up the nerve to call the number posted in a window, and got a woman who was utterly flummoxed: no, she's not renting anything. I wonder if I don't know how to dial with the new cell phone, but it has worked other times.

Via Craigslist, we did see one listing and met with the rep, a nice guy from Oregon who has lived here about 5 years now and has a real estate business. We had a short coffee with him and talked about how to look (essentially, all the things we already were doing, plus he'll keep an eye out for us). Then, he showed us the place listed. It's really nice, but might be too small for our needs -- we'll see.

Yesterday the new Chopper came out (the weekly penny-saver type thing with the listings at the back). Most were identical to last week's, with not much that works to our high standards (near the center, furnished, and not just a bedroom for students). However, one was new and Sandra called for us. It was listed as "chalet" style. On the phone, the owner clarified to Sandra that the place was a vacation rental, but gave her the web address for it. The pictures were pretty, if the place was small. So we made an appointment to see it. Up many, many stairs (oh, right, the great view shown in the pictures was not some amazing luck of view without having to climb), we arrived at a place that was just absurd. While lovely in it's appointment, and not bad if we were just staying a week, it was the tiniest thing. It was three floors, but each one was about 7 feet deep and featured one of the rooms: kitchen/bathroom (with the space between labeled as a breakfast nook: see above picture), bedroom, and living room (with a futon couch that could convert the room to another bedroom). It had the width of a small house, and the depths of a hallway. Two of the floors featured nice balconies with the fantastic views, but this was just not going to work.

Word of mouth, at this point, includes telling: the women who run our hostel, the person who cut Peter's hair, the director of the language school, the couple who run our favorite store, the American owner of the best coffee shop in town, the American couple who put us up in Patzcuaro (who heard of a place from a taxi driver), the American couple we met last night at Japanese restaurant dinner, I'm probably forgetting someone, and my favorite: the gas man. After all, who knows what is available more than the guy who delivers the gas?

Back in Guanajuato and taking steps to settle in

Yesterday was a day for accomplishing things. We went through the "Chopper", a little local penny-saver type thing, looking for apartments, and writing down the info about the ones that sound possible (the Chopper is not ours, it belongs to the Bagel Cafe, so we had to copy out useful info). There were not a lot in the center. We might revisit it to consider an area that was suggested later...get to that momentarily.

We then went up the street just a few steps to a language school that some American professors we met said was good. Peter enrolled to start next Monday. To begin with, for the first week or two, he will take 4 hours of class a day: 2 hours of grammar, 1 hours of vocab, and then one hour where they use what they learned in vocab to actually do it (like, they might learn how to order food, then they go to a cafe or restaurant and do it). Later, the "doing" hour will change into conversation. I might go to the orientation with him and take the exam to see, but for now I didn't sign up. They also have cooking classes in the afternoons at 3, and one can take it 3 times a week, I think, so I might try that out.

From there, we bought a cell phone. Not something we'll be using to call home or receive calls from home on, because that would wipe out our minutes in a flash, but for calling prospective landlords, it seems pretty useful.

Next, to the stylist who does our bagel ladies' hair. One of them in particular, Bene, has great hair. Before telling us where to go, Bene said, "Well, my stylist is a transsexual, or, transvestite." I said, "Yeah, that's fine." (Lesbians referring us to a transgender stylist: feels like home.) So we went and found the spot, waited a few minutes for it to reopen post-siesta time at 5, and in we went. Peter got a good haircut for about $12, and I might go for highlights (that's more like $35, but still not bad). If Bene had not told me, I never would have guessed that the stylist was a man (really small hands!). Well, until the end, when we introduced ourselves and I asked her name and she said, simply, "Juan."

Then, off to this store near there that we loved before and still do. Also has a little cafe in the back where we sat for coffee. I chatted with one of the owners about coffee and the music that was playing (it was great -- he didn't sell the disk because it hasn't come to Gto yet, but he wrote down the name for me -- a guy he compared to Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan in that their words are the best part, and their voices aren't so strong). I liked him for being a great intellectual snob.

Everywhere we went, we told the person (well, not at the cell phone office, but the stylist and the cafe and the language school), that we are looking for a place to live. The director of the school wrote down our preferences and I think he often helps students find houses (he is the one who suggested we consider this neighborhood a little outside the center, where it's quieter), so he seems the most likely to come through. The cafe guy gave me the info of a woman (American or Canadian) who rents places, but the card he gave me seemed pretty fancy.

I emailed with Liz, half the couple who paid our B&B in Patzcuaro because she had said she would be back in Gto this week (George was staying in Oregon). We will likely have lunch or dinner with her next week. She also said they have a big Thanksgiving at their house and invited us. I offered to bring cranberry sauce, which will give me a project while Peter starts his classes next week (those of you who knew me in college might remember my cranberry sauce adventures in Spain -- cranberries are a new world fruit and don't really exist in Spain. I hope that I will be able to find them here, and I think I will. Anyone have a recipe for turning dried cranberries into sauce, though?).

Today, to call around to places (oh, I do get so nervous about phone calls in Spanish!) we found listed in the chopper. We have tickets to the Juarez Theater tonight (which is supposed to be beautiful inside) for something that we think is a trapeze act or circus -- we really are not sure but we liked the posters :)