אי שם מעבר לים

After spending 7(!) hours and $2,000 today at IKEA, we finally have our essential furnitures. This includes a nice ANEBODA, two VIKA ANNEFORS, one dark grey KNIHULT, four pieces of INGOLF and of course a VINSTRA.

The cinnamon buns were great as always (this was our third time in IKEA here!).

Actually, yesterday was the first day we really shopped since we got here. We got a gift card of $200 for buying in Linens n' Things, a place for home things. It’s pretty fun shopping this way, trying to reach a given amount. It makes you buy those things you wouldn't normally buy for yourself. Makes you buy yourself presents (like a $40 digital scale for food that displays both lb./kg. and includes a timer!). Right before that we visited a nice, big Barnes and Noble store. Very impressing book store, although we only bought there sandwiches and coffee…

On our way back we had the opportunity to watch the train arriving at Stoughton station. We stopped at the railroad crossing as the lights were blinking red (there is no barrier here - no one would think of crossing when the lights are flashing. How simple). Then the train arrived, stopped in the middle of the road and people just got off it to the road. That was odd. That’s life in suburbia!

Another quick one just to show you our new house (from the outside) and our new neighborhood. The latter is especially cool! (as Avigail already noticed). Click here!

I have so much to write about but am busy with yet some more interview preparation stuff. Promise to behave myself next week (starting from your Tuesday, actually). I do read your comments (and Avigail’s posts) though, so keep these coming - it’s great reading them!

Hey, so I thought we should tell you more about the process of finding a place. I see that some of you thought we found a place really quickly but for us time was running out. Like I said, Sep. 1 is a crutial date, because that’s when most of the people want to move in (this is due to all of the students here). So basically, if we hadn't found a place until then, the search would have been much harder and we would have had to look farther away, like in a city called Somerville (right north of Cambridge, my brother is moving there also Sep. 1) or in Brookline (the place of Jews/Israelis) or Newton (another place of Jews). Jees, lots of Jews. Speaking of, many of the apartments we saw had a mezuza or were owned by some Jew/Israeli.

Where was I? OK, so apparantly, most of the apartments for Sep. get rented as early as June and July. We were told that that is the best time to look for an apartment in Cambridge (and if the place we found turns out to be horrific, we will start looking next year already in June). So by August, not much is left and you have to be lucky (like in everything else..). Most of the Realtors actually showed us the SAME places.. (I read about that phenomenon somehwere online) (most places were clean and cool but better for 1 person, not 2). I was running around from Realtor to Realtor, eating each day at the same place (Au Bon Pain) and not really looking to see what’s around me. Hopefully now we can start being tourists! And I must say it’s gonna be weird living in a place where so many tourists come to visit. Like on your way to work seeing a group of tourists taking pictures of some church we ourselves probably won't even visit..

Anyway, now we need to get the apartment measured and buy stuff (at… Ikea?). We'll be sure to get extra matresses or a sofa bed, because we know you just can't wait to visit us

PS: I have no spell check on this computer, so excuse me for any mistakes.. Aviad is working on the laptop with the Hebrew.

PPS: Some of you wrote me emails and I didn't get a chance to respond yet, but believe me, I am thinking of you and am happy the English is not a machsom….

PPPS: To some of you we're responding in the tguvot of the former posts - I hope you don't miss that.

PPPPS: I just wanted to see what 4 Ps would look like..

So much has happened since last week! First, Aviad was sick! So much that he had to postpone that interview he told you about (see itinerary in one of the former posts). He could not have picked a better timing, the time we're supposed to find an apartment! He had a soar throat, a cold, a headache, couldn't get out of bed (no fever, thank goodness). A man sick.

So turns out Cambridge (which is a separate city from Boston but counts really as the same metropolitan) has a real estate market quite similar to.. Tel Aviv. Meaning, finding a place to live in is stressful, expensive and crazy! Especially since Sep. 1 is coming up and this is the time of year when the market is at its peak. So I was walking around like crazy looking at dozens of apartments, some we saw together (and even liked, only to find out that they have been rented already!), while most of the time poor Aviad was sick and I couldn't really make a decision on my own (a kastach on my part, in case it turned out to be the place from hell..).

Anyway, we finally found a place. We had to compromise because each place we saw had problems - either too far from the subway/train (the "T", as they call it here), too tiny, too noisy, too expensive, no parking! (sound familiar, Tel Avivim?). In the end we settled for a smaller place (2 rooms, or "1 bedroom" as they call it here), and it’s near.. a parking garage. Not the best neighboring building but.. This place was actually the "cheapest" we saw - $1,500 per month (+$100 for a parking spot). Most people here work with a Realtor (I saw only a few places through the owner), so that wasn't fun as well. The one who found this place was a lying snake salesman, but he did his job.. (He somehow guessed that I'm from Israel, after I said I'm from overseas. By the way, each realtor told me/us that they just "rented a place to an Israeli"…he-he-he).

I gotta go, we'll write more soon.

Oh, I forgot to say that the apartment is ON Harvard square (well, a ten minute walk, but that’s considered ON..).

The Best news is Aviad is finally feeling better.

Please come and visit!

1716 Cambridge St.
Cambridge, MA 02138