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!
Congratulations!
I am so glad that you found your new place this fast (have to say that I really admire your determination about "getting things done in the right way" - I couldn't believe you guys would be able to pull all of this off SO fast - less than 2 weeks and most of the major "SIDURIM" are done).
Now all that is left is the fun part - shopping for furniture and other nice stuff for the apartment. (and of course that insignificant issue of Aviad’s need for a job…)
The place looks very central, and I think the building looks nice too. So - enjoy your new place, and I am looking forward to see some photos of the apartment.
Natke
תגובה מNatke
— 16 באוגוסט 2007 בשעה 18:48
FASTER DONE THAN YOU COULD HAVE IN TEL AVIV
WE WISH YOU MUCH SUCCESS IN ALL YOUR OTHER PROJECTS A FAVORITE SAYING WITH REAL ESTATE DEALERS IS - THE BEST APARTMENT HAS THREE MAIN CHARACTERISITCS:LOCATION, LOCATION AND LOCATION
IT SEEMS THAT YOU MADE IT TO THE BEST OF THE BEST
תגובה מTIRZA HECHTER
— 16 באוגוסט 2007 בשעה 19:11
נכנסתי לגוגל מפס, עברתי לתמונות לווין, אבל החץ הירוק מצביע על אמצע הכביש… איזה מהבתים שלכם???
בכל מקרה, מזל טוב על סגירת העסקה.
אגב, איך מבטאים realtor?
רילטור? רילאטור? משהו אחר?
בהצלחה,
ענבר ועירית
תגובה מענבר
— 16 באוגוסט 2007 בשעה 20:16
reeltor - the first option…
yeah, for some reason google maps doesn't show the houses clearly. It’s on the corner of Cambridge St. and Felton.
On Felton St. there’s only our building and that parking garage we told you about.
bekarov etslachem!!
תגובה מאביגיל
— 16 באוגוסט 2007 בשעה 20:53
Oh Inbar, to answer your question from last post - yeah, all AT&T customers can talk for free with each other! remez remez..
Also, there are "free nights and weekends", meaning every night from 9pm (they don't know what 21:00 is..) till 7am you can talk for free to ANY line - land, cell. Same on weekends. The chavila we took is 550 minutes per month (between the two of us), there is also 700 minutes, 1400 minutes.. 550 is the lowest. In AT&T, if you didn't use all your minutes they go to the next month. To that we add a "text messaging" chavila (they don't know what SMS is), cause sms is really expensive in the States. So for 4.99 for each line, we get 200 text messages free (10 bucks for both lines).
תגובה מאביגיל
— 16 באוגוסט 2007 בשעה 21:03
מזל טוב! אני ממש שמחה שכבר מצאתם דירה ושאביעד מרגיש יותר טוב! זו שכונה נחמדה? איזור סטודנטיאלי?
דרך אגב, אני יושבת עכשיו על "כדור פילאטיס" שקניתי אחרי שראיתי אותו אצלכם בדירה.רעיון גאוני לשבת על זה מול המחשב!כיף!
תגובה מסיגל
— 16 באוגוסט 2007 בשעה 21:51
Hey Sigal!
On the whole, there are students everywhere. Specifically in our building there are all sorts of people. We kind of stalked the neighbors to ask them questions about the area, so we met a weird old lady that doesn't seem to have much contact with other humans and a young man who Aviad thinks works in the high-tech… But it’s a safe place also at night because there are students all over the place (yeah, here you always have to check if it’s a "safe place"..)
For me it’s like a 5 minute walk to school..
תגובה מאביגיל
— 16 באוגוסט 2007 בשעה 22:54