Gràcia | 
06 23rd, 2008| 
Well, in case you were wondering, we haven’t moved in yet. Obviously, we didn’t have the party on June 13th. Actually, I celebrated my birthday that day. We didn’t hear from the constructors (the company paying for the building and renting us our appartment, I don’t really know the word in English) until last Friday. They called and told me that everything was ready, we just had to bring the endorsement papers and get our keys. This endorsement thing is a paper signed by someone with money (since we don’t have enough) taking responsibiilty for our rent. And Eric’s parents were going to do it. But they are in England until Wednesday evening, so… we have to wait an extra week! Anyway, we’re more optimistic now, everything seems to be working!
The appartment is almost ours. We’ve chosen the 7th floor (the building has got 8 floors) facing the south-west. We know, it’s hot in summer. But the south east option had just 1 bathroom and faces the other building, not our campus. Maybe we’ll regret this. Maybe not. It has A/C and heating in every room, and comes with a parking space and a storage room of about 80 sq ft. The appartment itself has 750 sq ft, and there are 2 built in closets. Both bathrooms are fully equiped, the one in the master bedroom with a large shower and the other one with bath tube. We’ve already got a Nespresso machine, this one:
Eric’s parents gave us their sofas (2 pretty blue ones) a brand new bed they have at their house in Xàbia and used only twice and by Eric a few lamps and a bunch of kitchen utensils. Also from his family we’re getting a TV, microwave, iron & board and a lot of money. His parents are also paying for the washing machine. My parents have bought us a fridge, this one:
But Titanium-finished. We feel luxurious not having a white fridge. Call us lame.Also, we’re getting all sheets, pillows, towels, tablecloth, etc from my parents (we already bought some!) and the glassware (we got Bohemian glass!!) and from my grandma’s house we’ve got some really pretty white breakfast mugs, many many serving dishes, jars, snack bowls, etc, good kives (kitchen and table), some vintage dishes and a few other things I can’t remember now despite the fact we spent a whole morning wrapping up things in newspapers.Here are some of them:
We expect to have all the paperwork done by tuesday and get the contract signed and the keys by May 23rd. Cross you fingers!
We’ve seen it, we love it, it’s cheap, it’s just big enough… Could this be our brand new (yay, we’re the first people ever living there) rental appartment? We’re so excited! We can’t stop talking about furniture! We saw it just 1 day before our 10 months anniversary. Are we crazy? Probably. Are we enjoying this? More than anything we’ve ever done.
So, this is how the story goes. My grandma, now living with us, used to live in Alicante. She happened to refuse to sell her home when she moved in here with us, so there it is, empty. Alicante is where I want to do my Phd. Great plan: I move there with Eric so we don’t have to spend that much money on rent (my grandma wouldn’t charge us at all) and everybody is happy. Not really.
I have a cousin, flight attendant, who owns an appartment in Madrid and is waiting for her new house to be finished here in Valencia. Her boyfriend is unemployed. They’ve decided to move in together to my grandma’s house. I’m guessing they want to sell the flat in Madrid so they can pay easily for the new house and save a couple of years worth of rent. Now, she has a brother who is currently living in England. He wants to come back to Spain but not to his parents home, so… hey, free housing in Alicante! So yes, if Eric and I happen to move there, we’ll be living with my cousins.
The worst part is that their choice of city was determined only by being too lazy to find a proper job or having gone into too much debt or wanting to have a place for free and spend their salary on whatever. My choice was made because Alicante is the only University in Spain offering the doctorate program I’m interested in.
I’m not living with them. By any means. No way. So do I have to renounce to my Phd? Do I find another place, while they get that one for free? I’m just so so angry and upset.