Happy Birthday, Cynthia!

Happy birthday, Cynthia!  It’s my sister-in-law’s birthday today.  Yay!
I’ve been lucky catching people from back home on MSN or Google talk. Just chatted with Bev Yang! And the other day I talked to my brother. And that’s in addition to my semi-regular check-ins with Jeremy, my parents, and my sister (she’s in England). Very cool. I’m really very spoiled with the level of communication I keep with everyone. I don’t know what I’d do without everybody.

Unfortunately, I’ve been glum lately. No good reason, although I keep searching: My roommate just moved out. Jeremy’s not here. Mari’s leaving on Saturday. Sara moved out of the dorms. I’m incapable of apartment hunting on my own. No classes. Money. What am I doing here? Sigh.

Actually, my roommate moving out means I have my own room! Mari pointed this out immediately. It hadn’t even occurred to me. I haven’t had an ounce of privacy in a while. Of course a monster roommate could appear at any moment. But for now, it’s not bad.

Yesterday, I started my day determined to find an apartment, but my enthusiasm fizzled for no apparent reason. And by the time I was talking to an agent, I couldn’t remember any of the vocabulary I prepared and Mari translated everything for me. I felt so dumb. It’s probably a good idea to drag a native speaker along for the cultural translations too — I’m not even sure if we were asking all of the right questions. So hard to say. The market is a little pricier than I remember, but it’s still much lower than the U.S. I looked at a fully furnished 2 bedroom apartment (including a very large t.v. even) and it was 1800 RMB/month ($225/month) with a 6 month lease. The agent suggested I wait until mid-month for some more inexpensive apartments to come on the market. I just need to be sure that I’m not competing with the entire returning student population, because classes start up September 1. I’m sure it will be impossible to find anything near-by if I wait too long.

The weather is wonderful though. I keep reading about the terrible heat in the U.S. Nothing like that here. The rain has subsided, although we do get an occasional violent downpour. It’s cool in the morning and the evening (60 degrees F) and creeps up to upper 70’s during the day. Not too bad.