Our broker was starting to get a bit angry with us. Behind her normal, cheery demeanour was a bubbling resentment for the Aussie couple that wouldn't settle for a dump and wouldn't be taken seriously by prospective landlords. But to her credit, she continued to drive us around the city and show us apartments, only using the hard sell in the last few days. But we held out. We had applied for the 2nd apartment we'd seen with this broker and for some cruel reason, hadn't heard anything a whole week later. She kept reassuring us that this was normal, but eventually even she admitted that it was weird. The landlord's office was busy, overrun, short staffed etc etc and even though the wait was mental torture it worked in our favour in the end. Our broker was able to lay on the guilts about the long wait and we ended up with the key to our favourite apartment in our hands! Finally! Mention must be made of the 7 amazing friends who scrambled and wrote us quick character references at 9am on morning so that we could sweeten our application. Thanks to Kate, Ida, Lachlan, Frances, Lucy & Nick and Arlee. With shining references from Denmark, IMAX, a tram, Moonee Valley, Sheffield and North Fitzroy how could we go wrong?
I can't say I was sad to leave the hotel room (and I was terrified of the bill), but I had a certain fondness for it's cosy bunks, tiny TVs and shared bathrooms. Getting the money together for the deposit was a whole other drama that drew out over the previous fortnight. It all started when we withdrew $10,000 in cash from various ATMs to pay for that first apartment we almost had but ended up losing. We fell victim to misinformation and confusion about the way the system worked. We were also convinced that whenever a new apartment came up we would need to money at hand, and didn't want to risk the waiting time for an international transfer. So when things started to heat up over 5J (our new apartment) we withdrew more and more cash in order to be ready. This wouldn't have been as ridiculous if New York ATMs gave out larger notes than $20. Eventually, and not without it's own special dramas related to be a foreigner, we opened individual checking accounts at Chase. We followed this up by bringing in our hefty $20,000 stash of $20 notes and gathering incredulous looks from the bank dudes. It was...humiliating. But it's a good story now.
Camille (that's our heavenly broker) called us on Wednesday 9th Feb with a lease signing appointment. We sorted out our 2 bank checks (1 for the landlord, 1 for Camille) and signed away 3 months security and 1 months rent in exchange for 2 very happy people. We gave Camille an Outback gift voucher for her troubles and spent our last evening at The Pod Hotel!
Thursday was an exhausting day. We collected our key around 12noon and moved our suitcases and dirty laundry amassed over the last month into the apartment. We then headed to JCPenney and Kmart to collect all kinds of bedding, appliances, coathangers and towels. We dropped this off at the apartment and (foolishly) decided to catch the water taxi out to IKEA island. We didn't realise at this point that the we would miss the last ferry back, as well as the last shuttle to the subway. We spent 2 hours deciding on a bed, mattress, couch and coffee table which we then arranged for delivery. I'm not sure why, but we decided to carry a whole lot of stuff with us on the way back to Manhattan, which included a bus trip and multiple trains at 11pm on a freezing night. Once we dumped that stuff in the apartment we were out again to the 24 hour supermarket to collect as many staples as we could carry. I am still recovering from the whole experience. But you know what, being able to sit on our couch drinking endless cups of tea and eating piles of vegemite toast make it all worth it.
Having spent the night on a rather comfy inflatable double bed (you visitors can look forward to it!), we waited all day until our furniture arrived. We decided, somewhat stupidly, that we could avoid tipping the delivery guys by carrying all the stuff up to the 5th floor ourselves. Luckily IKEA furniture is not the sturdiest stuff in the world and we managed it in 3 trips. Everything came together quickly, even without a screwdriver, and we are now everything in its proper place. We now just collect things on a needs basis and add things to the shopping list when we realise an oversight (potato masher, broom). I am trying my very hardest to live a simpler life and everytime I see something I want to buy, I just imagine it dumped on the sidewalk at the end of our visa.
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