We are! Moving, that is – and moving up. Thanks to a tip-off from another Fulbrighter and close friend, yesterday my roommate and I went to check out the most gorgeous apartment we have ever seen. We’d been looking for a new place because the owner of the apartment where we live now is CRAZY.
It’s on the third floor of a building located on a quiet, pretty street in la Zona Colonial, a few blocks away from where we currently live. For $850 a month, we’re getting this newly built, completely furnished space including 2 *huge* bedrooms with private bathrooms and a third, much smaller bedroom, also with an adjoining bathroom, a big kitchen with lots of counter space for all the gourmet Dominican meals I cook on a regular basis ;), a large living/dining area with a big table and comfy couches, a spacious outdoor terrace (with a wrought iron table and chairs) that seems to have been made for wine-and-tapas, intellectual, late-night parties, a private roof accessible via a spiral staircase from which you can see the ocean (located a block away), yellow painted walls that glow from the substantial sunshine that floods each room, a washing machine, high-speed Internet, cable (though we don’t even own a TV), light/gas/water, and some very amicable landlords living below, who also operate a bakery/candy shop and thus are constantly making amazing-looking delicacies (a partnership for the aforementioned intellectual terrace parties seems inevitable).
It’s on the third floor of a building located on a quiet, pretty street in la Zona Colonial, a few blocks away from where we currently live. For $850 a month, we’re getting this newly built, completely furnished space including 2 *huge* bedrooms with private bathrooms and a third, much smaller bedroom, also with an adjoining bathroom, a big kitchen with lots of counter space for all the gourmet Dominican meals I cook on a regular basis ;), a large living/dining area with a big table and comfy couches, a spacious outdoor terrace (with a wrought iron table and chairs) that seems to have been made for wine-and-tapas, intellectual, late-night parties, a private roof accessible via a spiral staircase from which you can see the ocean (located a block away), yellow painted walls that glow from the substantial sunshine that floods each room, a washing machine, high-speed Internet, cable (though we don’t even own a TV), light/gas/water, and some very amicable landlords living below, who also operate a bakery/candy shop and thus are constantly making amazing-looking delicacies (a partnership for the aforementioned intellectual terrace parties seems inevitable).
Obviously, this place was simultaneously being sought after by several other groups of people. However, my roommate and I, being the Santo Domingo tíguere hustlers that we are, took immediate action and made a down-payment for the apartment the very next day (much to the anger, apparently, of our many contenders). My roommate and I have been giggling nonstop since we saw the place, and both of us are considering lengthening our Fulbright grants just to stay in the apartment for longer than 9 months… Even though the lease at our current place doesn’t terminate till the end of this month, we couldn’t risk losing this haven, this sweet suite, this penthouse of ballericity. We’re moving early next week, and I can’t wait!
In other news, the (ridiculously crowded) concert on Saturday night was fun. Daddy Yankee was suspended on a rope above the crowd for much of his performance, where he freestyled in midair and girls tried to touch his shoes. I had a really good time, even though I was missing a lot of people that night…especially my SOMOS familia. Felt incomplete without y’all. But there’s always the roncierto in January!
On Sunday night, my roommate and I hung out with some of the Spaniards from “the commune,” as my roommate has dubbed our neighbors’ apartment (because although only three people are supposedly living there, between 10 and 20 Spaniards can be found smoking cigarettes and straight chillin’ at any given time in the apartment). One of them has a sister who happens to be the award-winning documentary director who created the film
After what felt like a little break from work, it’s time to buckle down with my research again. I’m slightly frustrated by the fact that ProFamilia has randomly shut down their library because they are digitizing all their files. Thus the gold mine of resources I’d been enjoying there is now inaccessible for an unspecified amount of time. Good thing I’ll be here till June. I’m trying to stay focused by writing out manageable weekly goals (also a mandate of our mostly-Fulbright writing/working group), otherwise the breadth and depth of information available about gender in the DR, gender mainstreaming, and foreign aid is overwhelming. Wish me luck!
hey! so things keep popping up in life, coincidences...life is funny.
ReplyDeleteI saw Made in LA twice, once in Chicago, where I went to an immigration conference and I met the director there, then I went to the showing when it came to DC. It is a great movie, never gets boring and that's awesome that you hung out with all of them, how great!