I slept in a bit this morning after staying up so late last night but it’s hard when the sun comes up before 6. I had a nice morning catching up on e-mail and whatnot then I called Michele, who I met on Friday, to see what she was up to. She’s staying at the BRTI flat until Thursday and I wanted to look at it again so decide if I wanted to stay there for the rest of my time here. It wasn’t too far away so I decided to walk, after hand drawing a map to guide me. I made a wrong turn and the got bad directions from a woman so it took much longer than expected to get there but I arrived safely. The apartment is a bit better than when I first looked at it a few weeks ago; it has been cleaned and some decorations and curtains put up, and the beds have sheets now. But the shower is still not great, there’s no laundry, and worst of all there’s no stove! There’s only a toaster over with a hot plate. Certainly not ideal, but I suppose it could be worse. I’ll check on Monday to see if its available and I’ll probably move there if I don’t have any other options in the next day or two.
After hanging out and chatting, Michele and I walked to the Avondale shopping center to get some lunch. This shopping center is pretty much the only thing open on Sunday and it was quite busy. We actually ran into Jake and Dave there and then we saw Mark and his colleagues as well! We all went our separate ways and after lunch, Michele and I decided to walk around the market so she could get some souvenirs. We ran into everyone in the market again! We agreed to get dinner before everyone (except me and Jake) departs at the end of the week.
It was such a hot day that everyone got tired and wanted to get somewhere cooler so we went our separate ways in mid-afternoon. I took a combi into town then caught another one to go to my old residence so I could settle rent with the landlord. We had agreed on $500 a month and I gave him a deposit of $400 then I stayed two weeks so he owed me some money. He was nice about it and understood that I wanted to stay some place that wasn’t so lonely. He was just concerned that none of my things were stolen or anything was wrong. We departed on good terms and I’ll probably never head out that direction again.
It took me a while to get back to Jake’s because there’s no direct combi. I had to go back to town, and then figure out where the combi to UZ departed from. And the bus only leaves when it’s full so I had to wait for 15 minutes while other riders showed up. The bus dropped me off exactly where I thought it would and I easily found my way back. It’s really nice having a better sense of direction and the lay of the land; being more familiar with the city has lessened my anxiety a good bit and I feel much more comfortable getting around now.
One Response to shopping