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Apparently, life is never as easy as it seems. I approached apartment hunting the same way I approached shidduchim. Before I started, that is.
As a person graduating mid-year I had the challenge of searching to fill a spot in an apartment where most of the tenants are already settled. It was more difficult than I anticipated. I saw an ad online, called, arranged to see the apartment the next day.
I remembered hearing people complaining about apartments. How hard it was to find them, how difficult to decide on one, how to find the right roommates, how to negotiate the perfect price, the correct building, in the better neighborhood, by the preferred subway station.
This was all taken care of by me. The apartment seemed great. All I had to do was meet the roommates, see the place and sign the lease.
Well, Lo Haya Velo Nivra. Reality in fact was far from it. I went to see the apartment, and the girls. And to put it mildly. I could not live there. It has been a few weeks since then. I have contacted numerous potential roommate candidates since then, spoken with some, went to see many apartments, heard a great deal of advice... At least I know what questions to ask when I go to see apartments now.
I walked into one apartment and the young woman who was showing me around was extremely impatient. The apartment itself was nice: newly renovated building, tastefully furnished. She told me that they were forcing their present roommate out and that is why there was an opening. I asked why they were evacuating the apartment from the unwanted person. She informed me that the girl was extremely weird. When I asked for an example, she rolled her eyes and said: “She was extremely weird. Like, sometimes, she would sleep on the couch and sometimes, she would even open the windows!”
“Wow,” I thought to myself, never heard of anything as weird in my life. I would probably be forced out of the apartment within two minutes of living there.
Another apartment I went to see had awesome girls. That was the incentive. I came to see the apartment. What I saw was a living room which they offered me a part of to make my own room out of.
“And how exactly would I do that?” I asked. They told me it was my job to figure it out. An image came to my mind of myself standing in workers clothes full of paint trying to build a wall out of cement, sweat pouring down my forehead. Then another image of someone coming in the middle of the night and shifting my wall to make the living room bigger. Then I would wake up squashed between two walls. Additionally, the room had no lighting. With all due respect, I was searching to move into an apartment, not to build one for myself.
Then there was the realization. After having seen many apartments, I spoke with some girls about another room where I was informed of the fact that I had to buy a bed. Somehow, that information caught me completely by surprise and I ended up sobbing huge heart wrenching sobs in the middle of that apartment. What do you mean? Buy my own bed! I cannot do that!!! That is just too much.
It's funny that I approached shidduchim only a few years ago with the same mentality. I figured that I would avoid the picky craziness all those surrounding me spoiled themselves with and would marry the first guy I went out with. Yeah... that did not work out so well...
So, I am still searching... and I hope that someday I will figure those things out, find an apartment and all the things I long for....
