Montevideo

I’d like to describe my living arrangement for those of you who haven’t caught glimpses of it in the background as we chat on Skype. My first couple months in Buenos Aires were spent in a quaint, one-bedroom apartment with my friend Kelly. The roughly 600 square feet could easily be considered a downgrade from my three-bedroom house in Tampa, but I loved it just the same.

Kelly and I learned to laugh at the daily annoyances our apartment provided. There were nights when it would take us hours to light the gas oven while our uncooked, seasoned fish taunted us on the counter. Our thin walls were constantly penetrated by the obnoxious buzzer alerting us of an open elevator door floors below us. My Skype conversations consisted mostly of "you're frozen" and "are you there?" due to our weak ("borrowed") Internet connection. I tried to convince myself I was saving the environment during each of my two-minute showers in subzero water. I eventually learned to cohabitate with the small bugs that traversed my counters, sinks and trash. I even found a comfortable sleeping position on my mattress that must have been previously occupied by a sumo wrestler. But I had to wonder each time I handed over the stack of pesos for rent if the price fit the accommodations.

One night I was sitting at my friend Samm’s apartment discussing how Kelly and I were looking for a new place to live when one sentence changed everything: “You should move in here!” A few days later Kelly and I repacked our suitcases and small collection of belongings passed down from fellow expats returning home and moved into our new apartment…next door! We literally moved into the building next door.

Our new two-bedroom apartment is bigger, cleaner and much nicer. It’s ideal for entertaining guests and comes with an oven that works, hot water, a doorman downstairs and lifelong friends. We moved in with Samm (from Chicago), Denise (from Ecuador) and our honorary roommate, Jake (from Wisconsin). Samm and Jake have since moved back home, but Kelly and I shared our new apartment and our lives with them for six unforgettable, indescribable weeks!

This apartment doesn't come without its own little quirks though. Our room only has one bed, the Internet can be fickle and I burned my hand trying to relight the gas water heater for the shower. Most of you are probably stuck on the one bed comment (shame on you for not caring about my burned hand). Well...Samm, Kelly and I shared one massive bed. Some might view that as an inconvenience, but for us it meant cheaper rent, closer friendships, entertaining bedtime stories and a non-stop slumber party!

living room of our first apartment on Montevideo

left: old building / right: new building (photo taken from my friend Pachu's balcony across the street)

roommates celebrating Samm's birthday (left-right: Kelly, Samm, Jake, Me)

...I'll add a picture of the new apartment when it's clean :)