resurfacing

wow.  what a roller coaster.  there were times in the past month when i was so stressed, frustrated, angry, overwhelmed and just overall yuck that it just did not make sense to write.  seriously, who wants to listen to a girl whine?!  it's not like there aren't people out there, all around (some of you reading this blog), who are in MUCH worse situations.  ...  so, now that things are on an upswing again, i'll catch you up ...

in december (or was it november?), we found a new flat.  the one we had just moved into was horrible, and we gave our notice the same week we moved in.  the one we found was awesome, cheaper, and the owner seemed really nice.  we gave him a little 'token money' to hold the flat empty for us until february 15th, when we could move in.  well ... at the end of january, he changed his mind about accepting cash for rent.  he would accept nothing but local checks, and there was no getting around it.  we've never had a bank account here.  neither of us earn money here, and it just didn't seem necessary to keep money in an account here.  so, disappointed and with only 2 weeks to find one, we got back on the flat hunt.

after a few days, we saw the incredible flat i mentioned in a previous post.  we met the owner, negotiated, shook hands, reviewed the paperwork, then got to the point of signing the paperwork, and the owner disappeared for a couple days, only to resurface demanding more money.  and backing out on things he had previously agreed to, put into writing, and was supposedly ready to sign on.  we loved the flat so much (this was the first time we'd seen a place that we both actually liked ... like, REALLY liked!), we gave in to pretty much everything he said, besides the extra money ... and he still wouldn't move forward.  

in the week this took to happen, we put a back-up offer on another place.  not as nice, but still great.  the owner agreed to our verbal offer, and when he came back from a biz trip, we all met in person to finalize the deal.  at that point, he too changed his mind about the price and payment terms.  seems people have become extremely averse to cash.  if we could pay by check, he'd keep the payment terms.  otherwise, he now wanted 11 months advance rent upfront.  we walked out of that meeting.  ... this was already 5 days into the month, and we had to be out by the 15th.  

we kept looking, and literally anything that didn't completely suck, we made an offer on.  we made something like 12 offers.  all rejected.  people refusing to take cash, or remove their furniture, or not wanting to rent to foreigners or individuals (versus a company lease).  we made arrangements with friends ... we had 3 different friends we were planning to stay with, depending on how long we needed, and another with an empty flat who wasn't interested in letting us live there, but would let us use it to store all our furniture and appliances in.  we called our then landlord and talked her into giving us 2 more days.  great.  so we now had until the 17th, a little less than a week.  we had no choice but to open an indian bank account.  if NO ONE was going to take our cash, and this was the one problem we were having almost every time, we simply had to adjust. 

the day after i opened the account, we heard that the ORIGINAL place we were to move into, the one we found in december, was officially back on the market.  we looked at it again, made our same offer which the owner accepted, i signed the paperwork late in the day on the 16th, the movers came on the 17th, and we were in, with NO TIME to spare.  yeesh.  there were times during those couple weeks where we were in the depths of despair, trying not to panic, wondering what the hell we were gonna do.  we even started seriously considering moving to delhi.  or calcutta.  

so, anyhoo, we're in, we love it, and we've got a goal.  with a few more furnishings and some mood lighting (fluorescent tubes do not a party make), we'll be ready for a housewarming and birthday party for m.  end of the month ...