Apartment hunting

I've been back two weeks today. Time has flown by. Between the 50-hour work week and catching up with friends, I'm looking at apartments. There are a few websites I'm using to help:

craigslist - free classified ads, simple search feature
apartmentratings.com - great site where tenants rate apartments and their managers
apartmentshowcase.com - the online version of a monthly magazine of apartment ads put out by the Washington Post
apartments.com - a commercial search website, affiliated with the Washington Post. Yucky search feature.

There are some real estate and rental management websites that I've been using as well. I've probably seen 12 or 15 places. I want a place close in, but I've already eliminated Capitol Hill and Waterfront. Focusing now on Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, and Woodley Park.

Between it all and visiting my brother in the country north of Baltimore, I have not had one day to myself. It's all good, though. V and I talk pretty regularly. I've gotten some nice reimbursement checks related to my shoulder surgery. The weather is getting a little sticky, but hey, it's summer in Washington.

The good thing about work is working with two interns in our office. It makes my day. Today we went to a seminar on the Hill about food security. It opened their eyes. Jim McGovern led the seminar, which was attended by Jo Ann Emerson, Earl Pomeroy and Jerry Moran.

Where Am I?

It's hard to believe I'm in America. My Google News is still set for Australia and I'm still getting culture shock. Today's symptoms:

1. People standing on the right, walking on the left, on the escalator on the Metro. In Sydney, you stand on the left and walk on the right.

2. Big honking American appliances. I just finished looking at an apartment and it had these huge (and inefficient) American brand washer and dryer.

3. Big honking American cars. Sure, Australia has SUVs, even the detestable Hummer, but much much fewer than we have here. It really is amazing how big the cars here are. What will happen to them all, now that gas is $4 a gallon?

4. The permanent underclass thing. You know, the homeless, the addicts and alcoholics, the criminally oriented. It exists in Australia, too, especially the junkies, but it isn't so big there, at least not in my neighborhood. Walking to the apartment on Capitol Hill, I passed a strange-o inside the Metro, two at the top of the escalator to the outside, and one in the little park at the intersection of 8th St SE and Pennsylvania Ave SE.

5. So many people at work are asking me, "Are you back?" to which I typically respond, "You're not hallucinating." I plan to work toward getting my assignment in Sydney again, but how long it will take to unfold is a complete uncertainty.

Hierarchy of Needs: Housing

Since I got here, I've been spending a fair amount of time looking for a place to live. I'm currently staying with friends but that can last only so long. So, I've been looking up places on craigslist and have seen four places already. Focusing on Capitol Hill, Shaw, Logan Circle, Woodley Park, and may consider other places too.

Here's how wild the universe is: when I first moved to Washington in 1983, I rented a place at 747 Tenth St SE in DC: affordable little one bedroom basement apartment on Capitol Hill near the Marine Corps barracks. Well that place is available again, today. Life is just so weird. Maybe I should rent it again.