The New Digs

After a full month of awkwardly avoiding the roommates in my old apartment, I can finally announce that I have a brand new place to call home!! The move over here though definitely doesn't deserve any exclamation points. Since I'm too cheap for a cab, I decided that one trip on the bus should do it. Between me and Kyle we attempted to load three rolly suitcases, three backpacks, a duffel bag, a grocery bag full of hangers and a precariously positioned bag of textbooks onto public transportation. I'm surprised we got off at all. When the bus abruptly halted to its first stop, the bag full of hangers spilled onto the floor. The second stop a suitcase rolled away down the bus as we were trying to pick up the hangers. And at our stop, the bag of books ripped and fell into the street. I guess it's better than having half of them fall in the bus as it drives away.
Despite the harrowing move, my new apartment makes my old apartment look like the hole that Voldemort crawled out of. I moved from an apartment with five other Italians to basically the same situation. In my new place we have Francesco, Alessandro, Laura, Marco, and Cristina who I will be sharing a room with. She's in her second year studying Geography and she has curly hair like me! There are five rooms in the apartment and ours is the only double.

Here we have my room. I would like to point out that there is actually space for two normal sides beds! I am convinced that the mattress for my last bed came from someone's childhood crib. My bed is the red one. I made an effort to decorate this time around. I think it's a sign that I'm meant to be here.

 Here, we have a desk. Normally, this would not be that exciting, but at my old place, we didn't have two desks until the beginning of December. Now I actually have a place to sit that isn't my bed! And it's a rolly chair!

 This armoire is twice the size of my last one. And it also isn't about to collapse. What a plus!

 Here we have the main entrance hallway. There are several other hallways in the apartment that I figured no one wants to look at that badly. This one is especially impressive though because of it's size. Most Italian apartments don't even have a living room. I, on the other had have a hallway big enough to house a family of three!

 Ta-dah! The gigantic living room. Probably three times the size of my last one and about as big as a decent size two person apartment. The room also features a fire place, a futon, an actual bed, an extra desk, and a dinner table big enough for all my extended family.

 While this bathroom picture isn't all that impressive, there are several things to note here. 1. There is no mold. 2. The toilet works. 3. There is actually a full bath tub in here as well as a separate shower. 4. This isn't the only bathroom in the apartment!
I went from one six person apartment to another and having a second bathroom makes all the difference.

 Here we have an actual pantry, with two extra refrigerators and a freezer. I have a cupboard and shelves in the fridge. Food just kind of sat everywhere in my old place. On the counters, in the sink, on the floor, in the bathroom....

Here we have the kitchen. If you check out the picture from my kitchen two posts ago you will clearly be able to see that this new kitchen was built for grown-ups and not for a Kitchen Little set.

Look at that! We have a dishwasher! It actually washes the dishes for you! I have yet to see a real dishwasher in Italy. Even the family I babysit for doesn't have one. How one of these far too unappreciated appliances ended up in a student house I will never know.

 I have a balcony! Not the best view, but I can sit out there any time I want.

 The view from my window. I have no idea what church that is, but isn't it pretty? My location is fabulous. I went from living outside of the city walls to Via Zamboni, the main university street in the center of the city. Along with this comes the sweet lulling sounds of student life. My room is right above a rowdy Irish Pub. Last night, I fell asleep with the soft serenade of drunk Italians who had somehow gotten a hold of a megaphone. This may be the only downside to the apartment. I like to see it as I'll never be bored on a Saturday night.

My final image is a picture of my keys. I am only posting this because when I showed them to my sisters, all I heard of Skype was, "OMYGOSHTHOSEARESOOOCOOOL!" It's only appropriate that my cool new apartment should have a cool set of keys.  They're opening the door (literally) to a much cooler semester.