looking for an apartment & other annoying practical things
Since Monday I've been extremely busy with practical issues, such as (most importantly!) finding an apartment and doing some things for school. Therefore I haven't had any time to write the blog; I haven't even taken any photos since Monday.
As of now, after spending each morning and evening looking for apartments (which entails calling to real estate agencies and responding to ads, setting up appointments to see the apartments and then actually seeing them), we (the Estonian guy Uku and a girl from Slovenia) have found an almost decent apartment, which we are thinking of renting. However, since we are still not completely satisfied with it (there are two main problems with this apartment: the lack of light and ugly furniture), we are continuing the apartment search. Right now I feel that this is really exhausting and I'm sick and tired of it. We have seen around 10 apartments already and they all seem similar to me. Typical houses in Budapest (at least in the central parts) are unlike any I've seen elsewhere in Europe - they have inner courtyards with a long balcony surrounding each floor. Most flats have such a layout that in order to get to the bedroom(s), you need to go through the living room (which is usually huge). For us, it is not good, as there would be no privacy for the person living in the room where everyone else walks through. But then again, it wouldn't make sense to have the living room empty, because in that case we would pay rent for the square meters we are not using.
As I've mentioned, driving and parkin is a huge problem in Budapest. It is very unlikely that I find a flat with free car parking next to the house - I'll probably have to keep the car in a paid parking lot or arrange something with the CEU dormitory.
A few words about the school. We are having the preliminary week now, with different orientations every day and only one class - Academic Writing, which is a very useful course, where we are learning how to write and evaluate academic texts, and the skills of argumentation. There are around 25 people in our Gender Studies group. They come from a variety of different countries, such as Romania, Russia, USA, Canada, Nepal etc. Also, they are from very different backgrounds, although everyone has their undergraduate degree from a field of social sciences or humanities.
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The good news is that the CEU has a gym right next to the university building - the membership card, which I got today, cost about 60 EEK per year! I'll be visiting the gym very soon!
I have to go now, because there's a mandatory computer course I have to take in order to pass a computer exam that all students need to pass. The exam tests your basic computer literacy and it is really very simple. ;)
As of now, after spending each morning and evening looking for apartments (which entails calling to real estate agencies and responding to ads, setting up appointments to see the apartments and then actually seeing them), we (the Estonian guy Uku and a girl from Slovenia) have found an almost decent apartment, which we are thinking of renting. However, since we are still not completely satisfied with it (there are two main problems with this apartment: the lack of light and ugly furniture), we are continuing the apartment search. Right now I feel that this is really exhausting and I'm sick and tired of it. We have seen around 10 apartments already and they all seem similar to me. Typical houses in Budapest (at least in the central parts) are unlike any I've seen elsewhere in Europe - they have inner courtyards with a long balcony surrounding each floor. Most flats have such a layout that in order to get to the bedroom(s), you need to go through the living room (which is usually huge). For us, it is not good, as there would be no privacy for the person living in the room where everyone else walks through. But then again, it wouldn't make sense to have the living room empty, because in that case we would pay rent for the square meters we are not using.
As I've mentioned, driving and parkin is a huge problem in Budapest. It is very unlikely that I find a flat with free car parking next to the house - I'll probably have to keep the car in a paid parking lot or arrange something with the CEU dormitory.
A few words about the school. We are having the preliminary week now, with different orientations every day and only one class - Academic Writing, which is a very useful course, where we are learning how to write and evaluate academic texts, and the skills of argumentation. There are around 25 people in our Gender Studies group. They come from a variety of different countries, such as Romania, Russia, USA, Canada, Nepal etc. Also, they are from very different backgrounds, although everyone has their undergraduate degree from a field of social sciences or humanities.
---
The good news is that the CEU has a gym right next to the university building - the membership card, which I got today, cost about 60 EEK per year! I'll be visiting the gym very soon!
I have to go now, because there's a mandatory computer course I have to take in order to pass a computer exam that all students need to pass. The exam tests your basic computer literacy and it is really very simple. ;)
posted by Kadri Aavik at 19:32
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