The first time I looked at the apartment was the day I moved in. (I was too lazy to check out the place earlier.) I remember lugging my dense suitcases up 3 levels of stairs, pushing open the wooden door that creaked, and voila! Although the rooms are smaller than I expected, the floor and furniture were covered with dirt, but to me it was magnificent! At least there were finished flooring and furniture left behind; how nice of the previous tenants! Having lived 18 years with parents and 3 years in dorm rooms, the prospect of having my own living space complete with a kitchen, bathroom and living room was liberating. (Although I'm sharing the apartment with 3 other housemates to keep the rent down to $300 a month including utilities and internet.)
The first problem was that there was one bed in the room that I was sharing with Perry. But I came up with the solution months before: After having to sleep on the floor earlier in the year for various trips, I realized sleeping on hard surfaces is not so bad and better for my back, so I went to home depot and bought nicely measured pieces of hardwood, and I literally made my own bed. Now they come so handy: We took off the mattress for the bed and laid my wood on the metal frame, hence creating two beds from one for free.
I spent that evening organizing and cleaning the place to make it homy. Using damp paper towel I wiped the tables, the bed, the chairs, door, closet, dusted the futon, and swifer-ed the floor. 2 rolls of paper towels and a few hours later, my room was sparkling clean! (Must've been the most amount of cleaning I've done this year but it was worth it.)
The closet is kind of crowded but I'm proud of how I organized my clothes to fit: Note that this is two people's clothes. I padded the top shelves with paper towel to create more stacking space. The right side is mine.
Since then we've reorganized the apartment to maximize room (we had 4 other peoples' stuff but thankfully the ceiling is high so we can stack boxes.) I also bought a dining table (which matter-of-factedly turned out to be a regulation-size bear pong table), and miscellaneous other stuff. The weekend was filled with costco/dollar general/kroger shopping trips and other errands but I was riding high with excitement because it was MY apartment.
After the summer started rolling I've settled into a routine of working 9 to 6-7 Monday to Fridays, cooking dinner most days and packing lunches for myself. I felt that I dropped in the shoes of my Dad because growing up that's what I see him doing everyday. I have experienced a little bit of working life last summer, but that had the thrills being in NYC (and paid enough to enjoy the extravagance). This in comparison is a humble routine life that has less taste of adventure and more of responsibility and maturity. I guess this is what I see myself doing in the long term if I keep going the academia route.
Family dinners with housemates are fun though! I'm also getting better at cooking through practice and tips from Perry, who is a culinary pro, whose parents run a Chinese restaurant, and who sees himself running a restaurant after graduation. The other day he taught me the art of making meat tender and combining various sauces. This added new dimensions to my cooking because I used to stir fry all the same way and use nothing but natural ingredients and salt. No wonder everything used to taste the same...
I never want to go back to a dorm room again.
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