Radio Silence

My apologies family and friends! I have been MIA, I acknowledge it. My good news of having a bit of work has made me ridiculously busy. I kid you not, I have been booked 6 out of 7 days for 3 weeks straight. And I am not so good at saying no. But it feels good to be helping out in the form of 10-15 hours per week.

But we have more good news! Dan and I have been on the hunt for an apartment. The market here is insane. Many large leasing companies have 6-year queues to be given the option to rent (a client of mine reported she was on the list for 6 years before she got a place with the largest company in Lund). Many students who come to study at Lund University end up returning home because they can't find a place. They camp until it gets cold, then they exhaust their funds in the hostels, then each year some go home. It's that bad. Even Swedes say it's hard for them.

So understandably we've been really nervous about what our long-term housing situation would be. Our current apartment was set to be a 6-month lease. But since that would've put us out at the end of April, and we hadn't found anything, we were starting to worry. We did indeed convince the University to let us stay a full-year if we needed it but we knew we should keep looking anyway.

For us, there are two big factors that we were taking into account during our housing search. First, we have both moved so much in the past few years. I have moved more than one time each year for the past 4.5 years. And Dan has moved a lot as well, although luckily he had a place in grad school for 4 years. Nonetheless, we're at a point in our lives where it'd be nice to settle down a little bit. Yes we may be lovers of travel and adventure, but you need a good home base, especially when you're so far from family, friends, and Bruegger's.

The second factor is cats. Ever since Dan and I fostered the adorable and irreplaceable Yuki and Ayira, we have talked almost daily about having our own cats. I can't put into words how much happiness it would bring us to have kittens to keep us company.

One complicating factor here is the idea of first-hand or second-hand leases. In Sweden, many leases are sublets, or even sublets of sublets (second-hand and third-hand respectively). That means that a) the price is jacked up because each person who is subletting their apartment out is lining their pockets a little; b) you will probably just have 6-month or 1-year leases, without the security of being able to stay as long as you'd like. But first-hand leases are exceedingly rare.

Okay enough with the background. So Dan and I have these good friends Michelle and Allen who are both Americans and we all hang out quite often. They're the ones who we usually go to when we don't understand things or can't find something we need. So Michelle tipped us off that there were some empty apartments in her complex and gave us the contact of the leasing company they live with.

I called the company and the woman asked if I could send her an email telling her about myself, ie where we're from, why we're here, kids, jobs, etc. I did of course, right away, honestly thinking I wouldn't hear a single thing back (like the other apartment complexes we've contacted). But the day after the sent the email, she called me and told me she had an apartment for us to look at. We viewed the apartment two days later.

Let me tell you about it! It's on the north side of town about 15 minutes from the center on a bike and also right on a bus line. There is a huge balcony facing south-west. It has two bedrooms. There's a washing machine IN the apartment. It was built in the past few years and it's in great condition. They allow cats, and it's a first-hand lease. It seemed honestly too good to be true; Dan and I were giddy.

The only down-side is the cost. The base-rent is the same amount Dan and I pay here, and that is one of the reasons we sort of didn't want to stay here a full-year. It's feels outrageous by American standards, but we're not in Kansas anymore... On top of that base amount we'll have to pay for electricity as well as internet. Additionally, we have to furnish the place ourselves. So that was an ouch, but, for the stability of a place we can stay in long-term and the ability to comfortably host our families and friends, we decided that it was well worth the cost.

We just found out two days ago that we can indeed have the place. We sign the lease Tuesday. We move May 2nd or 3rd. We are so happy, so relieved, and so excited! We will have a home and two kitties to fill it with.