Vila Mariana: Home Sweet Home

I’m happy to report that we found a place to live! We went through the agency that the French guy suggested, and they turned out to be extremely helpful. The price was slightly more than we were hoping to spend, but it’ll be worth it. Our apartment is in a great neighborhood called Vila Mariana, and we’re on the seventh floor of a really nice building. Amenities include a swimming pool, a washing machine in the apartment, and wireless Internet. Plus there’s a grocery store 100 yards down the road, and the nearest subway station is just a 10-minute walk. Also, one of São Paulo’s nicest parks is a 15-minute walk.

Our room!

The only downside is that Kim will have to take the subway to school, since it would take about an hour to walk. The agency had other apartments that were closer (the French guy, for example, lives just down the block from school), but none of them were as nice as this place. Oh, I guess the other downside of this apartment is that we’ll have to buy new sheets, because the ones they gave us are stinky and ugly.

Our apartment has four bedrooms. One is occupied by us, the other is occupied by a Brazilian girl (whose name I can’t pronounce), and the other two are empty. So right now we only have one roommate, but that will probably change. We’re really glad to be living with a Brazilian, because she’ll help us learn Portuguese—whether she wants to or not!

View from our room

Kim doesn’t start class until Monday, but she had a bunch of orientation sessions this week. Getting to know the other exchange students has been fun, and everyone seems really nice. There are a few Americans, but most of them are from Europe. A Dutch guy befriended us, and he’s organizing a trip to Rio de Janeiro next weekend for Carnival.

Oh, and I fixed the Comments thing... so if you tried to leave a comment before but found that it was too difficult, it should be easier now.