Back home!

First, a recap. I spent a week and a half with family in the UK, and it was FANTASTIC. I got to see my uncles and aunts, play with my cousins, meet new cousins I never knew existed, and spend time with my dear grandparents. It was everything I could have asked for.

Then this past Wednesday I flew into Boston and touched down on US soil for the first time in the past 6 months. what an AMAZING feeling to walk through the airport and see an ENORMOUS American flag stretched across the ceiling, and to realize in your heart, with much relief, "I’m back home." I met up with Duke, my roommate who flew in from DC so that we could see apartments together, and we took a shuttle down to our hotel [which is of course on the company dime]. Now Duke is starting at the office on Monday, although I have a little more time, so finding an apartment in the next 2 days was of the utmost importance. Checked in and went straightaway to our first destination, Ten Faxon [www.tenfaxon.com] to have a look around and whatnot. Liked what we saw, called it an evening, and went out for yummy sushi.

The next day we went to Munroe Place [www.munroeplace.com] to see what they had to offer. Finally, we met up with a young fella named Evan, who showed us around some places in South Boston. After seeing all these apartments, we realized that we both had settled on Ten Faxon a while ago, and so we went back with money orders in hand to initiate the application process. Got that taken care of, decided it had been a good day, and went out to The Four's for dinner and to watch the Orange Bowl. Kansas won. =( We were rooting for VT.

Friday we checked out of our hotel and went into town to meet up with a friend of mine, Bella. She let me leave my suitcases at her place, and then we hung out for the day. By 3:30 pm Duke and I found out that there were only a couple more steps to go before the lease would be ready, so we left to go to the bank, get the rest of our deposit money, and head down to Ten Faxon. Duke had a flight that night at 8 pm, so he had to be at the airport by 6:30, which meant he had to leave Ten Faxon by about 5:45 at the latest. By the time we got to the leasing office at 5:30, the last of the paperwork - the employment verifications - had JUST been faxed in, so Duke signed the lease and left straightaway to catch his flight. I stayed back, looked over the entire lease in detail, signed, and received the keys to the apartment and other stuff.

So basically, within two days and after a lot of hassle that I haven't even really talked about here, we had our apartment locked in. Now I can leave all my clothes and other stuff from India here in my apartment before I go back to Atlanta for the rest of the month.

Yay!