My New Home

There are so many things to write about, particularly in these first few days, but one important thing that I wanted to write about is the place I'm going to be living for the next year and the people who live there.

I live in a small apartment on avendia medrano, near the corner of corrientes and medrano where the subte (the metro) stops. From my balcony I can see the street four stories below and several of the old trees that grow on the wide sidewalks (which, consequently, do not have tree lawns). I love having a balcony and I go there often just to stare at the street, the cars, trees, the people walking by and just to think for a bit.

The door to my apartment complex is wide and made of glass with one entrances for healthy people and one that slopes for those who need a wheelchair. Inside there is both an ancient elevator and a winding staircase. I prefer the latter. The stairs are dark and made of stone and are lit by lights set into the walls like torches, which turn on automatically as you near them. The door to our apartment is wooden with three locks of varying types. Inside the apartment are numerous pieces of art collected over the years from various places, a table used for dinner, a kitchen to the left, and a sofa and two chairs at the end of the room, with the t.v. and the entrance to the balcony. The balcony connects all the rooms of the house, and each room has a door to the balcony.

A narrow hallway is the second entrance on the right as you enter with two bathrooms (a half guest and a full bath) on the right and my room on the left, with the full bedroom at the end of the hall. My room is small, neat, with a suitcase next to my desk and another under the bed. On my desk I have my computer (where I type up all of these entries), pictures of my three best friends from Shaker, a picture of my father kissing my mother (in a characteristically goofy fashion) and one of the prayer cards from my father's wake. The desk has two drawers which contain the contents of my pockets that I empty every night, including my change which is precious (more on that later).My bed is small, but comfortable, with a bedside table adorned only by a lamp and a picture of my dad and I during our trip to Hawaii. It's my favorite picture, because he has a slight smile, as if smiling at a private joke, something that only he and I share.