Adiós Loja - Volver a Cuenca

On Friday night, we went the Loja Symphony Orchestra performance of works by Debussy, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns. It was free entry and eventually it was packed. The conductor was a young woman from Europe who has won various awards as a conductor and had a list of accomplishments from around the world, as long as my arm.

Returning to the same theater on Saturday, there was a Women’s Dance Festival. Interestingly, the first performance was a 50-50 mix of men and women, all very youthful. Other presentations were

majority women, but others included men as well. After two hours, we skipped out. They charged $3 entry for this.

We were looking forward to this Loja stay. The description of our accommodation claimed it was a studio apartment in one area, but a one bedroom in another section. It is indeed one large room with a bed in the center of it. One of the best parts of our time here so far is having breakfast together each morning, sitting at the table. Here, the

table and chairs were not so giving.

The cooking area only has a gas stovetop, but no oven. For long-term stays, this really limits cooking options. There is no coffee maker, but a cloth sleeve used for making coffee; this is inefficient and not hygienic for multiple guests.

Neither the kitchen nor the bathroom has hot water taps.  The shower has the electric heating for water, but though brand new was not effective no matter how much playing with water pressure we tried.

Seeing the dog in the picture on AirBnB, we thought this was an added bonus. We love dogs and was

looking forward to having some doggie time. What we did not find out until our arrival was that there are three dogs. They are loose very early in the morning, barking continually until they are taken in at night or someone is paying attention to them. This made sleeping in later than 7am difficult.

James said the SuperMaxi supermarket was 10 minutes away, but we did a healthy pace walk there and it took us 35 minutes. We mostly did taxis to and from town, which cost $1.75 to $2 each way. Not a lot of money, but if you are coming and going during a day, it is a nuisance. I would rather have stayed closer to the downtown for easier access. We had the directions printed out for taxi

drivers as James said they would all know where the area and streets are located. Numerous times, we had to direct drivers who were totally clueless.

Sonia, the owner of the apartment we stayed in, claimed she could not get us a taxi by calling. We did succeed in getting one on our own. The driver had no idea where the shuttle place was, so Ron had to direct him. When he did not pay attention, we ran into major traffic, causing panic, thinking we would miss our shuttle.

The shuttle driver looked to be about 15 years old. He was so thin; his pants were hanging to his knees. His waist could not have been more than 24 inches. This is the person we risked with our lives

in order to return to Cuenca. Surprisingly, he was a good and safe driver. Being the drive was 4 hours, we stopped for lunch, which was a bladder blessing.

Prior to leaving Loja, we received this e-mail from our Cuenca accommodation.

“Dear Guest

We have your reservation.  We are waiting for you 8th 

Please let me know the aprox time of *Arrival,  by email or by phone. Dunia's personal number is 098886761

We offer a clean and orderly room when the new guest arrives to our hotel. 

For environmental reasons, we do not change sheets daily, 

We offer additional service room cleaning, if you need, please ask in reception

We have shared kitchen for guests

The breakfast is selfservice service

*To have these economic prices, we have a minimum Staff, for this reason we ask you the arrival hour, to wait for you.”

When we arrived, we immediately took a taxi to the Hostal a Casa Naranja. We arrived at 3:55pm. I had e-mailed her stating we would be there by 4pm. We rang the bell and stood outside the door for 45 minutes. No one answered. Ron had to go to a phone store to call the number given, but it went right to a message. After 45 minutes, we were tired of standing on the street with our luggage and found another hotel.

As it turned out, it was a redeeming feature. I found Hostal Colonial around the corner that was less expensive and included a simple breakfast. When I first went in to ask rates, I was told $50. This was $12 more than the hostel, but this place was open. When Ron arrived and the clerk looked the two of us, he asked “matrimonia”? We replied, why not? The price changed from $50 to $32. The place was clean, the room comfortable, and the staff was especially pleasing. As soon as we checked in, I Skyped Hotels.com to tell them what happened. They called the hostel and reported that the one staff member had an emergency, so had to leave before we arrived. I had them confirm, there would be no charges. Later I received this e-mail from the hostel.

“Dear dr Rayan James 

Unfortunately, we have no Staf all the time in casa naranja  for that reason we sent an email where we Ask  your arrival time. We will not charge you any fees. However you got an email saying that it has not been submitted to the hostel, this is just paperwork. I insist we do not charge any kind of fee.”

Frazzled, by 5:30 we were to meet Howard and Mike at their place. After a few false starts, guests who planned to visit them actually did arrive. They had other friends on two different occasions that planned on visiting and at the last minute cancelled out. It was fun to meet Richard and Michael. After a glass of wine and chatting, we moved on to Don Colon’s Restaurant. We had a delightful dinner, great company, a number of laughs and for Ron and the warm wonderful feeling of sharing time with Mike and Howard once again.

To work off dinner in a minimalistic way, we walked around the park. This was a prelude for having ice cream at the local shop. The guys walked us back to our hotel and we had long goodbye hugs.

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The Headaches Are Chasing Me

Having three months here, I thought I would have all the time in the world to pursue some projects that I had started long ago, but have been left hanging for quite a bit time. Thus far, it has not happened. There seem to be multiple things that need caring for where we still have ties: Hungary and Florida. These are impeding on my time.

It is with utmost respect that I share that our tax accountant has just this week passed away. Being an expert in ex-pat taxes, we depended on his expertise. Aside from being a tax accountant, having a doctorate in business, he also taught university in Florida. Not only did his death put me in a tailspin, but also having to find a new accountant who is well verses in ex-pat taxes is another ordeal. 

Before he died, our accountant suggested a colleague who was one of his former students. This accountant is in NY. When I wrote him, he was too busy to deal with us so suggested his partner work with us. Well, it was more than a part-time job getting the partner to set a day and time for a Skype call. After my fifth attempt at setting a day and time, that was mutually agreeable, I gave up trying. I sent him an e-mail stating that his lack of professionalism was not something I could abide by. 

He would suggest dates and times for a call and within hours of his e-mail, I responded with my choices. It was only after the entire list of options had passed, he responded with excuses. “I didn’t see your e-mail in time” or “You sent it so late and I don’t work weekends” or “I have been so busy, it turned out none of the dates and times would have worked for me after all.” I did catch him in one excuse. For weeks my computer refused to change over to this time zone, so all my mail showed Hungary time, not Ecuador time. The accountant and I are in the same time zone. 

Nevertheless, it has been a chore writing to various accountants who presumably are expert in expat taxes, and then waiting for a response after asking if they will work with same sex couples. 

Then, there were problems with the condominium in Florida. The tenant’s lease was up, but they wanted new carpeting before renewing the lease. After telling the property manager we would not make any decisions until we get pictures of the current carpeting, we never heard another thing. In the meantime, I thought we would just replace it with tile or pseudo-hardwood. It turns out our condominium association does not allow for anything but carpeting in any apartment above the ground floor due to noise. 

After writing multiple e-mails to various people at the property manager, I never did get pictures of the carpeting, so I decided to wait them out. The lease was over in November. December and January’s rent has appeared in our bank account, so even if I have yet to get a copy of the new lease, they must have renewed.

Today, I received an e-mail from our Budapest tenant. The poor guy just returned from The Netherlands and his heater is not working again. We have had Budapest Repair out there three times for this furnace. The first time we had them come out; they brought a specialist with them who had to replace the starter. About eight months later, we had to call them again. This time the gas lines needed cleaning out. On the third visit, it was something else. We did not go over for the third time, because our tenant said he could be home. I do not remember their excuse for the third time. Each visit was a minimum of $100 and still the thing is not working properly. 

AND I am still the thesis advisor for one last BA student in my previous Journalism program. She sent me two sections of her thesis. I read one, wrote innumerable comments and sent it back. Then I forgot the second part until today.  That took another couple of hours to read and comment on. It is so difficult advising without being able to do a face to face.

I mentioned to Ron, we should sell all the properties and buy something down here instead. Then we would only have one headache rather than three. 

In between all of this, I am trying to fit in culling my photos to be uploaded and we are still managing to get to museums, go shopping at the markets, and have dinner out with friends. More happier news soon.

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MOVE!!

Today was moving day. A peaceful Sunday in the city was less so in our borrowed apartment. On the top floor terrace, there is a shared American washer and dryer. Generally, on Sunday mornings I have heard the washing machine going as early as 8am. By 7:30, I had the first load in. There is nothing worse than coming home from an extended vacation and having to deal with unpacking suitcases and having piles of laundry to deal with. 

After washing our bed linens and light towels, the second load included some red pillowcases, dark towels and bath mats. I have forgotten how huge an American washer can be. European ones are much smaller and dryers in homes are a rarity. 

Since I was in the washing spirit and Ron was off to church, I did a third load of our clothes as well. There is a washer and dryer in our new apartment; why bother packing up dirty clothes when we do not have to. 

Beds were made, bathrooms wiped clean, sofa cushions straightened, runner put back on the dining room table, double-checked all windows were locked and off we went. More bags leaving then coming, we were carrying groceries we had bought and of course, the garbage had to go out to.

Great fortune was with us. We found a taxi immediately. This was our first female taxi driver in Ecuador. Unfortunately, she had no clue where the address was. Ron showed her on a map; she asked for directions a couple of times. Funny, the meter started at $1.47 and never moved. When we arrived, it was a $3 fare, which I know is about $1 too much. 

We are here in our new digs. There are three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a well-equipped kitchen and a very spacious living room/dining room. With the window open, we can hear the river rushing by. It drowns out any traffic noise, but this corner apartment has less traffic going by than the last apartment.  What there is, is somewhat

drowned out by the sounds of the river. Soothing and relaxing, it is. 

Ron needed a Superbowl fix. I found a restaurant called Common Grounds where they were catering to expats. We went there around 6:30, but it was already packed to the gills. We had passed an Ecuadorian restaurant where the displays outside showed they catered to sports events. When we went in, sure enough they had the game on multiple large screen TVs around the restaurant. There were only three people at the bar watching and one family in another room. We stayed until half time, but the show was a major disappointment. 

Back here, we watched a movie while listening to the river out our window. I am anticipating a great night of sleep.

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Magic Was in the Air

Yesterday, we had a lunch date to meet Joe and Nora. This is our second home exchange in Cuenca where we will be living for the month of February. Joe suggested we meet at the Cuchara Magica (Magic Spoon) on Gran Columbia. Being early, we found the restaurant, but it was not between the cross streets that Joe had given us, nor was it across from the Hotel El Dorado as he mentioned. We were perplexed thinking it may a chain, we thought we may find another down the next two blocks. When we did not, we returned to where we were. 

Looking around the restaurant, there is a magical ambiance with half a tree decorating one wall with lanterns hanging. If you happen to survey the rest of the surroundings, you will find decks of playing cards artfully stacked on a shelf over the bar and do wander in the next room to see the escape artist’s tank. Works of great traditional magicians decorate the walls including one famous Ecuadorian and of course, Houdini. As it turned out Cuchara Magica’s young owner is the son of the owner of the Raymipampa restaurant. Raymipampa owners are now in the second generation.

Joe and Nora then drove us to their apartment. We drove for what seemed like forever before getting there, but it may have been the one-way streets that made it seem eternal. They said it is a 20-minute walk to the city center. Being that we love walking twenty minutes is doable. 

The apartment is HUGE by Ecuadorian standards. Joe told us it is 135 square meters or 1453.13 square feet. There is a living room/dining room combination with an open kitchen. The kitchen hosts a washer, dryer, and dishwasher. Down the hallway, you encounter three bedrooms, 3 ½ baths, but best of all, the building has an elevator. One of the four rivers in the city is the primary view out the windows; the gurgles of the running water can be heard creating a quite a soothing sound.  

I have to say that Joe and Nora are more than gracious. We will live in their apartment for a month, but they are only planning to use ours for one to two weeks. Joe kept saying their “apartment is meant to be used”.

We are certainly going to miss where we are staying now and the people we met. Across town feels like cities away.

After being oriented and handed keys, they dropped us off at the Modern Art Museum. It was lovely with a great display. It reminded me of a California high school with a large open courtyard with entry directly into individual rooms from the outside. Not all salas were open, but those that were had interesting art.  

Afterward, we walked to the park across the street. There were some trees in bloom with vibrantly yellow flowers. At one end of the park is  a Belgium craft beer place where we stopped for a beer. They just opened 8 months ago. Next month, they will have different beers.
We walked home making it about half way when the rain came again. Still time, I had an umbrella.

It has been great fun and an adventure to cruise through the markets for our food and then coming back here to cook it. We have really stuck to basic recipes, so there has not been anything fancy. However, everything has had a special taste imbued by the surroundings. 

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Been Busy~

Lest anyone think that I have not been busy, thus ignoring my blogging regularly, it is untrue. Many of the things other than writing have been consuming my time. In addition to that, there hasn’t been much to inspire me to set the keyboard to type or even to put my headset on to speak to Dragon Naturally Speaking. The things that have been happening in my life have had questionable qualities as to whether they were worth writing about or not.

One day, as I was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book, someone rang the doorbell downstairs. When I answered it, all I heard was Hungarian. When I said I do not speak Hungarian, there was no English prompting me to open the door.

About five minutes later, our apartment door doorbell rang. Two men were standing there. They had ID tags hanging around their neck, but holding them up for inspection while saying something in Hungarian. For all I knew, they were Jehovah’s Witnesses; Mormons were ruled out due to their clothes. After saying I do not speak Hungarian yet again, I was ready to dismiss them and walk away. No, I did not want a super deal on Internet service, nor did I want to put a new roof on our apartment. Leave me alone!

Then one of them spoke in halting English. He told me that they were from the district office and were here to investigate our bed and breakfast. Any official in this country or anywhere I don’t speak the language, intimidates me. They spent over an hour asking questions, looking over our business corporation papers; all the time they were extremely pleasant. The end result was that even if our company has court ordered permission to rent out rooms, we never received direct permission from the district. The entire hour I sweat through this non-hostile investigation, while Ron was napping in the next room. I insisted he find a translator to accompany him to the district to get this cleared up on the following Monday. All through the weekend I mulled over and worried about the consequences; though the gentlemen here were extremely kind and considerate could we expect the same from their colleagues?

Prior to and continuing during this same week, I was in the middle of a battle with the university. The Dutch Department hired a new lector was to start in September. Due to the poor wages that lectors receive, the university tries to supplement it by providing housing. Their list of available housing list was depleted; no offerings were to be had. Instead the university housing department decided to offer him 50,000 forints to pay towards rent. It was their expectation that this was all he would have to pay for rent. However this is totally unrealistic in today’s real estate market.

The secretary in my department believed that since I had quit, my apartment would be available. She did not realize that we owned it with intentions to stay, while continuing to live in this apartment. I corrected her mistake, but also informed her of our other apartment. Then after conferring with the head of the Dutch Department, they gave the information to Arnold their new hire.

The Feri Place apartment more than appealed to Arnold. Our place easily rents for 85,000 forints. We have had multiple offers each time it becomes available as a long term rental. Looking through the advertisements on Facebook we can probably even get more. However, we have stayed with 85,000 forints for the last two years. The tenant has to pay their own utilities and the building fees, but we pay the water bill as well as the Wi-Fi.

Arnold realized this was an excellent deal, even more so after seeing the apartment. He saw the video on our website, but when we took him there to see it in person, he was ecstatic. He said he couldn’t wait to tell his friends. After showing them the video on our website, they said we probably only videotaped the good parts ignoring the bad. He couldn’t wait to tell them that there were only good parts. He wanted to move immediately, but of course that was not possible. He will move in on August 19.

The head of the housing department didn’t think it was ethical that I should collect rent for another lector when the university had been contributing to my rent in the past. I turned it over to the head of the Dutch Department to fight the battle, stating that I had given up; it was out of my hands. It finally worked out with all the papers signed. Arnold has signed his lease so we are good to go.

The deciding factor was when the Dutch Department called around to various apartments finding no one wanted to rent to the university. There were a couple of exceptions, but the apartments were so horrid that the head of the Dutch Department would not allow any of their employees to live in them.

Arnold will pay 35,000 forints plus utilities with common costs. The university will pay 50,000 forints. He recently sent me an email stating he was informed his contract can be extended six times bringing him to the year 2020; he continued to say this could be good news for our rental.

While all this was happening my doctor decides I need to go for my annual bloodwork and urine test. I had labored over this point for a couple of weeks when I finally decided to go July 1st. What I didn’t realize was that all medical facilities are closed on July 1st.  It’s Semmelweis day, apparently making this is a medical holiday. I had strategically planned for this day in particular, because it was Ron’s birthday. With my bloodwork out of the way I could celebrate worry-free when we had his beer party at the beer pub.

To prepare, I had abstained from all alcohol the entire weekend, I was religiously adherent to a diabetic diet, and even threw in 30 minutes of exercise each day. I was all set for bloodwork, but the best laid plans of mice and men went down the drain. It took me another two weeks to recapture the motivation to recreate the pre-bloodwork routine. Once the bloodwork was out of the way, it then took me another week plus before I went to the doctor for the results. It was a great relief when he said my tests came back like a normal healthy human being. There was no other discussion or anything else that needed a follow-up; he seemed to be perfectly happy with the results. We celebrated with beer that night.

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Feri Place - The Professional Video

This is our latest professionally created video for our self-catering apartment. To watch it on YouTube, go here.

To check on availability, go here.

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Television Debut - HHI

Last night was THE event spiraling around some excitement in an otherwise not so adventurous segment of my life. The House Hunters International episode featuring our apartment was aired in the US.

Only three people of the 782 that I personally informed about the show have reported back to me.

This was from my friend Mike in FL. (Mike was a significant help in our buying a property in Pompano, FL, yet we have never met).
     No, the apartment came off very well. It was the lowest priced of the three they spotlighted.
One was in a modern building, @ 600USD, and the Hoversens wanted something with more charm.
     The other was in a grand building right on the Danube, but the rent there was 750USD, plus maintenance fees.  The place was beautiful, but out of their price range if the wanted to do any traveling.
     Your unit came off very well. At the end they showed how they moved the couch and chairs to the area near the heater, and put the dining table further towards the window.
     It was weird watching the episode.  Even though you and I have never personally met, I kept saying to myself, 'Hey, I know the guys that own that place', and it's on TV.
     The city also came off very well.  I don't know the names of the various buildings, but they were really magnificent.

My good friend Kim gave a brief report from OR.
     Hi there, I watched House Hunters last night and saw your apartment.  Only $475 US!!!  Maybe I should be retiring there!!  And I thought it looked great on TV.  Did you watch the episode?? 
     
And last of all, our friend Jennifer from CT - she was a Fulbright teacher here in 2001-2002 and this is how we met her. She has been back here multiple times since then.
     So, that was interesting...
First off, the city looks so beautiful!  Of course they hit all the high points to make it look amazing (which of course it is, but there are places that wouldn't look so great on TV!).
     When they went into the first apartment, I was thinking it was yours based on the pictures I've seen, but they weren't especially complimentary about it.  They weren't crazy about the furniture, the heater, and the view of the wall outside.  They seem like nice enough people, but... I took the comments about the furniture quite personally as I consider you to have good taste! - and I thought the furniture was more than adequate and practical! 
     But, they liked the price, of course.  The second apartment was extremely modern, and I couldn't quite figure out where the building was.  They didn't like how modern it was.  The third was in a great location on the river, but of course more expensive. 
     Naturally, they went with the more traditional place that was more of a bargain.  Of course, when they flash-forwarded three months, they were talking about how much they loved the apartment and how it felt like home.  It showed them cooking - they emphasized how much they liked the big kitchen.  They talked about how the good price had allowed them to save enough to travel, etc.  They showed them running over Margaret Bridge by the Danube, walking on Margaret Island, etc. 
     So, as I said, very interesting!  It did make me quite homesick for the city :(

As hard as I have tried hunting it down, it seems they have not put this episode online yet. With any luck, one of our peeps will have the techie know-how to upload it into the cloud so I can download it and watch. Anyone?

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Decorating Is So Much Work, But I Want Overtime

Our tenant, Jeff is in the US for spring break. We are taking this time to get work done on the apartment. This is the week so far of my "vacation".

• Sunday, we went to the apartment to pull out all of the hooks and molly bolts from the wall, plastering the holes left behind.
• Monday morning, I had to be there for the painters. They arrived earlier than expected. They were due at 8:45, but were there by 8:20 when I arrived. The painted the bedroom walls, living room walls, and kitchen walls and ceiling. They cleaned up everything, including sweeping the floor afterward. They were finished by 6:10 pm eating their lunch as they worked. I waited with them the entire day. They were going to hang the vertical blinds we bought for the kitchen, but they didn't have the right drill for the job. They offered to return to finish the job. My day was productive. We have WiFi there so I brought my laptop to read and grade papers. 

• Tuesday, Ron and I went shopping again. After looking at other stores, there was nothing really appealing for a desk, bedside table, or dresser. We found all three that worked perfectly while at Ikea, but the bedside table was out of stock. The only store that has it requires a car to get to. More stock comes in April 16th, so that means another trip. We bought those things and about a dozen other things. Now that there is some furniture, I am able to see what decorative touches are needed. I took all that could be carried over to the apartment to put them out. I didn't get home until 6:30. Ikea arranged to deliver the big things Wednesday morning and then their carpenter was arranged to do the assembly. 

• Today, Ikea delivered the furniture and assembled it. As promised they arrived between 9am-1pm with the carpenter on their heels to do the construction. Ron said he would go apartment sit, which was fortunate; I read and graded papers all morning.  

• This afternoon, I went over to the apartment to set some books on the bookcases to assist Ron is hanging a couple of wall hangings and some pictures we bought in Guatemala. The place is really shaping up. I am lov'in it.

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Flat Expressionism

After weeks of looking at apartments or flats as they call them here, we had finally narrowed it down to two. This was further narrowed down for us when one of the two was sold while we were deliberating. Yet, just to make sure we were not making any rash decisions, we continued looking at additional apartments. The eye-opener here is that regardless of how lovely a building may look on the outside, it can harbor some damn ugly dwellings inside. Some of the things people are asking a fortune for are despicable, not only dirty, but strangely shaped rooms that are totally inconvenient. It makes me want to be a fly on the wall to see how they cope. It also makes me what to analyze their thinking to discover how they can fantasize asking for what they propose.

When we were certain we had found the place we wanted, we put in a ridiculously low offer, knowing it would be refused, but heck, we have fantasies too. REJECTED! Similar to my dating life from years past, so it came as no surprise. Three days later, we upped the ante. That was rejected also, even when we said this was not a game we were willing to play, so it was our final offer. What was proposed by the sellers was a face to face meeting. We being Americans did not understand what this could possibly entail if they rejected our 2nd offer. 

What they wanted to do was give us an itemized, very detailed list of all the renovations they made to the apartment. We had visited twice, so the wife had already shown me every nook, cranny, and nail hole in the entire place. I now knew this place better than her husband did, but he insisted on telling us how much money they spent on everything. All well and good, but the economy is bad, making this a buyer's market. I spent a good twenty minutes telling them what I didn't like; some of it was really true. What cannot be beat is the location. In real estate the mantra is location, location, location. And yes, sorry, but if we had remodeled, we may have made different choices. After an hour and a half of friendly dialogue, we parted ways without moving an inch or a forint in our offering.

Less than 2 days later, our realtor called to say that the owner's have budged. Yes, they were as stubborn as we were in sticking to our bank accounts, but they decided to try to meet us half way in our 'firm' bids. We thought it over, met with Peter our realtor again this afternoon and signed the papers with the new bid based on a new agreed price. Their realtor presented it to them last night and they agreed. Once their signature is on the dotted line, if we back out, we lose our deposit. If they back out, they have to refund our deposit, plus give us yet again an equal amount for the hassle. If we could only get people to back out of their contracts at the last minute, we could have a profitable business going. 

As of now, it looks like we'll be landlords. If anyone wants a self-catering option in Budapest during June, July, or August send an e-mail to info@budabab.com for more information.

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Picture Without a Child

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The Rat Race With Human Contestants

I swear when I was in elementary school, I would have sworn a summer lasted a full year. It is true that the older you get, the faster time passes. Sometimes I think people believe I sit on my hands when they are not witnessing me obviously doing something, but it is far from the truth. I often get this impression from my students who think that all I have to do when not at school is sit in front of the computer waiting for them to turn in their assignment as it fits into their schedule. Even when I stagger assignments, so as not to overload them or myself, it never seems to work out. Regardless of the threats, they treat my due dates like a suggestion box.

A couple of weeks ago, PayPal froze our account. We could still accept payments, but was not able to do a thing with the funds that were in there already. Not that I had any intention of moving money around, but you leave these things and the problem escalates. PayPal sent an e-mail stating that since we received a total of 2,500 Euros during 2011, the EU law is that they investigate the account for money laundering. Would anyone even bother pulling out laundry detergent for that amount of money? My basket has to be a whole lot fuller before you'd get me close to the washing machine.

In order to remedy this situation, they sent me a list of things they needed from me to resolve this issue. I whipped together the documents they required, scanned them and uploaded them in their 'Resolution Center'. I thought it was a done deal, but apparently not. The next e-mail now requested another list of utility bills to confirm our address. It seems that my National ID card and address card was not enough. Once scanned and uploaded, it was just a matter of time. Wrong again. The next e-mail stated that the ID card was blurred and could not be properly read, so it needed to be submitted once again.

This time I scanned my passport and sent that. No good, that was blurry too, they could not read it. All of these documents are coated for protection and this seems to confound the scanner, so of course they are coming out perfectly. Then the light bulb went on. Take a photograph of them. I did that with my phone. Perfect, they accepted these pictures, but now they could not find my utility bills. After scanning those again, I sent them along with the photographs again in one stuffed package. They finally recognized all of the material releasing the account. This took a span of 2 weeks, because of the delay in their reviewing the materials.  Each time, they wrote, their logo includes "The World's favorite way to send and receive money". Ugh! Who says? What is the alternative: Western Union, which is much more expensive. After all of this they have the nerve to send a quality assurance survey to ask my satisfaction with the process. If they wanted my satisfaction, they would not have bothered me at all.

For the last year, we have been trying to get our money out of a regular savings account in the US into a money market or long term CD account. We had one, closed it to buy a property, but wanted to reopen it later. Bank of America gave me the run around for months, before I finally was told they wouldn't due it due to money laundering concerns. All of a sudden everyone is clean laundry conscious. One day on my way home, I noticed that there was a for sale sign in an apartment across the street from us. I approached Ron with the idea of buying another apartment. There are many times, people want a self-catering apartment as opposed to a B and B, plus there are Fulbrighters each semester. When he came around to my way of thinking, I called the realtor who of course didn't speak English. Fortunately for us, her colleague did and took over.

The apartment was too much work to get ready for renting and the bathroom was in a really weird place. Peter took us back to the office to look through their listings. There are thousands in Budapest alone. Once we narrowed it to district, square meters, had a lift, above the first floor, maximum price we wanted to pay, we were able to cut the list considerably putting us down to 233. After checking addresses, this cut the list down substantially. What was important was access to public transport. This gave us a list of a dozen.

We found 2 we wanted. One was on the "theater street" of Budapest, directly across the street from the Moulin Rouge; however, it was 5 stories up and the windows were insulated, so no noise, and a great view. The problem with this one was that it was one room that had a sleeping cabin made of sliding doors and glass block wall. The other had just been remodeled 2 years ago, but the owners are pregnant with child 2, but child one is still sleeping in the one and only bedroom. We took my Hungarian adult student and an American friend to look at both. Their opinions were sharply divided in opposite directions. The next day it was a moot issue. Someone made a binding offer on the theater district one.

One more look-see on the computer where we found 3 more to visit. We completed that tour this evening. This experience has taught me the opposite of not judging a book by its cover. We have looked at some fantastic buildings that one would think are just as lovely inside, yet the apartments are horrid. The layouts of the rooms are cut this way and that way, making no logical sense. At one time, these must have been huge places that were cauterized into miniscule pieces. 

Tonight we make a decision, before this becomes our avocation. We leave mid December and Peter leaves in February. We want to get this in progress so we can start furnishing it before spring.

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Paris or Nice Rentals

ladauphine has left a new comment on your post "Paris Rentals":

"Our good friend has several apartments to rent in Paris: www.historicrentals.com and we still have our place in Nice to rent as well. http://ladauphine.com/nice/niceapmt.html

Ray and Kim in New Orleans

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