New Apartment!!

Yay we have an apartment off campus for next term!!
You'd think that finding an apartment in a 3rd world country would be cheap... not the case. stupid medical school driving up the rates.....
I finally found an apartment that I am satisfied with and felt comfortable living in... and one Lee felt comfortable paying the rent for!  We decided on The Castle Top Apartments in Lance Aux Epines, and I say we as in... Lee has never seen the place, he just said ok when I told him the price.  I originally did not want to live in Lance Aux Epines because we don't have a car and we aren't going to be getting a car... and the buses go through there a little less often... but this is such a great deal and Lee is so easy going he won't mind the bus system, & lets face it... where do I actually have to be?  If you plan when you need to go somewhere with the bus time then you'll be fine... they run about every 15-25minutes through LAE and at night they go off route and drop you off right at your door!  Our apartment building is about a 3 minute walk from the bus stop otherwise.  OH! and it's like a 5 minute walk to Lance Aux Epines beach!! and there is a pool near by that you can buy a yearly pass to!

The only thing I'm concerned about it going to the grocery store, I'll have to take a LAE bus to the Texaco and get on a Grand Anse bus and then take a Grand Anse back to get another LAE bus..... but whatever.
And if necessary Lee could walk to the highway across from Texaco from the apartment to get a bus to go to school, it's not that far really.... I've walked it before just to see how long it'd take. 15 minutes probably... and Lee is used to walking places, he didn't have car at home either. city people are used to it. and so are former half-marathoners like me. haha.

I had looked at a couple other apartments and emailed about a billion before I found and settled on this one.  It's brand new, just opened in December, so it's really clean and fresh and shouldn't have anything wrong with it.  Others I had looked at just looked like they had been lived in way too much... dirty, old, stained, bugs... you know, not so great even on Grenada standards. and then there are the 5star luxury apartments that are $2500 a month... and then the other places that would have been good, are full :(
so here we are at the Castle Top :) and I'm happy.
1 bedroom, full kitchen -furnished with pots and pans & dishes, living room with 2 nice chairs (other places "living rooms" weren't so livable) hot and cold water (yes, you have to ask that in Grenada) wireless internet, TV & cable!!!!! dual voltage!! a wash and dryer right in the apartment! (some places are $14EC per load of laundry!) a clothesline to dry stuff outside, a desk in the bedroom for Lee to study... and an energy efficient AC unit!
It's also painted nicely, bright blue exterior, yellow living room and kitchen, turquoise bathroom, and green bedroom. I went to one place and I kid you not the walls were bright grass green & the kitchen was sickening bright orange, cabinets and all. lol
It also has a security gate surrounding it & the landlord is really sweet & lives there too!

yea.... it's blue! I love that in Grenada you can get away with such bright colors! It's the landlords favorite color!  Our apartment is the top one! The breeze up there is awesome too

yellow living room :)
the camera's date is obviously off. 8 years.

kitchen & back door to go out to hang laundry
but on the left of this bar is the wash and dryer

an oven! that operates on gas, and it comes with gas

fridge and kitchen table.

this place was made for 2 :) lol

bed.. and to the left is Lee's desk and a FULL LENGTH MIRROR!
and off the foot of the bed is a closet unit 

you can't tell but it's turquoise too :) and has a big shower

I can't tell you how happy I am to have this settled. I was getting majorly stressed out about finding a place to live that was decent and affordable.  We'll end up paying roughly HALF of what we pay to live on campus... insane.  but they made us live here first term. and it was convenient.
but I'm so happy about cable tv and an oven! :)