ranting about rent

I think like most Americans, I assumed that living in Brazil would be at least somewhat cheap. Sadly I was dead wrong! Living in Sao Paulo is probably equivalent to living in LA or New York - especially since the dollar sucks right now and inflation here has driven prices up in the last couple of years. For my first month in Brazil, I was living by myself in a furnished apartment. It was super expensive, but from what I saw on the website I was willing to pay, and didn't really have any other choice. They claimed it had a gym, a pool, maid service, laundry service, cable TV...and from the pictures it looked pretty nice. Here's a list of reasons why I was paying WAY too much money to live there. (this isn't meant to be a list of complaints, but a hopefully funny retrospect)
-my TV was so old I had to turn a knob to turn it on and I couldn't control the volume from the remote
-the gym consisted of a few treadmills and bikes from the 1980s
-the pool was cold and small. No one ever uses it. Not a good sign.
-gross, old, lumpy pillows
-the phone lines were always so staticky you could barely hear
-I had to buy myself a new phone because I couldn't even dial out on their crappy phones
-for as much as I was paying I assumed I would at least have a microwave! Nope.

I'm sure there's more...anyway, my boss and a couple guys from work were also living there, but recently got a new place together. Fortunately, they had a spare room and let me move in for my last month. I got the "maid's room"! haha. Unfortunately, the new place isn't furnished. And that apparently also means "your new apartment doesn't have electricity." When we called the power company, they didn't come the first time. We called again and they said they would come between 8:30 am and 7:00pm on Tuesday OR Wednesday! And you thought American cable companies were annoying. So for the first few days we camped out with air mattresses, an extension cord from the hall, and lots of candles. I was just glad to be out of that extremely over-priced apartment and saving some money! Check out my new, unfurnished digs:



our extra-spacious living room



my improvised closet



my luxurious bedroom