Apartment Hunting - Day One

The school has put all of us up on a nice hotel for two weeks to give us time to find an apartment. Yesterday we went with Thi from the school to see a few apartments in the area. Everyone in the group was looking for a one-bedroom apartment in the $400 - $600 price range (Steven and I, on the lower end). The first apartment we were shown was in an old, grungy looking building that Steven likened to a Cambodian Prison. The apartment itself wasn't bad, but what they considered "furnished" was a weathered outdoor patio set as living room furniture, a rusty metal work table as a dresser, no bed and no shower. I couldn't see myself making a "home" there even for 10 months at $450 a month.

The second place they took us was in a high rise in District 4 (we are staying in District 1 which is the central district and the school is in District 10, which is northwest of District 1. District 4 is east of District 1 which is a little farther than we'd hoped to live.) The apartment was beautiful, but the woman wanted $600, and due to the distance and that fact that we really don't want to live in a high-rise, so impersonal and away from the culture we want to experience, we decided to move on.

The third place was a cute one-bedroom apartment for $500, also in a high-rise, but with mostly Vietnamese residents, in District 3, which is much closer to District 10. It was good to see that we could afford something nice in a nice area, but we decided to keep looking to see if we can find something a little less expensive and in a more residential area in a community with local markets, etc.

So the search continues.