Transition Part 3

It was also filthy..but spacious!  We looked at each of the rooms: two large bedrooms, a small washroom, a storage closet, a "den," the living room, the kitchen, and the numerous closets...and then sat down in the coolest spot we could find, to go over the gigantic stack of papers I'd been given.  That is when we noticed that after taking off socks and walking around the apartment for a few minutes, our barefeet were pitch black.  And so we took off for our first trip to Zelllers, conveniantly located about 5 minutes away from our apartment, including the time it takes to wait for the elevator.  I'm pretty sure we've been to Zellers at least once every day since arriving, though the record may be closer to 4 times in one day.  We bought some cleaning supplies and groceries for the night, and then headed home.  By this point, the sun was going down, and we were very much anticipating the coolness that should come with its departure.  I believe it was when we went around to open windows in each of the rooms that we discovered the great lack of lighting in our apartment.  We'd noticed lightswitches earlier - but had not noticed that there are no cieling lights in any of the bedrooms, or in the living room. And so we spent our evening cleaning in the dark, listening to music.  When I was getting to the point where I was about to fall over with exhaustion, we decided to get ready for bed.  Amber had brought an air mattress, which, if it had been a reasonable temperature, we probably could have shared.  But given that it was still 30 degrees, and the mattress was a twin, that was not going to work.  Instead, I borrowed her sleeping bag, and carefully organized all of my clothes inside of it to use as a mattress.  It was rather firm...but I actually slept pretty well each of the nights I used it!

We spent most of our time before classes began trying to find furniture and organize our apartment...and now that classes have started, would you be surprised to know we are still doing the same thing? I will share a few stories...

Friday we decided to go to a Salvation Army and a Value Village which were both within walking distance of the apartment.  It was still uncomfortably hot outside, and so we walked slowly as the sun beat down on the concrete roads and on our heads.  I had coppied directions down from google maps, and the plan was to go to the Salvation Army first, and then to Value Village.  I'm not really sure what happened, but we never found the Salvation Army, even though we followed the directions and walked way farther than we should have needed to.  By the time we gave up, we were both too hot and too tired to walk all the way back to Value Village, so we decided to take the bus to our next stop, Walmart, instead.  Since we are both terrified of bed bugs, and so we decided that it would be a good idea to purchase a cheap futon new, isntead of risking having to get rid of things should our apartment become infested.  After checking a few different stores, we decided that we'd get one at Walmart.  Unfortunately, since Amber's Dad was our only access to a car, and he was only in Ottawa Saturday and Sunday, when we found one on Friday and the store wouldn't hold it...we had to leave it behind.  So, Saturday morning, we phoned Walmart with the product number to see if there was still one there...but it was gone.  Then we began phoning all of the other Walmarts, including two in Quebec.  We switched the website to French, which listed the same futon under the word "futon" and so, when I attempted to find if there was one in stock, this is the word I used in French.  My dictionary, and the computer, and the Walmart Website all say the same thing...but aparently it wasn't the right word, because noone that I talked to understood me.  Finally I was talking to one person in English, and I asked for a futon...and was transfere to the photography department.   While I may never speak French again, we did find eventually find a futon!

On the way to pick up the futon, we stopped at Value Village, where we purchased a table and a shelf.  We were told that they'd hold them for 24 hours in the warehouse part of the store, so we could come back later to pick them up.  Well, when we did, the table was there, and the shelf was there, but the leaf for the table had mysteriously disappeared.  By this point I was really tired, and really frustrated - because we'd bought that table specifically because it had a leaf.  After phoning and sternly talking to the manager, I was told that there was nothing they could do about it, and they would not give us any money back because they lost the leaf.  If we wanted to, we could exchange the table wtihin 7 days, but they didn't have any other furniture, and the entire exchange amount would have to be used at the time of returning the table.  Well, we do have a table.  And we didn't have to drive all over town to various homes we'd found on used Ottawa trying to buy one.  But, if there was any doubt before, when it comes to thrift stores, I'm definitely a Salvation Army girl!

After lots of drilling, screwing, hammering, and redaing instruction booklets, our apartment is finally beginning to resemble a home.  We just need some things on the walls, oh yeah, and a cushion on our couch.

Tune in to the next episode of Transition: Jennifer-getting-her-blog-caught-up,  and you'll get to know some of the things I LOVE about my apartment, and some of it's semi-loveable quirks.