Depa

Wow, I have so much to catch up on.  So, I had chatted about an apartment that I really liked that was close to a really cute park.  However after several days of waiting for the landlord to get back to me on whether I could take it, I ended up looking at some other apartments.  One was in a business section of town and was very nicely renovated.  Another was in a more residential part of town and closer to the area that I wanted to be in.  Both were not furnished.  The first one was very nice on the inside, but I didn't like the area as much.  The second one was much smaller and not as nice, but it was right in front of a park and seemed like a really great area.  I finally got a call back from the landlord on the other furnished apartment and he decided to rent it to his nephew.  So, I spent a day or so thinking about which one of the unfurnished apartments I should take.  I decided to take the one that was in the area I liked.  It's very small, but I think it will turn out nice as I move in and decorate to my liking.

So, now that I found a place to live, I've been trying to get the contract in order.  Like most apartment complexes anywhere, they want to make sure that you're legit and will be able to pay your rent.  Normally, that's done through background and credit checks or references.  Here they have what's called an "aval".  Basically it's a financial backer.  It usually has to be someone from Guadalajara who owns land.  I obviously don't know anyone who could do that for me, so it literally would be impossible to rent an apartment here without IBM's help.  Anyway, I've left a small deposit assuring the landlord that I wanted the apartment and am now waiting.  Luckily, IBM has a current apartment contract that has all the language approved and ready to go.  I sent this to the landlord and he reviewed it with his lawyer and wanted to make a few changes.  I replied that if he made changes, I'd have to get new approvals for the contract and the process would be delayed.  I asked him what changes he wanted to make, and he hasn't gotten back to me.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to call him today if he hasn't written back.

I've been waiting a week for this to go through with no progress and I'm starting to lose patience.  Everything is so slow here in Mexico and it's starting to drive me crazy.  I just want to be in my apartment already and start my life.