my apartment says it all ... I am a poor graduate student

I am here. I made the journey, as well as all my things. I have a lot of stuff and yet I still had to buy more – how is that possible? Well, it is. You have to buy cleaning supplies, dishes, organizing things, hangers, laundry and waste baskets, lamps, all furniture (bed, dresser, bookcase, desk, chairs, etc, etc, etc) and school supplies too! So I didn’t see my apartment before I moved in … I saw a few pictures, I thought had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. And I did. But you know how thinking about something and then experiencing it for real is different? That’s what happened when I first opened the door. I little bit of sadness crept in. It’s very basic, very old (not in a good way), and very college living. It’s hard to go backwards. Just when you are finally getting nice things and living in nice places … you go back to school … and back to the little apartment with bad fixtures and ugly carpet. I kept repeating to myself … its ok, you are a poor student now, you are poor, you have no money, you are a student. Sigh. Little things about college living I forgot about or never experienced in my undergrad … like the idea that dishwashers aren’t standard. Doesn’t every apartment come with brand new stainless steel appliance? Just kidding, just kidding. But its hard to go from being the first people living in a brand new building and a new apartment back to college apartments.

This is the before shot of my roomies empty bedroom (since I forgot to take one of mine ... its the same but the window size and placement is a bit different ... but you get the idea):



This was my dilemma when I got here. Since I was the first to move in, I got my pick of the rooms (three of them). The two in the back had shorter, but longer windows than the front room and are thus much brighter. The front bedroom however has a larger closet. While the sunlight is something I am very very concerned about here in Oregon and the front room's window faces out to the front doors and thus the noise/wandering eyes of neighbors ... I didn't really have a choice. I needed the bigger closet. So it is darker and noisier, but all my clothes fit. Yes, my priorities are called into question with this decision.

I will post pictures of the final product - aka: my decorated room in a week (after I go on my field study to Northern Idaho). In the next few days I hope to do a little catch up and post about the last month's activities ... pictures and all.