Adjustment

Our living situations is pretty different, than if we were living in America. I think that is an under-statement! 

I've mentioned these fact before, but for those who don't know--here's the deal with the apartment where we live. 

• We were assigned this great apartment when we first arrived. Someone on our team took the time to find an apartment available to rent, and then worked out all the details with the landlord so that we could move in. 
• I've actually never met or even seen our land lord. Kind of unusual! 
• All of our furniture belongs to the landlord. I've spent considerable time and money trying to make it feel more like 'our' home, and not someone else's. 
• I have a love/hate relationship with this situation. 
• Love: didn't have to spend the money on furniture, and was saved the headache of trying to locate furniture when we first arrived. Not to mention, we wont have to worry about selling everything. 
• Hate: everything is mis-matched and in various stages of disrepair; it's a hassle to get pieces removed if we don't want them; I'm always worried we are going to break something or get blamed for the disrepair that the furniture is in; some of it hurts my eyes. 
• All-in-all, I'm really thankful that we don't have to buy furniture, or have the burden of ownership on so many things. It's prolonging the 'dorm' experience a little and suspending our adult-hood. I feel like when we own all our own furniture, we will finally be adults. :) Also, we have no drawers in our apartment. Not in our kitchen, not in our bathroom, not in our closet space...when we have drawers, then we will be official adults. 

Anyway, the point is, we bought a desk. 

It's nothing special. We actually lent it to Little Women, and now that the play is over, we've made room for it in our little apartment. It involved moving two bookshelves and one wardrobe, plus Willow's little cardboard castle. I'm not in love with how things look right now, so I hope that it will grow on me. 

One bookshelf has our games, books, and DVD's in it. The other is like our linen closet and medicine cabinet combine--along with lots of other odds and ends. 

Pictures--Willow likes to look at these every day. If I'm holding her, she points at this wall so that I'll go over there. Then she likes to give everyone in the pictures kisses. 

And....a picture of our real life. Laundry hanging on the curtain rod, and Willow going after my laptop the second I leave it unattended. 

It might not look like much, but we've lived here for three years and it feels like home.

~julie