The Apartment

Upon landing in Delhi, I was excited to see our apartment. A friend, living in the US managed to hook me up with an awesome pad in a new apartment building with a gym. A gym!! That’s unheard of in India… off the hook! The taxi slowed down at the apartment...

Taxi fare	Rs. 160
Mineral water	Rs. 175
Mattresses for apartment	Rs. 1500
“Gym”	Climbing up 3 flights of stairs with heavy luggage
Indian style bathroom	Free
Wasp’s nest in bathroom	Also Free
2 dead wasps	Killed by roommate
Security system	2 stray dogs
Average temperature in Delhi	110o F (~40o C)
Air Conditioning	Non-existent
Refrigerator	Also Non-existent
Hours of running water	30 mins per day
Water tank	Empty
Pump for water tank	Burnt Out
Plumber Costs	Rs. 4500
Summer Immersion in India	PRICELESS!

The issue wasn’t so much with the amount of problems with the apartment, these kinds of things tend to be commonplace in India, but it was more an issue of expectations. My friend (who for the record is living it up in West Palm Beach, Florida) told me there was a gym in the building and that was the basis for a WHOLE bunch of other assumptions. Clearly all of them turned out to be false so my roommate and I have been sweating it out (literally) for the last 4 days. To add insult to injury, the area of town we’re living in is across from slums, there are no fun places to hang out and it’s a 30-minute auto rickshaw ride to classes every morning (which also happens to be the 30 minutes when the city water is available).

The good news is we’re not sticking it out here any longer… We found a place with all the amenities we need for a great price and walking distance from our classes. We’ll be moving there once we return from Mumbai. As for my friend in West Palm, she’s been very apologetic about the whole thing – don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you for more than a few years! :)