Apartment envy

First, I will express my sympathy for the chilly weather my northern friends are experiencing. It is beginning to cool down here as well though - today's high is only 23 C :-) Actually these last few days have been perfect, no humidity, sunny and temperatures in mid 20s. Lovely.

My FFF (French Fellow Friend for those of you not keeping up to speed) and I indulged in the true American pastime yesterday of going to the mall on a Saturday afternoon. Next weekend is the National Symphony Orchestra gala/ball which is our first black tie event, and naturally requires shopping. We went to Pentagon City (where I had been once before) because of it's sheer size really - and they have a DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse) across the street, which I felt was a store my FFF should experience. (and thank you Kitty for the Starbucks assistance - they call it a tea latte here - weird). Shopping included some selections for our fellow fellow whose wife if very pregnant so today we are having a potluck/surprise baby thing for him.

After shopping I went to have dinner at FFF's apartment in Adams Morgan. Sigh. This is what the difference is between making Euros before you come here and making Canadian dollars. The place is beautiful. Obviously it's costing double what I'm paying so it should be, but I'd have envy of this apartment anywhere in the world, let alone here where everything real estate is so incredibly expensive. It is the sort of place I'd want to buy - open concept kitchen livingroom with a loft bedroom up above. Sigh encore.

I miss my Annex apartment.

I took a cab home last night and was pleasantly surprised that it was only $20 which means from work it will only be about $15 on those nights I'm there especially late (the metro stops much earlier here than I'm used to as well, it's not just me being lazy). There are odd things about cabs here though. Now I've only been in two of them since arriving but both times they want to barter about the fare (why have a meter then??). Now I have a good sense of what it should cost me to get out to Alexandria, I'll be better armed. But that stuff ticks me off. Also apparently they are allowed to pick up another fare while you are in the cab (as long as you are going in the same direction) and get paid in full from BOTH passengers. And this is legal. I am adjusting my tipping practices accordingly.

Washington tidbit #27 - they are out of stamps! There are two post offices in my daily life. One is between me and my metro station if I go a certain route, the other is in the Watergate building (the Watergate building has everything, it's bizarre). Both are out of $0.75 stamps which is the amount of postage required to mail a letter to Canada. So either there has been a run on people mailing to Canada or no one ever mails to Canada so they haven't bothered to print any. The outlet near me told me to try back in two weeks. Two weeks for stamps. So don't expect to be hearing from me any time soon is all....