apartment???

So alex, a French Canadian postdoc with whom I might live (read later) took me around for a tour. He shared some of his Cardiff experiences, some nice and pleasant, even gentle, some – not exactly. He told me about getting a pint, an empty one albeit, thrown at him in a pub, and of some other drunkard behaviors he saw here. The british have a way about them when they drink. Man, they get belligerent!

Anyway, alex(andre girouard!) took me into parts of the city that are a way from the centre. This included a very nice park with a lake with row boats, a street with many trees on it – not that common of a scene amongst the residential areas, and the house, on that tree-street, on which we might live. Now for the people that haven’t heard this story, I’ll repeat it cause its kind of funny. And because I like telling stories.

So, my first connection to Cardiff from the states was through a Hungarian lady that my mom set me up with. She was really nice, pretty, sweet – but turned out to be 40. Further, it also turned out I was quite unready still. But we did go to the possibly most expensive dinner I ever paid for (well halfies…) Anyway, she told me of Hungarian friends of hers that live in Cardiff, and gave me their email. So I emailed, asked how Cardiff is, what is it like for foreigners here, which areas to live at, etc. Magor emailed me back (is this a common Hungarian name? does it mean something like ‘giant goulash eater?’) and said that they are actually leaving and that they are looking to rent out the flat they bought. Two bedrooms, in Roath, a good area near the uni. Sounded good except that, where was I going to find a person that I wanted to live with? At about the same time, I started emailing alex, Michael’s (the Russian advisor who is here in Cardiff) postdoc. I asked similar questions, some more university based and math department based. Anyway, he then mentions that he wants to leave his apartment and move into a bigger place. So if I want… so we skype it up, I interview him, make sure he is neat around the kitchen, that he has hobbies outside the math department, and that he doesn’t sound totally weird. He passes. I send him to check the apartment… turns out to be 2 min from his place and he loves it, says its one of the best he saw in Cardiff. Funny like that, I felt like a mafia boss!!! Hilleletto!!

And you know when you talk to a person you never met you imagine them in a certain way? And then its funny to compare what they really look like to what you imagined? So I imagined alex as tall, skinny, dark hair. Totally totally wrong. Short, pretty short, red hair. Somewhat skinny, maybe stocky is the right word. And a very very nice guy. Seems like a good match. Problem is, he is doing a job interview in Switzerland (after only 1 year of postdoc!!! Gives some hope…) this Friday. So if he doesn’t get it, we’ll be there. If not, I have to figure something out…