Monday, September 27, 2010

Deluxe Apartment in the Sky

I've moved nearly every two years for the past 13, but something about making a move within Mexico City had me out of sorts. I was having meltdowns, forgetting important events, and making crazy talk. And, a few things happened -- unrelated to the move -- that triggered my angry button. Finally, though, we're all moved in, and we are hooked up with all our utilities, cable, internet, a new fridge, microwave, and washer/dryer (I've never had a washer/dryer in my apartment, so I am over-the-moon excited about doing laundry).

The linguistic debilitation that I thought would happen never came to pass, although I highly recommend studying this link and this one before attempting polite phone conversations in Spanish. Because phone Spanish just ain't what they say on the streets. In fact, I think customer service derives great pleasure in finding ways to complicate phrases like "Who's calling?" into "With whom do I have the great pleasure and luxury of speaking with today?"

Of the new words I learned during the move, the word volado appeared a lot. I believe it derives from the verb volar (to fly), and it refers to the act of doing this:

Hoisting objects up or down the side of a building

Like our way-too-big couch that we will be cutting in half the next time we move

Figuring out how to get the couch into the apartment was a feat of engineering, and the good 'ol folks at Mudanzas Gou (whom I 100% recommend if you need to move in, out, or within Mexico) carried it up 15 flights of stairs to the roof and lowered it one floor to our apartment on the 14th floor. Do we sound like the Jeffersons?? "Well we're movin on up, to the east side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky."

In the daytime, you can see the mountains to the north of Mexico City. Better than that, you can see the traffic whirring around you, but you don't hear it!

The view at night is something pretty spectacular.

5 comments:

  1. Yup, Alice,

    It looks like you finally got a piece of the pie :)

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  2. Darn you.. now I'm going to have that song playing in my head for the rest of the day!

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  3. Niiice apartment :D

    Mudanzas Gou are wonderful.

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  4. that rocks! love the new digs! :)

    amber h in charlotte, nc

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  5. alice and amber -- thanks!! we like it, too. one thing i didn't expect, though, was for it to be much colder up here. brrr...

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