Move to Medford

Without a break, the orientation week transitioned into the move-in, because the lease for the apartment started on September 1st.

Since the beginning of the whole apartment search I was aware of the fact that I will not find an affordable apartment that meets my German standard and accordingly I already adjusted my expectations. Nevertheless, I was surprised by reality. The actually very nice parquet floor has paint stains in several places that were not removed after repainting, the rooms are smaller than expected, various furniture shows signs of rust, the basement is junked and no one knows who owns the content or why it has not been thrown away, yet. The window pleats are dusty and the frames dirty, as if they hadn’t been cleaned in ages – which may or may not be the case. But at least the apartment exists. In this area, the number of fake advertisements and showings is increasing, and more and more students are falling for these scams. The deposit and first month’s rent are often stolen. Therefore, TUFTS already explicitly warns against such cases.

We received the apartment key at noon on move-in day, because the owners wanted to have the apartment cleaned before. In addition, they also made a tour through the apartment. All the greater was my surprise when I came into my room and the closet (which is rented with the apartment) was broken. And this damage can not be missed. My email, which I directly wrote to the landlords, was not answered until Tuesday morning. In the following two weeks someone would come by and take care of it. There are other damages that are more urgent, they said. However, by the time I got the answer, the problem had been fixed.

At this point, a big thank you to Tim, who was able to repair the closet, and to myGermany, who sent my desk and our tools to America without any problems. Without an electric screwdriver we would have been lost.

After the initial shock was over, we measured the room to be able to pick out the right furniture. Before the group expedition to Ikea, Tim and I quickly purchased a mattress for the bed. At this point, we were really lucky that the store had a suitable mattress in stock. Unlike in Germany, the store is not directly connected to a (at least small) warehouse. In most cases, the mattresses are selected in the store and delivered from the warehouse afterwards. They are ready for pickup after 1 week.

By now it was half past three in the afternoon and we made our way to Ikea. Of course, we got caught up in weekend traffic, so that the actual 30-minute drive more than doubled. When we finally arrived at our destination, we had to eat something first, because we all missed lunch. Newly strengthened, we then threw ourselves into the fun and purchased a bulk of furniture. Of course, various little things that we needed for the apartment were also purchased. That took a lot of time. At around 10 p.m. we were finally back in the apartment – but unfortunately the bed still had to be assembled. Completely exhausted, we dedicated ourselves to bed and slats – at half past one in the morning everything was ready and we could finally go to sleep. It was a long and very exhausting day.

Unfortunately, the remaining furniture was not set up yet. Therefore, Saturday was all about assembling all the furniture and repairing the closet. Now, thanks to extensive investments, the wardrobe probably works better than ever before. We also rebuilt the inside of it and added more clothes hangers. You can hardly imagine how happy and relieved I was when everything was done on Saturday evening and I could start unpacking the suitcases. I wanted to get over this as quickly as possible and went straight to unpacking and organizing. Shortly before midnight everything was stowed away and another day was over.

On Sunday, when all four roommates were settled in and all the furniture was set up, we turned our attention to the shared kitchen. The cupboards were wiped out, kitchen utensils were cleaned and put away and all the missing things were ordered online. The only thing that bothered us were all the paper boxes piled up in the hallway. A quick Google search later and the recycling depot was found, our rental car loaded and we were on the road. After a somewhat extended search, we found the recycling place and were able to clear out our hallway. Finally, there was an end in sight and the biggest chaos was eliminated just before the beginning of the semester.