Thoughts on moving

The Zumba Mamis who have been with Paty for many years now

Tonight I had the pleasure of team-teaching with the beautiful Paty Parkerson Sotelo (formally known as Paty Gonzalez Sotelo)! We had an awesome turn out with almost 60 people! She has been my Zumba inspiration, what I aspire to be as an instructor.

This was one of her last classes because she is moving to Mongolia with her new husband! As she was telling her story to everyone after class, she said how at first she felt nothing but excited for her big adventure, but as she began to talk to more people about moving, everyone only had worries and concerns, "Will you be lonely?...What will you do there?...You don't know anyone over there..." and then she began to feel worried too. I guess it's natural for all of these things to cross one's mind, but honestly I didn't feel any fears for her when I heard the news!

Now, for myself, I have thought about these things constantly. I'm sad to leave all of my friends behind in Arizona, I'm sad to move so far from my parents and Galen's parents. I'm worried that with Galen's busy schedule, I will be lonely. I've made so many friends at the gym, and teaching Zumba has become such a huge part of my life; what if I can't get a job teaching in Boston?

It's strange how I worry about all of these things for myself, but for Paty, I'm certain she will thrive no matter what. I'm excited to start a new adventure and experience living in a new place. I'm excited to be able to take road trips to places other than Phoenix, Sedona, and Vegas. I'm excited for chowdah and lobstah rolls! I guess there's really no way of telling how we'll do, but if Paty can do it in MONGOLIA then I can manage in Boston. ;)

Boston apartments

As I continue to search craigslist every other day for apartments, I feel like time couldn't be moving an slower. I wish there was someway that we could just sign a lease for next year and be setup and not have to worry about it anymore, but we probably won't know where we'll be living until a week before.

As it stands, the plan for next year is that I will fly out to Boston by myself sometime in May and search for an apartment, sign a lease, and then fly back to Tucson, where Galen and I will begin the cross-country drive with our dogs to Boston. I feel like I need to plan something now, even though nothing I do now will really matter. It kind of feels like when we were wedding planning; there was a lot of thinking about how we were going to do things and researching, but nothing tangible could be done up until like 2 weeks before.

Before visiting Boston, we had a few preconceptions about what neighborhoods we'd like to live in. In Tucson, the intersection of River and Campbell is so different than say, Prince and 1st, yet they're only separated diagonally by 2 blocks. Before our visit, we would have preferred to live in either Back Bay or Beacon Hill, but after our visit, I would really be happy living anywhere in Boston proper. Even as we see what kind of apartments we can get for our budget, living outside of Boston in Cambridge, Charlestown, or Brookline seem more reasonable. I mean, really anywhere that is a 20 minute or less commute to Tufts will be ok with us now.

In my ultimate dream, I see us living in a renovated brownstone apartment, a one bedroom, not a studio, with a small yard for the dogs. I mean, it could happen...for maybe $4000/month. :( I think though that our minimum requirements are:
- at least 500 sqft (regardless if it's a studio or 1 bedroom)
- sunlight (please, no basement living)
- dogs allowed
- full kitchen

Nice bonuses would include:
- hardwood floors
- laundry in building
- at least 1 bedroom

Maybe if we got REALLY lucky and hit the 1-in-a-million-apartment-jackpot things would be:
- 2 bedrooms (for everyone to come and visit us!)
- big closet
- in-unit laundry
- small yard for pups
- parking spot (like this would EVER happen in a million years though)


Here are some apartments on craigslist that I wish we could sign leases on now. Crossing my fingers that they're available next year!

This one has a yard! Can you believe it?! (below)

 

Beautiful little city kitchen.

Double our budget for this one! and the next one too

Loft living would also be really cool

And this is what we'd get for our budget but 10 miles outside of downtown