¡Hola a todos!: Apartment Tour!

Here are the pictures I promised of Rosario's beautiful apartment. I've set it up like a tour, so get ready to take a walk through my new home!

Eventually I will post pictures of the building's lobby and the inside of the tiny wooden elevator that we take up to the second floor, but for now I'm starting this tour with the tiny little "hallway" where the elevator deposits us. I use quotes because it's more of tiny little square closet than a hallway. The wall directly opposite the elevator has a mirror on it and is shown above. There are two doors, one on each of the other walls. Mine is the one to the left. You can see it in the mirror. The other doorway you see in the mirror is the elevator door.

I am completely fascinated by the old fashioned locks and keys that you see everywhere in this city. Those are my actual, working keys shown above! Aren't they so cool?!

Okay, so now we're opening the front door. The hallway directly in front takes you to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The first room off this hall is mine, and I want to end the tour there, so we're going to check out the kitchen first (which is to your right when you walk in) and then loop around.

Kitchen straight ahead through that door.

I don't know what it is exactly, but the kitchen makes me think of a commercial one rather than the kind you would find in someone's house. Maybe it's the lighting and lack of color? Not that I'm complaining. I just think it's interesting.

That little blue and white electric water heater there on the counter has been my best friend this week. I have a sore throat that just won't let go and have been drinking tea and just plain old hot water constantly. It's given me a lot of relief. I'm not sure you can see that well, but there on the front left burner of the stove is Rosario's "toaster." The "toaster" is even less of a toaster than the outside "hallway" was a hallway. It's essentially just a second, square burner that you put on top of the existing one. Unfortunately, I really can't bring myself to use it. I did finally get the hang of the gas stove at Mom's house, but I can't even use that one when it's being stubborn and you need to light it yourself with one of those long, grill lighter things. Rosario's stove always requires you to manually light the burner after turning on the gas. And her lighter is just a tiny little cigarette lighter. I think I've successfully lit a cigarette lighter only once in my life. And then I'm pretty sure I dropped it. I'm not sure how to explain to her that I can't use it. I mean, I do know how. I could say, "¡Tengo miedo del fuego!" I'm afraid of fire! (And burning your house down!) But I know I'm going to seem so weird for it.

As we leave the kitchen, you can see the living room beyond, just past the little foyer/entryway area.

And this is the living room and dining area. Absolutely gorgeous, right?

We eat dinner at the dining room table together every night except for Saturdays, when she doesn't have to cook for me and usually goes out.

Her collection of blown glass is beautiful. I think (if I understood her Spanish correctly) they're all from Florence, Italy.

Now we're heading into the family room/office area...

I'm so in love with the pretty wood floors.

Through the Rosario's office space, you can access the other end of the L-shaped hallway visible from the front door.

The first doorway off the hall from this direction is Rosario's bathroom.

The next and last door on this leg of the "L" is my bathroom. The shower's a little special - no matter what you do, you end up soaking the whole bathroom floor over the course of a shower. It's because the the curtain is just a little short and there's also a draft or something that blows it in toward you when the water's on. Air currents can be mean.

That's the front door there, straight down the hall.

Rosario's room is the first door when you leave my bathroom heading for the front door.

My room is the second one. :)

One of the house rules is that I keep my room generally neat and make my bed every morning except those when the maid, Ester, comes. Her whole house is as neat as a pin and I continually worry that she'll think my room is messy by comparison. >.<