Nothing short of wonderful

I’m just amazed by the responses to my postings about housing difficulties in Boston. I have received many messages from kind Bostonians, particularly from indignant Watertownians, with insightful advice about the intricacies of apartment hunting Boston style.

Keep those advices coming, I really appreciate it, god knows I need them!

 I’ll keep you guys posted on where I eventually end up, we could hang out at a cafe at a neighborhood near you.  

 

 

Saturday night relief

Saturday night turned out well thanks to 10 mins of Jake Gyllenhall.

Nothing like Mr. Brokeback displaying his amazing arms and belting a Dreamgirls tune. It’s hilarious and somewhat sexy at the same time, if you can get past the dress that is.

Americana, east coast style

Rap. Hip hop. Bling bling. gas guzzling SUVs. Wall Street. Power lunches at 500USD degustation restaurants. Texas. Oil hungry. Gay marriages. George Bush. White picket fences. Rednecks. Homeless beggars. Meritocracy. The American Dream. Ivy Leagues.

There are many images of America to us Asians and many of these images are conflicting juxtapositions of old ways and new ways, generation Y and boomers, old money and new money, riches and popverty. So when my friends back home ask me what’s America, I often find myself tongue tied.

I spent the whole day browsing books at the Harvard Co-op and was reading Tamara Draut’s “Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead” and I was just kinda bewildered by her analysis of why young Americans are not “getting ahead” (itself being such an American concern)

Ms Draut asserts that it’s becoming increasingly hard for young americans due to higher cost of living, higher debts and less job security. She explains that the combination of high debt and low job security/wage increase crushes young americans’ upward mobility, creating a crisis where they have to work harder to have an education, buy a house and have children. I was reading the book in the comfortable settings of the Harvard Co-op, surrounded by (old money) rich students running around in their designer wears, perennially holding a cup of Starbucks coffee, shopping at chic chic “neighborhood” stores before running back to their 2000USD/month studios and I was just really amused.

To me, this whole debate about how America’s youth is being threatened by globalisation is rather indulgent (or “liberal whinefest” as some Amazon.com reviewers call it). True, global competition is tough and American companies are finding it harder in the global market but isn’t that the market system so beloved by America? And if you’re not “getting ahead” fat enough, isn’t it a case of simply working harder and not spending so much money?

I feel for the working class American in middle america losing his/her job to Chinese workers but I’m short of sympathy for upwardly mobile young Americans who incur ernomous student debts but still feel entitled to have a glamorous city loft, eat out at fancy restaurants and buy a gas guzzler Hummer.

It’s telling that the adjective “happy” seldom comes up when people are asked to described America. I have been reading the Dalai Lama’s book on happiness and a new book “Happiness: Lessons from a New Science” by Richard Layard. It’s very interesting to see the similarities between Dalai Lama’s buddhist teachings and Layard’s scientific analysis. Both advocate the importance of family, community, values, meaningful employment and others.

Walking around world famous universities nowadays and being surrounded by all these talk of getting ahead, it’s obvious why happiness is the last thing on many young Americans’ mind.

Neither in nor out

I’m really starting to like Boston.

Spent the whole day walking around different areas, eating, people watching, ogling quaint European architecture… it’s envigorating being surrounded by so much history, knowledge and beauty.

It was unusually hot tonight, didn’t feel like winter at all. Boo for the environment and polar bears drowning in the Artic but yeah for me eating my delicious Chilean sandwich at downtown crossing. Check it out!

This sandwich store was just a hole in the wall kinda place but the sandwich sure was good. The grilled beef with a mountain of tomatoes, beans, avocado and peppers made for a hearty meal. Gosh, I’m hungry again just writing about it.

For me as an outsider looking in, Boston is really a playground of new sensations. I love it when a city is so new to me, every vista is a vision to me, every new dish a revelation, every urban sound music.

I love it when I’m not jaded.

You are where you live

Having spent the past few days looking at different apartments in Boston, neighborhood envy is the name of the game these days.

Before coming to Boston, I was determined to be a glamorous urbanite and stay in posh areas of Beacon Hill, Back Bay or South End. These three neighborhoods retained many of the English architecture that makes Boston so un-American and gives the city its genteel feel. The streets are narrow and in Beacon Hill, antique gas lamps light the street at night. Okie okie the lamps use electricity now but still….

But nothing like reality to get you down. Rents in these areas are at least 2000 USD for a small small one bedroom and even then it’s hard to get a good small small one bedroom. Add in the utilities, cable, internet, parking fees, I’m looking at 2.5K for a space that is the size of my bathroom in Chicago.

Yikes.

So with a heavy heart, I’m checking out …ahem… more residential areas such as Watertown and Arlington. Rents are lower, spaces are bigger and the commute to my office is shorter. Sounds perfect I guess.

Afterall, I’m more than my possessions right?

Technorati Tags: Back bay, Beacon Hill, Boston real estate, Watertown

Room in your heart for a gay couple

Moving is such a pain. Moving to an expensive city is a nightmare.

I always thought the current rent I’m paying for my Chicago apartment was pretty high but spending the past 2-3 weeks sending numerous emails to strangers in Boston asking for accomodation has been frustrating to say the least.

My friends might envy me for finding an American job, read: huge American pay, in a cool city but they don’t envy me when I talk about the rents in Boston. I never imagined being so happy finding a room in a shared apartment for 800 USD, my definition of affordability has been redefined by Boston even before I get there.

Add a boyfriend who’s sharing the room with me, the search for the perfect apartment with wonderful housemates in the perfect location is impossibly arduous. I guess getting a room as a couple is hard but as a gay couple, odds are stacked even higher against you, even in a state like massachusetts.

The only things worse than apartment rejection are replies like “I’m a live and let live person and I don’t mind what you guys do in your bedroom.” Love the sinner but not the sin huh?

Boston, here I come. Are you ready?

Making the first move

I guess it’s fitting to start my first posting about moving, travelling, transiting. Migration, my life story.

I have just finished packing most of my primary posessions here in Chicago and it scares me to see how much I have accumulated in 1.5 years. I have always though I’m pretty disciplined about not buying stuff but I guess I was wrong.

It ain’t a pretty sight I tell you.

I’m too exhausted to tidy up more so I’ll just take the heaps of clothes as a bed, the pile of bags as pillows and my disarray of lecture notes as blanket.

To do list: return Xmas shopping goodies to the stores tomorrw. It’s a sign, I should stop buying stuff.

Stuff.

Hello world!