Apartment hunting

I've forgotten to bring the cord to transfer pictures from my camera, so you'll have to wait another day to see where I'm living. But it's sort of like a hotel room with a stove. The stove is less useful than you might think because I have no pots in which to cook anything. Some of you may know that I smuggled a jar of peanut butter to Jena, so every morning I toast an English muffin directly on the burners and eat it with my precious peanut butter. This is as close to cooking as I've gotten. I also occasionally make sandwiches. I should probably just buy a pot, but I'm hopeful that I'll get to move out by the end of the month, and I don't want to accumulate anything that I'll just have to transport to a new place.

Which brings me, gentle readers, to the subject of my post. Finding an apartment. It turns out that it's quite difficult. The only apartment complexes are far away (in European terms - something like 3 miles) in places that the lab assures me I don't want to live. So in order to find a place in the city one must check the six websites and two bulletin boards (not virtual ones, real ones with tacks and all) with apartment listings, call and set up appointments, visit the apartment, and decide immediately whether or not you'll take it. There is a 65% chance this process can be conducted in English. Otherwise one (by which I mean me) must ask a German speaking lab member to call and translate.

So far I've set up two appointments. The first woman found someone to rent her apartment before I got there. The second turned out to be some sort of government subsidized place and I made too much money to live there. My next appointment is Tuesday at 5:15, and I think it might be too far away. I also have an appointment sometime next Monday, but I can't remember which apartment it's for. Hopefully I can figure it out by then.