I GOT IT!!!

Hallelujah praise the pope himself. Chase has an apartment in Rome!!!!!!

And it’s so FUCKING awesome.

Oh man oh man oh man.

It’s a TWO bedroom- with a separate kitchen, and bathroom and hallway that connects it all. It’s got a balcony and a washer (no dryer, they don’t “do” that here)… nice stove oven (as appose to the many hot plate situations I saw) small fridge. But completely furnished…I’ve already thought about how I am going to rearrange…. It’s perfect. Oh yea- and its RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF TOWN, but on a quiet back street. Big windows- light and lots of perchable spots for the cats…. I mean- it’s the best apt ever… I move in on Monday!

So depending on what happens job wise… we’ll see what I do with that extra room. In my ideal scenario I can keep it for an office to write and put the spare bed for all you fuckers when you come to visit (yea!!!). But truthfully, one doesn’t get a big two bedroom in the center of town without paying for it…. So I may very well have to rent that room out. Blah! But concessions need to made to have it all you know?

It’s funny, when I visited last summer everyone was like- I pay $500 euros for my place…it’s big, Oh I got a job NO problem…

I mean it wasn’t as thought the people I met were living rich by any means…it’s just the story they are singing now that I live here is quite different. “Shit man, yea it’s hard to get a job. Apartments are really hard to find…good luck.”

The best I can figure is this:

Since the Euro was introduced, the cost of living in Italy has gone up considerably. But wages haven’t gone up, and neither has the conditions of anything. So for an apartment you are paying near NYC or San Fran prices, but the apts are in dire condition. Because Italians aren’t, shall we say the most ambitious people on the planet. Most of them live with their parents (till they are about 40 or so..)- so to make 200 euros a week suits them fine. $1200 a month is considered a very good living here. A GREAT job is 35,000 a year. Now 10 years ago 35,000 and you could live like a king here…but now, you can just barely manage with that.

SO it’s a pretty fucked up place to have moved in that respect.

But that’s not why I came. Sincerely- If I wanted to make good money amass lots of material things drive a fancy car and live like a fat cat…well, I would have just stayed home. Because that’s precisely what I was doing.

But there’s more to life isn’t there?

SO I’ll rent a room out, I’ll work my ass off. But I’ll be living in Rome and DOING SOMETHING NEW.

It’s great. I was talking to an older welsh man last night, and he thought I was OUT OF MY MIND. Giving up a good job and coming to “this hell hole...” Some people don’t get it. I wouldn’t expect them to. Others do. People who still remember hope, change, possibility, faith.

All of which I have again. For the first time in a long time.