I'm Not Homeless!

The Baltimore rental market is ridiculous. My wonderful hosts during my housing search, Ben and Anna, can vouch for this. I would say most nice rentals in a good area (whether through a realtor, Craigslists, etc) are on the market somewhere between 12 and 36 hours. It is seriously stressful. I did a lot of research in the week prior to going to Baltimore and set up appointments to see properties. However, my appointments for anything that was clean, spacious, and reasonably priced were cancelled before I even got there. Thankfully though, there were also new properties popping up almost every day.

In the end, I did find an amazing home rental that I truly think was meant just for me. It popped up on Craigslist just before I arrived in Baltimore and the owner was looking for the right renter as opposed to simply wanting to fill it. It is a 2 floor row house (with a basement) in a quieter area. It about 3/4 mile to the bustling night life area, but also has a little restaurant on the corner where the neighbors hang out. The woman I am renting from is a realtor herself who is very attentive to her property and the neighbors are almost all young professionals like myself. It is everything I was looking for (2 bedroom, storage space, good closet size, washer/dryer) and was the right price for me too. Plus, I lucked out and am getting a tons of awesome extras that I didn't need as well (granite counters, exposed brick, hardwood, a free cleaning lady). Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here you go...

The kitchen:

The living room area:

My bedroom:

The bathroom:

The extra (bed)room:

The most important thing is there is plenty of room for visitors, so start planning your trip!

Pre Apartment Hunting

I am possibly insane. Over the last 2 weeks, I have spent about 6 to 8 hours a day looking for places to live in Baltimore. Thankfully, I had some good guidance from a couple different people about what areas I should be looking into. Unfortunately, not a lot of rentals are being listed through realtors currently. That means mostly I've been looking on Craigslist and other similar sites and contacting each owner/landlord individually. It's been incredibly frustrating in a number of different ways that I won't burden you with. Suffice it to say, I am very excited that it is finally time to go look at what I've found. No matter what, at least I don't have to scour the internet for hours looking anymore. Later today I'll be heading down to Arlington VA to spend a night with Ben and Anna and then off to start the search in Baltimore the next morning.  I have appointments to see 11 apartments on tuesday and another 6 on wednesday. I think I have some really good prospects (and also some long shots). Hopefully later this week I'll be posting about my excitement over a new place (and maybe some pictures too)!

Johns Hopkins!

TO START - I'm so excited! This has been a pretty long process for me, so I've been containing all this excitement inside for some time until everything was official.

THE PROCESS - I first applied to this job before I went to Europe in April (literally, the night before). I didn't hear anything from them for probably about a month. Then, since I was so far away I spent about 2-3 weeks doing a number of phone interviews. This was a nice consideration for me basically to make sure it would be worth my while to travel to Baltimore for an interview. At the end of May, they decided I was one of their top candidates and I went down to Baltimore for the day to interview with a number of physicians and physician assistants in the department and also meet with human resources.  About 2 weeks later I got the call that I was their top choice for the position (as a reference point, this happened June 8th). However, with a large hospital this means they start my background and reference checks. I've had background checks before and I was pretty confident in all my references, so it wasn't really nerve wracking, just more of being in a state of limbo. Finally after another month of waiting, I got the final decision and official offer this morning.

THE JOB - This job is pretty freakin' awesome. Officially I will work for the Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital pediatric department. John Hopkins has about 4 different hospitals in the Baltimore area now and this one is a smaller hospital about 3 to 4 miles east of the main hospital, but is still right in Baltimore. As a PA for the pediatric department there, I will work in inpatient pediatrics as well as the pediatric emergency room. There are even times where I may work in the newborn nursery. It's pretty unique to find a position that offers such a variety of settings to work in. Plus, as an added bonus the hospital is currently working on building a brand new, state-of-the-art pediatric ward!

So as of September 1st (as long as everything goes as planned) I will be a Maryland state resident. The next step (and probably next update) will be finding a new home.

Prague

We arrived at Prague's main train station late wednesday night and pretty flawlessly managed to walk the 15 minute journey to our hotel. We checked in to our wonderfully large room and also learned that the lobby bar had a half-price drink special (every night 7-11p) that naturally we partook in. We also used that time to plan out our next 2 days there.

Thursday was the first day of the whole vacation that it was really raining, forecasted for all day, and they weren't lying when we looked out our bedroom window that morning. Still we continued with our day as planned, starting with a walking tour through Prague. Apparently, the rain scared everyone else away because the 3 of us ended up with a private guided tour.  Ultimately, our guide ended up taking us quite a few more places than planned because we were such a small group and moved much faster. We started at Wenceslas Square in front of the National Museum, the site of many protests against both Fascist and Communist. We then moved toward Old Town Square passing the opera house where Mozart performed multiple times and also learning about the different architecture styles and old building identifiers along the way. In the Old Town Square, we visited the Tyn Church (the merchants' church) and the Astronomical Clock, staying to watch the hourly show. After that we briefly went through the Jewish Quarter, passing the place where Franz Kafka was born, where we saw the Old-New Synogogue (the oldest functioning synagogue in Europe) and the Jewish cemetery where about 100,000 people are buried. We also stopped by the city and national libraries. We then started over the Charles Bridges, first stopping to see the statue of Charles IV (who planned and started the construction) and then saw the many statues lining the bridge crossing to Kampa Island. There we saw the Lennon Wall and finally ended our tour at St. Nicolas Church. After a delicious traditional lunch and a surprising turn to sunshine outside, we continued on our own up to explore Prague Castle arriving just in time to see the changing of the guard. Inside we explored the grounds, the most impressive part being the Cathedral of St. Vit. To end the afternoon we took the scenic Tram 22 ride back to our hotel.  Dinner that evening was a folklore music program. All of the food was delicious (and again very traditional) and we also discovered a wonderful toasting liquor Bleshrovka. The best part was definitely the constant music and dancing. They introduced us to many of their older musical instruments and one singer had a particular fancy for Steve, which entertained the rest of us all night.

The next day, we started out casually by wandering around the Easter Market in Old Town Square.  We picked up many fun souvenirs and also a very good lunch. That afternoon, we had a World War II tour. It was very interesting learning about the war from a different countries perspective, especially as the Russians were the ones who liberated the Czeck Republic from Hilter, right into Communism under Stalin. We saw more of the Jewish Quarter, important as Prague was the only city where everything Jewish was not destroyed by Hilter but preserved as a "record of an extinct race". The coolest part of this tour though was getting to go to the underground hideout of the rebels right under the Astronomical Clock and Town Hall. After the tour, we wandered up to the Metronome and then found a beer garden with a beautiful view of the city. Finally, dinner that night was at U Medvidku (The Little Bears) and was expressive again. It is the smallest brewery in Prague so to end the night we headed to the bar to try some of their beer, Oldgotts (delicious).

Saturday morning was a quick wake up and trip to the airport to (unfortunately) head back to the States.

Berlin

We took a night train from Paris to Berlin. To say that it was tight quarters would be an understatement. However, it was still a really fun way to travel and we enjoyed it. Donald met us at the train platform thankfully, because the Berlin station was huge. We briefly stopped at his and Rachel's apartment to drop off our stuff and pick up Rachel. Donald then gave us the most wonderful 4 hour walking tour of Berlin. I couldn't possibly remember everything we saw and learned, but the highlights included: both new and old government buildings, the palace plaza and last remaining part, the memorial to the victims of war, the memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and the bunker where Hilter was married and committed suicide. The Berlin Wall was by far the most interesting thing to learn about. It was much thinner than I had thought. We saw the most preserved section with both the East and West Walls intact and the security tower and fortifications in the middle. We also saw the longest standing section that is now the East Side Gallery and beautifully painted. In the middle of all that, we stopped for chicken doners for lunch because even though they're Turkish, they were actually created in Berlin. Then it was home for a quick nap and out to a delicious restuarant for half chickens and potato salad. And of course, we had beer. All day, since there are no open container laws in the city. I was in heaven with all the German Hefe Weissens. We continued our night by visiting 3 of their local (and very different) bars.

Wednesday morning, we slept in to recover from the prior night of fun. Slowly we got ready, but really enjoyed a relaxing day. We had another delicious meal of sandwiches and pasta salads for lunch. Finally, back to the train station to head to Prague...