Recap

Here is a brief recapitulation of our lives since we left Eugene.
-Spent 3 weeks at camp: wonderful time kayaking, reading and just hanging out.
Arrived in St Louis 2 weeks ago. We arrived at about 1130 in the morning, left our stuff at my grandma Flatley's in Kirkwood, and left to visit apartments at the Hampton Gardens. These apartments are in "The Hill", which is a heavily Italian neighborhood in west St. Louis. They were close to a heavily trafficked road which didn't really appeal. The price was about right, however. The primary downsides were: small kitchen (comically small stoves), smallish floorplan, and inability to place a piano on the premises. There was a basement which we could store things in, however.
After Hampton Gardens, we saw some rather seedy places in teh Central West End, which is close to Washington University, which is a few miles due north of the Hill. From there we went a little further into the Central West End, visiting Forest Station Ap'ts. These were ok, in old buildings that could have been nice. The problem was that, rather than preserving the oldness and capitalizing on it, the managers were trying to modernize the place on the cheap. The end result was an odd mixture of inexpensive low quality modern fixtures and carpet in old high ceiling rooms. The mélange of the two was poorly executed. We spent the next two days looking at more of same, growing increasingly frustrated. Everywhere was either nice but too expensive, or affordable but crummy.
Finally we decided to drive around Tower Grove Park, which is just southwest of the medical school and look for 'For Rent' signs. Along Arsenal, the southern border of the Park, we found a lot of rentals available. We finally got in one to look around and fell in love with it. Our current abode has pale green walls with white trim, wood floors, and old ceramic fireplace, built in bookshelves, a big kitchen with pantry, a bathroom where the tub has little legs, and a huge bedroom. The price tag was well within our range and best of all, the place was available!
To abreviate the narrative, we obtained parking permits from the police, had the truck delivered, and unloaded it with the assistance of the young men in our ward. 3 days later, we were pretty much unpacked and situated, with only the pictures and some other odds and ends left unplaced. The only casualties of the move were our kitchen table which was wounded in action (a minor gouge on the surface), and the box with our posters which disappeared entirely. I guess some thief somewhere is enjoying a collection of obscure prints from the Louvre. I hope he likes pictures of Egyptian artifacts and Spanish naval vessels.
All of these events bring us to the beginning of Orientation which will be sumarized in the next post.