Tuesday, May 6

Most of the day was devoted to (unsuccessfully) finding a place to live. Looked up the Washington Post ads and scoured craigslist as well.

Conditions for housing:
cheaper than WISH housing; approx. max $900/month.
with interesting people -- preferable interns, college students. I don't know if I want to live with young professionals. I think I'd have more in common with people who are still in school.

One craigslist listing for 1BR of a cheap 2BR apt said the house is right across from Truesdale Elementary. I googled the school.

The first hit was, "The DC Education Blog: Man shot, killed at Truesdale Elementary School".

Then I googled the elementary school, found the DC school district website and read the stats on the school. It confirmed my suspicion raised by the headline so I decided that to give up on that place in Petworth.

I am still interested in the $600 room, despite it being in probably a sketchy neighborhood. I'm attracted to it because I think some Turkish girls live there. But the neighborhood is Shaw, which I don't think it very affluent and the dirt cheap rent also makes me suspect the safety of the location.

I was disappointed that the Takoma house is in suppoesdly an unsafe area because it seemed to have a good vibe -- two female interns from California and Virginia -- and one attorney and three more places open, possibly going to other interns as well. But if the area isn't safe and it's not very close to the red line Metro station then it might not be a good idea to walk that distance to the Metroo station, compounding the problem with this house. I also need a way to decline Ms. Thompson, the over-eager landlord of the Takoma house. But she's wrong about the house's area code. It is 240 and not 248. Does that give a clue about how much she seems to know about her own property.

I still think that Pennsylvania House is an excellent option because I feel certain that the GWU Foggy Bottom area is a safe and fun one perfect for college students. I'm not bothered at all that it's a shared bedroom for the lack of privacy but that it's a shared bedroom for so much money. Frankly I'm skeptical how much LLN knows about DC neighborhoods. I just hope that the person she asks who is a postdoc or something does know GWU well.

The hunt continues tomorrow.