There are things I love about Moscow and there are things I love about the US- one of which is the ease with which one can find an apartment. Yes, ease. In the US- finding an apartment is a matter of determining your price range and finding something with the right number of rooms, in the area you like and the standard you hope for (often this is pre-determined by your price range)
In Moscow, it is much, much harder. Apartments here are individually owned, which means each apartment is unique to the furnishings, to the condition and to the landlord. Moscow being the most expensive city in Europe doesn't help either. So as my roommate and I scan the most reliable real estate site for apartments, we put in the desired number of rooms, select about 7 metro stations near which we would like to live, and put in our upper limit for price. That is the easy part. Next we go through the listings to try and figure out what fits our overall needs..being 10 minutes or less from the metro...having a washing machine...not being on the first floor (unless it has bars on the windows)....not being wall to wall of the landlord's old ratty furniture that they refuse to part with...that there are no pianos taking up empty space...that the cabinets aren't serving as the landlords storage space.- once we establish those things within our price range, we then start calling. Surprisingly enough, we've already been shot down on two apartments for the mere fact that we are two single girls...just wait til they find out I'm an American! So after we see which apartments from the short list of what we liked are open to singles and foreigners- we get to a much shorter list. This usually has you asking big quesetions about what you want... is it worth walking 15 minutes to the metro, if the place has two bedrooms? Is it worth sacrificing a bedroom, getting a one bedroom- which would have the living room doubling as my bedroom, to be closer to the metro? Is it worth trying to stretch the budget to try and find something that is close and has two bedrooms? Is it worth getting a place that doesn't have an oven...oh, wait, no- that's not an option..that's an immediate disqualifying factor. The trade-offs can seem unending. A big factor here is not just my personal preferences, but ministry aspects. A small group meets at my place, leadership meetings happen at my place, I love having people over to help faciliate relationships outside of structured "ministry time"- those are all things that are a part of why I am here. Living more than 10 minutes doesn't just mean a longer walk for me to and from work- it means that people who travel about an hour each Friday night for small group, will then have to travel even further- it means girls can't stay as late as they would like. Having small rooms will lots of "landlord" furniture makes it real hard to comfortably fit 16-20 people for meetings and small group. It can be hard to balance all the factors...
So if you think about it..pray for me and my roommate this week as we have to move by Friday...that God will make it overwhelming evident which apartment is right for us- that can be used for His purposes.
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