May 24, 2005
ann arbor real estate
don't worry, readers! foxes, who has left you all thirsty for another entry (i think he is currently holed up with beyonce, jay-z and rum drinks on the beach in st. barth) has graciously allowed me to step in again and guest blog about my trip to ann arbor and the apartment search. so, here goes my second attempt at blogging.
i recently spent 2 days in ann arbor looking for an apartment and i was determined to leave with something snazzy by the end of my trip. oh, the visions i had in my head of a living space for next year! no more cramped manhattan studio apartments for me! no way! room for parties! a dining room! space for my friends to stay when visiting from the east (possibly in a small but quaint guest room, but probably on one of my (many) couches!) a backyard! i am 25, dammit, and i'm ready to have a place of my own. to feel like a grown-up.
woopsie! i was so wrong. so, so wrong.
number one - don't let anyone tell you that the cost of living in ann arbor is "cheap." most apartments shown to me were well over 800 dollars a month. coming from manhattan, i'm used to ridiculously inflated monthly rents. but this is michigan, for god's sake. anything that was remotely nice (and close to campus) was over 900 dollars a month. what?! i drive a cadillac with a perm 'cause i'm a G, but no way am i going to pay that.
number two - ha. guest room. these apartments are not large. they are cut at weird angles. one apartment had a bed that flipped up into the wall (you know, like an ironing board). that was the only affordable place i saw, and the sink was falling out of the wall. you can flip the bed up into the wall (so you can entertain, i guess) but the sink? not so much. it'll be on the floor all the time, sucka.
those undergrads at michigan have taken no prisoners, and ravaged the apartments like woah.
the people who showed me these apartments were a far cry from the slick real estate agents of manhattan. when i asked them about a broker's fee, they laughed at me. one guy did, however, sport a range rover (all wood!). however, he drove around ann arbor at 124 mph and i had to sit in the backseat, holding on for my life, while he tried to show me 4 apartments in 10 minutes. why was i in the backseat, you ask? he had a babyseat in the front and didn't want to move it. to top it off, 3 packs of marlboro reds occupied the now-empty seat. good luck, child. your dad is crazy. and probably trying to kill you.
however, i stuck it out. i don't want to live in a dorm again. i love to cook, which hopefully will be something to get my mind off the books next year. defeated, i walked to the last apartment i was scheduled to see.
it was love at first sight.
a sweet lady named barb met me at the door and showed me the place. it's 5 minutes from the law school. it's not that large, and i can only fit one (small) couch in the living room, but it was clean. the kitchen is new, the bathroom is not infested and actually nice. and, i can have it as furnished as i want, for no extra charge. i can also park my cadillac (heh) in the lot behind the house. for those of you who know ann arbor - it's sort of near ricks. which could be bad, but hey! i've got an open mind. and i drink like an undergrad sometimes, so whatever.
i've signed the lease, and i'm psyched to make the big move in a few months. monthly rent in NYC is starting to hurt, so i guess this is relatively better. and while i was in ann arbor, i had lots of time to explore and i realized that it really is a great town.
watch out, wolverines. gotham is coming to town. holla.
Posted by foxes in guest reporter: gotham at 05:26 PM | riffraff (154) | trackback (2517)
April 04, 2005
Tryin' to blind me with your blingin' bling, thought I told you love don't cost a thing
what's up faithful readers, this is gotham here. foxes has (stupidly) allowed me to write in with my impressions after visiting duke law this weekend, and so i apologize in advance. my first time blogging, you see. bear with me, yo. this might be long. deal with it.
so, adverseeffect and i traveled down south to the land of sweet tea and confederates for a visit to durham. i arrived at the prestigious la quinta resort on thursday night after a very bumpy ride on independence air. there is a reason you've never heard of them - don't fly with them. ever. it may seem cheap, but walk away.
the festivities started bright and early on friday morning (the coffee and treats in the duke cafe are top-notch, btw). we sat in on a con law class taught by duke law's equivalent of randy johnson, professor erwin chermerinsky. the class was kind of empty - and that was confirmed later by a student. at least we know that thursday nights are a good time at duke.
after this, we checked in and got some serious bling - DUKE LAW t-shirts and a water bottle similarly engraved. pretty nice. dennis shields knows how to impress.
the rest of the day was informative. a pro bono/public interest panel filled with current students was fantastic. an alumni panel that had the obligatory public interest graduate (showing that some students do, in fact, have a soul) was also good, and it included a duke law grad giving us advice via satellite from paris (i am not joking).
i also liked the faculty panel a lot -- they were great, and it is apparently very easy to be a prof's research assistant, something i'm looking forward to.
the career services panel, however, sucked. big time. not only did dean elvin show up wearing suspenders (what up patrick bateman) but he then spewed off lots and lots of numbers about employment. bottom line: if you want to work in NYC, you can go to duke and get a super job. which is, incidentally, what i'd like to do but still - the guy was a little intense and didn't know answers to some questions. and he did a powerpoint presentation. interpret that as you wish.
dean bartlett's speech was kind of boring, to tell you the truth. evan caminker (from michigan) was much better, and he surfs. word.
after some confusion, there was a really nice reception outdoors with the faculty. duke law loses one point, however, for having an alcohol-free event. much easier to pretend that you understand what the profs are saying after a glass of red wine (or 3). they quickly gained one point because in place of booze, they woo-ed me with sweet tea. born and bred in the north, this is my vision of heaven.
that night, different student groups hosted dinners on and off campus. being the WASP that i am, i hit up the asian law students' dinner with adverseeffect and some other (non-asian) friends - it sounded the nicest, and the food was excellent. it did, however, take us 30 minutes to find the restaurant, which was located on the main highway in durham, filled with strip malls and shopping plazas. minus 10 points for duke. in fact, this was one of the dealbreakers for me. did not like durham.
after this, we went to the varsity ale house for a social event, hosted by the duke bar association. met some very cool current students, had a few drinks, and was ogled and stared at by the very colorful durham locals. maybe it was our nametags? don't know. all i know is, i'm not a fan of bars located in the middle of a shopping center parking lot.
i woke up on saturday and, despite certain things, was liking duke. the student forum killed that for me. personally, i felt like the students spent the entire time telling us how to avoid going crazy during the stressful 1L year. this, my friends, is not helpful information and i'll worry about that once i've picked a school. tell me why i should go to duke. they just didnt' sell me on the school. during the michigan weekend, the students were great - they talked about their specific interests and how they pursued those at mich - they all seemed like interesting people. i got the impression that duke students go through the motions for three years before getting a job and making bank. dennis shields gave the farewell speech, but it wasn't much of a speech.
we were sent away with these warm words from dean shields: "you have to put down a deposit by april 30th. even though you might still be waiting on harvard and yale, you might have to commit to duke while you wait." unlike michigan, where every administrator professed their undying love for the school, he seemed kind of bummed out.
verdict: i liked michigan better. the weather in durham was, as foxes told me, "blissful." however, i didn't see myself there, and i've been having dreams about walking around michigan's gorgeous law quad. i think i've made a decision. let's hope foxes makes the same one, eh?
Posted by foxes in guest reporter: gotham at 04:56 PM | riffraff (174) | trackback (1174)