Originally Posted by Lord Lionheart (Post 4646541)

Hmmmm well let's see, have you ever read Orwell's Down & out in Paris & London?
The collection of loonies in the apartment building consisted of me, a Mexican-American and a big blonde redneck from Idaho who shared one apartment. In the other units were two obese French Jewish ladies( mother and daughter), a black chauffeur, an alcoholic Indian named Ali who spent his time playing Pacman and drinking, a Vietnam veteran ( also drank a lot) who would fight with the Indian when he cooked curry due to the strong smell. A session musician who was dying of AIDS, and did so a year or so later. The apartment manager was a plumber called 'Rippy', I never knew his real name. Then there was Rose, an old lady from New York who would come out of her apartment and scream " SHUT HER DOWN!!" in a strong Brooklyn accent when we would make too much noise, usually watching Monday Night Football.
The apartment building was one of those 60's courtyard type buildings where everyone could see what everyone else was doing unless you had your blinds drawn and door shut, kind of difficult in LA summers as we had no A/C, so any noise reverberated around the whole building.
We also had cockroaches and ants, we bought some 'cockroach bombs' a couple of times. Basically they were smoke fumigators, you would open them and evacuate the apartment while the gas did it's job, then go in and clean up the bodies................... charming place really.

Yes, the streets were paved with gold for me in the good old US of A when I first came here :D

Originally Posted by NC Penguin (Post 4645607)

PPS: I think US maps suck. US cartographers are so crappy compared to British cartographers.

Originally Posted by snowbunny (Post 4650075)

I know the Dutch do maps of Texas so surely there are some European cartographers who've mapped the US?

Originally Posted by Tarkak9 (Post 4650120)

...Lewis & Clark? Oh wait, they weren't "European".. but their great, great, great grandparents were.. so does that make them European?

Originally Posted by Roland Hulme (Post 4644208)

So when you guys first arrived in America, could I ask where you stayed?

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 4644952)

We came over for 2 weeks prior to moving to do a reckie. We secured an apartment to rent...12 month leases are the norm is seems. When we actually moved we stayed in a hotel for a few nights...this enabled us to sort out a few essentials we needed as the apartment was unfurnished.

Originally Posted by Lord Lionheart (Post 4646541)

Hmmmm well let's see, have you ever read Orwell's Down & out in Paris & London?

Originally Posted by USBound (Post 4649881)

also - check out ratings websites for apartments... the one we were in had horrible ratings and I'd second almost all the comments regarding it.

Originally Posted by britvic (Post 4649804)

Only a Man could put himself through all that :ohmy:

Originally Posted by Lord Lionheart (Post 4657076)

Only a young and stupid man. Couldn't put up with a roommate now, the number of times I came home to find my food eaten and my beer drank :curse: :curse: