The Quest for Apartment #118

May 28, 10:30pm. We are finally in San Jose, all we had to do was find where I was going to live for the next 12 weeks. I didn't know that it was going to be so hard...

This is the map that we were given

We drive up to where the leasing office to make sure we were at the right place, but we couldn't find a place to park. The map said that I had a parking space #261, but to get there I needed a garage door opener and that was inside the apartment. Great. My mom pulled over on the side of Zanker road and dropped my me and my sister off a little bit after the "Closest Gate Pad". Maybe I was just really tired, but instead of walking to the closest gate pad (along Zanker road) we walked along Paseo Walkway toward the other yellow star. Fail.

I forgot to mention that it was really cold, so Nic and I were getting really anxious to find this place. As we gave up and started walking back to the car I realized that the "Closest Gate Pad" was really close! I told my mom that I would be right back and motioned to my sister to come with me. We found the gate,  entered the code, and proceeded into the gated community of the Redwoods. A quick right, and a few steps down the hallway, and we finally found #118. I was so relieved! There was a little lockbox hanging on the door handle which contained the key to get into the apartment. I grabbed the key, and opened the door. I had no idea what to expect. 

11:00pm

It was very cute, and quiet! "Hello?", I asked wondering if anyone was still awake. Then I see 2 people coming out of the rooms. They introduced themselves as Lucy and Ishwarya - even though I already knew their names from creeping on them on the Engineering Practicum site haha ;) It was good to meet them in person! Ishwarya then proceeded to tell me that I had some paperwork/documents on the table in the living room and that the garage door openers were also there. Awesome! My mom, sister, and I had still not eaten dinner, so we were all starving! I told my roommates that I was going to go have dinner and then drop off my family at a hotel. I think they were a bit confused that I was going to leave since it was so late. I thanked them for showing me where the garage opener was and then Nic and I went to go find my mom so that we could go eat dinner.

11:15pm

I drove around San Jose while my sister used Google Maps to find a place to eat and my mom used Google Maps to find a hotel close to the airport (they were going to fly back home the next morning). We love Google Maps! The first thing we did was check into the hotel room. I help my mom and sister get all of their stuff down from the car. It was a small room, but it was nice enough. My mom was trying to figure out how they were gonna fit all of the stuff they bought in Las Vegas and Casa De Fruta in their suitcase and carry ons. I packed up everything for them (besides what they were going to need in the morning). I still had all of my luggage in the car, so my mom insisted that her and my sister would help me take it to my apartment. So back to the Redwoods we go...

11:45pm

We found parking space #261after a few minutes of driving around the parking garage. Yay, almost there(so tired and so hungry). I had two large suitcases, a backpack, and a big duffle bag. We split it all up - mom and Nic each rolled one of the suitcases and I carried the rest. From the parking spot I could see "Elevator 2", so logically thats the elevator we went on. We walked around for a while and it turns out that we were not in the right place. :( Because of that elevator we ended up on top right corner of the map. Annoyed, we went back down the elevator to the parking garage. We tried another elevator - Elevator 3. That elevator also took us to that area of the map. Back to the parking garage for try #3. Next was Elevator 4. Fail. Then Elevator 5. Another fail... Frustration began setting in.

12:45am

Elevator 7. Guess what. Wrong again... we were so ready to give up that I was just gonna stay with my family at the hotel, but then I spotted Elevator 6. "One last try,"I told them. SUCCESS. I still don't understand why the parking space is sooooo far away from the correct elevator. Oh well. I was so happy that we found it. We finally got to the apartment and dropped off my stuff. Everyone was sleeping, so I just left it all in the living room. As we were about to leave, my last roommate Brenda walked in the door! More introductions and we were off...

1:00am

Still starving. Since it was really late, we had to resort to a McDonald's. We went through the drive through and we were so hungry that we couldn't wait to go back to the hotel room to eat it, so we ate in the car in the hotel parking lot! haha Once we were done eating, I said bye to my mom and sister and was, once again, off to the Redwoods... 

1:30am

1524 miles and 4 days later I was finally at my new home for the summer: apartment #118. The adventure from Las Cruces, NM was over. Relief. Excitement. Bedtime.  

"Fortitude is a great help in distress." -Plautus