and time for more...this time...FURNITURE SHOPPING!

So... after being in my apartment for 3 nights with no furniture, on Thursday, June 25, Amy and I went off on our furniture shopping adventure. Paolo and I had been to several stores, but I just was not satisfied. So, Thursday after our ridiculous teacher´s day lunch at a really special restaurant called the Granja Azul, Amy and I ventured out to Ataconga...which is in a zone where gringas don´t travel, mind you.

Let me tell you about this place... it´s right by those gorgeous apartments I was telling you about in the last blog.... It´s like a frontage road next to a highway... with a bunch of little furniture stores. I thought it was gonna be a lot more special than it actually was....but it was okay. The furniture was all handmade and out of wood. So I ended up buying a bed frame, a mattress, a dining room table and 4 chairs, and a coat rack. The biggest beds here are 2 plazas... which is like a full size bed. If you want a bigger one, they have to make it special. I went with the full size bed.

The buying of the mattress was perhaps the funniest thing I have done in the country. Amy and I went and were trying out the mattresses... and we went to a special mattress only store...in which they took us to another mattress store...where there were these 2 men who would NOT stop talking. Amy and I burst into laughter and couldn´t stop laughing, and these two salesmen just kept talking. We eventually escaped. We continued laughing for a bit afterwards. And let me tell you ALL the mattresses felt the EXACT same. So I bought one from the lady I bought the bed frame from. Don´t worry...it was sealed up in plastic and everything. So I got all that stuff forrrrrr less than 1500 soles... including delivery and the putting together of the bed. That´s $500, ish. You can see pics on my FB page.

So then... it was time to find a sofa and stuff like that. Luckily enough, Paolo had a little fridge that he lent me... and his mom lent me a pot and a pan and a single burner thing. It´s great. In Sept, I think I will buy my washing machine. I feel like I´m in college...when I go home in 2 weeks, I´m gonna bring all my dirty laundry and wash it there! ;) Jaja...

So anyhow, Paolo and I made the trip out to Villa El Salvador. Yet another lovely place. And by lovely, I mean the opposite. It´s in a gross area, really. But the furniture they sell there is really nice. I guess that´s where all the major stores go to buy the stuff they sell. After spending nearly a whole day sitting on really uncomfortable hard sofas, I finally chose the one I wanted...and it was the first one I saw! Jaja...

So I got to choose my colors and material and stuff...it´s dark brown and turquoise and made out of microfiber! I love it! Well...that was on Sunday, and it was supposed to come on Wednesday, but it didn´t come til Thursday. Grrr.

TO BE CONTINUED!! Amy´s here ;)