16-IX-1999.
Sent an email to Berix, from work, at 16:50: „I'm almost a week here and still didn't get the time to yell to everyone I should have. I'm here with my wife and girls, just moved into an empty house... doing great, actually. gotta go buy some beds etc. call ya later“.
A-burg is one of the weird Virginian independent cities, with the county surrounding it, and the county HQ is in the city. This is important for the schools, because the county's are allegedly much better, as the city seems to have less money. All the middle class and above have moved out to the surrounding forests. Sort of explains our question in the first days, "where is the city".
The place that Greg found for us was just 100m beyond city limits, in a forest, almost on top of a hill, in a dead end. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, covered porch, and a big living room with the kitchen in the same space, plus a washer and a dryer in a washroom. The house is on a slope, and we're getting the upper part. The lower part is actually smaller, because the part without the windows is occupied by the heating system. A vietnamese guy lives there, also a programmer in a local dot com.
Cost only 850$ a month. Perhaps a bit steep, as I'd be making 4410$ a month (and that's gross income, after tax it would be about 3500$), but we couldn't stay in the hotel forever, and the renting agency was owned by Greg's friend, so I guess that's OK.
The hurricane Floyd just arrived, and it turned out to be a blank. As we'll learn later, most of the hurricanes taper down to nothing when they reach Virginia, and Floyd was no exception, came as just drizzle.
Went to 29 (the road north, which is the shopping street, about 2-3 miles long) and bought mattresses and bedframes. We were still running on the 2000$ from that hungarian account. There was probably some 900$ from the first paycheck, but not just yet - friday was the payday. And even when that comes, I won't be able to use it, as the bank gives me only starter checks, without my name and address on them, and the debit card takes some ten days to come.
Also bought a bunch of kitchen utensils - all the flatware and stoneware, which is a bit of a problem for a family of five, as everything here is packed in sets of four, not six as is the european custom. So all the forks, spoons, plates had to be bought as double sets. Plus the ladles, pans, pots, and I guess no power appliances. I think we even remembered to buy a can opener, a table and some chairs.
The image is from the applications' part of Hossy, probably the oldest screenshot I have (well, made on the spot - I have some I made while working from home this spring).
And I finally managed to report into oldwave.
Mentions: Annenburg (A-burg), Cecilia Roxbury (Berix), Greg Reubenthal, Hossy, oldwave, in serbian
6-II-2014 - 29-VI-2024