Finally met our Landlady this afternoon. (She'd hitherto been on holidays in Brazil with her "life partner", as she calls him, no doubt funded by all the USDs her lowly tenants hand over so regularly!)
She was a lovely, warm, welcoming, very Argentinian woman. An artist and an architect. (Her art adorns the walls of the home she has remodeled and lives in with her daughter.)
We handed over a large envelope of money to hold our apt until December, and pleaded with her to reserve the apartment for us from Jan - May as well; she wanted another deposit, but we simply don't have any more cash to give her right now (will "restock" when we're back home in December -- anyone need a supply teacher???!!!!) so after some negotiations, she seemed to be okay with it all.
She also gave us an inside scoop on some money exchanger she knows, shared the telephone number of an Italian restaurant "where friends get a discount", invited us to a party next weekend, and sent the cleaning lady up to our apartment to show us how to use the washing machine ("Sometimes it doesn't work", she explained, through our Landlady's daughter, who speaks some English and had come along to translate, "and the alarm goes off -- then you have to press this button and hold it down, and then sometimes it is working again". Very inspiring.)
She was a lovely, warm, welcoming, very Argentinian woman. An artist and an architect. (Her art adorns the walls of the home she has remodeled and lives in with her daughter.)
We handed over a large envelope of money to hold our apt until December, and pleaded with her to reserve the apartment for us from Jan - May as well; she wanted another deposit, but we simply don't have any more cash to give her right now (will "restock" when we're back home in December -- anyone need a supply teacher???!!!!) so after some negotiations, she seemed to be okay with it all.
She also gave us an inside scoop on some money exchanger she knows, shared the telephone number of an Italian restaurant "where friends get a discount", invited us to a party next weekend, and sent the cleaning lady up to our apartment to show us how to use the washing machine ("Sometimes it doesn't work", she explained, through our Landlady's daughter, who speaks some English and had come along to translate, "and the alarm goes off -- then you have to press this button and hold it down, and then sometimes it is working again". Very inspiring.)
The highlight of the afternoon, however, was that we finally learned how to turn on the gas oven -- up to this point, we'd been cooking exclusively on the stove, and that in itself is frightening enough!
Now, if I can find a baking tray, I might be able to make some cookies... assuming there is some sort of temperature control on this finicky old thing!!!