Benvenuti a casa mia!

After a series of living in dorms: a mini apartment in Nancy, a single room with shared bathroom and mini kitchen in Bolzano and a single room with private bathroom in Trento, I finally move to… my own flat! It’s called monolocale in Italian which basically means studio: the bedroom-living room-kitchen all in one space, and only the bathroom that is in a separate room.

I moved out from the comfortable Studentato San Bartolameo because there is a rule that a PhD student can stay in dorms (in Trento they are operated by Opera Universitaria) for the first year only. After that they kick us out like, “C’mon, you’re a grown up and already familiar with Trento.. go find your own place!” 😀

I started looking at the advertisements and collecting the phone numbers since 2 months before my contract ended, but it was difficult because… I don’t speak Italian that well *my Italian only works in the canteen and restaurants, i know… it’s been 2 years, shame on me* :(. So I decided to find it through an agency, which is the easiest way since the agent can speak English ^^, but requires extra money — I paid one month rent plus some taxes to the agency as the commission. Anyway… I found my cute small apartment!

It’s in Povo, quite far from the city center of Trento (around 3 km away, uphill), but only 10 minutes walk to my office ^^. I fell in love instantly when I saw this place, and it’s quite cheap compared with other monolocale in the city center. It’s in an old building *well almost all houses in Povo look like they were built centuries ago*, but the owner tried to make the interior looks new. And what I really like is that it is completely furnished, with complete kitchen utensils, matching set of bed cover, table cloth and curtains, tools.. everything!

Enough of the text, check out the pictures!

The sofa is actually a sofa bed, leaving a big space for having guests when it is folded, but becoming a huge bed *huge for me.. I’ve been used to single bed ^^;* when it’s not. The view from the window is quite nice, old houses with hills in background. Nope, it’s not my garden so I can’t try the trampoline there, even though I would like to :(.

My working space is quite comfortable, with a new blue office chair ^^. I assembled the chair myself since I ordered it from Amazon and it came in pieces. Quite a successful work considering I don’t have a screwdriver and did it only with my scissors *though, ehem, the armrests are switched between left and right ^^; me and my carelessness, always*. Oh, and I have 2 cats that always accompany me while working there :).

Even though I have my own dining table, I rarely use it because I prefer to eat in front of my laptop, while watching something :D. And up until know the kitchen is only used to cook pasta, or instant noodle. Well, I’ve been busy with deadlines *self defense*.

One thing that I don’t like is, the bathroom is so… small. But it’s okay, I can still take a shower and do my business comfortably ^^. The other small thing is the wardrobe! Even though all my clothes and bags can still fit in there, there is no spare space for my shoes :(.

That’s why… I ordered this shoe cabinet from Ikea ^^. The placement is not so perfect, I mean… shoes, beside the bed, I need to buy some deodorizers :p. Ikea sent this thing in a very huge package, that cardboard is as big as me *I can use it as a second bed, or a second wardrobe :p*. I had to ‘mutilate’ it first before throwing it out.

Yep, now that I live in my own flat I have to take care of my waste very carefully. If I was still living in the dorm I could just irresponsibly put that big cardboard near the waste containers and no one will complain about it. Now I even have to carefully separate my waste.

I was given the guide book of waste separation, list of wastes and their categories, the disposal schedule and appropriate bags for each type of waste. That pile of bags is for a year: brown for organics, blue for light packages, and green for others or residuo *the white ones are bio-degradable plastic bags also for organics in case the brown ones are finished*. My neighbor advised me to use the green ones very thoughtfully, because they are veeery expensive. Maybe to avoid people being lazy and just throw everything out as ‘others’ category ^^.

The other disadvantage of living in your own apartment is that there is no reception office that will receive the packages and mails for you. I had to stay at home the whole day waiting for my packages to arrive. Well, for mails it’s not a problem because… I have my own mailbox, with my name on it! 🙂

I also have a bell, with my name on it. So, if you happened to be in Povo… come visit and just ring the bell!

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