Just like there is always another bus, though, there is always another house.

And another source of internet to talk with the people who are providing you with that house.

The search for a place to live in Austin continued, but having averted the previous experiencia peligroso I felt a new sense of calm and trust.  I was going to find something better.  It was just one craigslist email away.

That's how I found a house with the most supportive and inclusive roommates :]

Even though I'm out of the country they wanted me FIRST and then included me in night after night of Facetime calls to screen the people to fill the position of the one other roommate.

One of these nights, there was a big storm and the internet went out right in the middle of one of the interviews.

Well, there's always another option, I thought to myself as I marched out of the house and into the rain with my umbrella and my subway sandwich stuffed into my purse.
I got about 100 meters down my dirt street when I saw that the gate was open at my old landlady's house.

"Upe!" I called into the house as the CR way of saying "Excuse me, I need something outside your door."

She came out and I explained that I had something important to do on the internet and she showed me into the closet in her garage where there was a chair, a hanging piece of carpet art of a horse, and even a fan.  There, I got back on the call and finished the interview with the girl that will now be my future roommate.

What crazy stories I have from applying to graduate school, interviewing, and then finding housing while abroad.  Story gold.

In the Closet

*Random side note - one of the guys we talked to (me through facetime being pointed at the computer and him on the computer from somewhere else - looking at me on the phone) was in the Peace Corps in Senegal with a girl that used to live here in Quepos.  Very small world.