Renting a room

Although I'm very happy with the hostel where I'm staying now, I wouldn't mind moving in into a house or an apartment shared with other people. Knowing that you'll be staying in such a place for a few months makes it easier to make the place your own. So I was very happy when a friend of a friend told me that she was moving in into a house that her parents had just bought and that she was looking for housemates.

"It's a bit out of the centre, but easily reachable by bus, so don't worry", she told me. Off we went, by bus, and half an hour later we reached a very nice house, it had a garden and all. Very spacious, nice wooden floors - I was sold (or so I thought)! Her parents happened to be in town as well, so I said to my friend that I wouldn't mind coming over to her place and have a chat with them, to reassure them that I'm not a "descuartizador" - someone who slices people and throws the pieces away in different places [those who had the pleasure of listen to my story about 'belgian' fries, the New Orleans pre-1900 mob slang verb 'to french' should come spontaneously to your mind.. ;-)].

There I was, sitting on the couch and waiting for her mum - the big chief - to arrive. "So, what brings you to Peru?", she asked. We chit-chatted for a while about who we were, what I was doing here, about my friend's family, very Sunday afternoon-like. And then, out of the blue: "So, you're interested in a room, right? Well, the room goes at 400 S/. per month, and of course you'll have to pay the gas/elec-bills on top of that." Sure thing, that's what we had agreed on before. "Oh, and do you smoke? 'coz I don't stand people who smoke." Lucky me I do not... "Good, good, otherwise I wouldn't have rented you the room."

Fieuw, we could continue our Sunday afternoon conversation - what have I done so far here, what places are nice to visit etc. Half an hour later, again, completely out of the blue: "By the way, you'll gonna have to pay two months' rent as a deposit and I'd like one month's rent in advance." Sounds fair to me, no objections there. "Oh, and are you religious, do you believe in God?" Renting a room is always an interesting experience...

Barranco beach with a view on Miraflores (c) Tom Van den Steen