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Funny story.

I went to inspect an apartment today. The only contact I had was "Juliana" a helpful lady I've been emailing this week. She's an agent of sorts.

So I arrive at the apartment a little early, and ask the guard for "Juliana". He calls upstairs, then tells me "Não Juliana" I walk outside and loiter for 10 minutes, and some young women upstairs are hanging out the window pointing and saying "Juliana"? Beckoning.

I go in and the guard sends me up.

The apartment is cramped, full of smoke, and there's a telephone cable across the hallway. I attempt to communicate that I came to see Juliana, they sit me down and ask questions in Portugese. They're all lovely, but not one of them is Juliana. One puts down here cell phone and tells me Juliana isn't back till 10 pm, so if I want to see her, I'll have to come back then.

Smelt fish yet?

I ask "Juliana falar Inglês?"

"Não, falar German!"

That's when I knew for certain I was in the wrong place!

I just continued to smile affably, and politely excused myself from this room full of hookers, and went back downstairs. I don't know what the guard must have been thinking then! The real After I had tried to call Juliana from the street phone, which had its walls lined with hooker ads, and my cell phone, all the while with the girls upstairs still beckoning me from above, the real Juliana turned up. Juliana is a young, sweet, English speaking pregnant woman who took me up, explained who I was to the guard, and we all had a good laugh.

The apartment is lovely and I've already put down my deposit.

Labels: apartment Rio De Janeiro