On the trail of the next apartment.

So, Brent had found that place for us to move into.

And then the owners decided not to rent it. They want to sell instead.

We still had almost two months to find a place, but those months go quickly. I contacted the property manager of the first apartment we lived in when we got here, and he did indeed have an unfurnished apartment available for a somewhat reasonable price. Brent's friend was looking into an apartment for us elsewhere, so I told our original property manager that we could let him know by Monday. He said that was fine.

On Saturday, we knew the other place wasn't going to work out, so I emailed our guy and said we'd take it! We enjoyed the apartment the first time, loved the location, and were excited to move back there.

He told me he just signed a contract on it the day before.

I was shocked that he hadn't bothered to give us the first right of refusal, considering he told me we had until Monday, but he must have his reasons. At any rate, it left us scrambling.

And we're still scrambling. We're supposed to move out on August 15 and we have nowhere to go.

Apartment hunting is tricky. Not only do you need to find the right apartment in the right location for the right price, like you do anywhere, WE, as foreigners, also need to find one with a landlord that will let us rent without having a co-signer and without giving them a six-month deposit (which, we've heard, tends to disappear).

Backtrack: not really nowhere. We do have friends here with a large apartment who told us we can move in if we don't find anything. This will be nice -- we're good friends who really enjoy spending time with each other, and we've stayed together before for up to two weeks and it has worked out great. They also have a dog with whom Max can play, which will be nice for him and us, and they're in a great location. Plus, it helps them out with their rent and takes the pressure off of us to find something.

But. Then we have to move twice. And these times, we've got furniture.

En Fuego

I'm looking out the window at great plumes of black smoke rising from a building I can't see, but it's just four or five blocks away. This is the third structure fire -- visible from our apartment -- in the last two weeks. The first one was just two blocks away and brought sirens from all directions.

Not only that, the hills have been burning. It is dry season and the lack of rain does put the foliage at risk, but we also heard a story about one of the forest fires (that has been burning for days) was the brainchild of someone who wanted to do something with that land but wasn't allowed to do it because it was a protected area. Sad deal.

It's interesting to see so much fire, which I associate with transformation, at a time when we're undergoing a lot of it.

In what sounds like a grievous setback for Brent's office, he fired one of his employees, who then took the secretary with him (we suspect a bit of a love affair, otherwise it just doesn't make much sense) and they proceeded to call and reschedule every client to their new location. Theft, plain and simple: they stole those people's private information from the company.

Then they had the gall to ask for "liquidation" which is, by Colombian law, basically a bonus for getting fired or quitting. Seriously. When someone willingly leaves her job, like the secretary did, her employer is obligated to pay her an extra month's salary.

We'll see.

So it looked bad, and for a couple of days it felt really bad, too. But then things started shifting. Dramatically.

The phone rang: people looking for a first appointment. Other people came in off the street when they were walking by -- something which, Brent told me, just wasn't happening before. A retired chiropractor with lots of experience and success in marketing called us, saying he was new in Medellin and just wanted a place to work and play. The other secretary and the new one Brent just hired are great people and they're getting along wonderfully. The negative energy, which we already had associated with the former chiropractor but hadn't realized the former secretary was responsible for it, too, is gone. The place is blossoming, and we're feeling great.