1st Apartment - Calabasas, CA - 9 miles from Pepperdine campus . . . not much more to see here. This was a one bedroom, 400 sq. ft. apartment. The amenities were great here; the mold problem, not so great . . .
2nd Apartment - South Kensington, London - 1 mile from Pepperdine's London campus and close enough to the rest of Europe to allow us to visit 12 countries during our 2-month stay. We paid $2500/month to walk around on food-crusted carpet, share 150 sq. feet with mice, and stain our clothes pink from the brightly-colored bedspreads covering our rickety twin beds.
.jpg)
3rd Apartment - Malibu, CA - on-campus housing at Pepperdine University. We had a great set-up here. Rent was cheap for the area, we had an ocean view - if you peered over the trees outside our windows, and we had a crew of friends all living in the same complex. We were living the life . . . until Pepperdine decided to send us to the 3rd-world comforts of Honduras
4th Apartment - Tegucigalpa, Honduras - in the maid's quarters of the wonderful Scherbel family. The husband worked with the US Embassy there in Tegucigalpa and the family took us in after we contacted them through a bunch of random connections. Our experience in Honduras was lifechanging. We had the most fabulous time there. Matt got to work with a nonprofit legal aid organization, helping the poor gain title to their land while I got to study spanish and serve a mini-mission with the sister missionaries in Valle de Angeles. Our sleeping quarters may have been small, but they were attached to a giant house filled with our 2 favorite Honduranians, 3 rambunctious little girls, and one amazing family. (In case you ever wondered what I'd look like as a brunette, take a good look because I'll be sticking with the blonde for the remainder of my days).
5th Apartment - Downtown Los Angeles - in the middle of California plaza, just 100 yards from Matt's work. This was our first experience living the big city life and we loved it. Not only did we get to enjoy being catered to by Matt's fabulous firm, but we got to enjoy the excitement of living in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. We discovered the glory of the fashion district and the thrill of driving through Skid Row . . . and we had The Tibra to come home to each night. (FYI - "The Tibra" - pronounced 'tee-bruh' as in tiger/zebra - is the timeless, furry animal print adorning our air mattress. Matt got this fashion statement for me when we were dating and it has been with us ever since)
.jpg)
6th move . . . back to our old place at Pepperdine, which meant back to the books for Matt. My amazing hubby spent a lot of time in this room, studying for finals and then for the California Bar Exam. All the hard work paid off and we made it through law school!! (I say "we" because I was Matt's study buddy - he went through ALL his law school material with me . . . good times!)
7th Apartment - back to the same high-rise that we lived in two summers before - we just upgraded a bit . . . decided to get some furniture and ditch the air mattress . . . don't worry, we kept The Tibra.
8th Apartment - The Orsini hotel . . . I mean, resort . . . I mean, apartment complex. Yeah, this place is just amazing. We moved here at the beginning of June and have had non-stop company ever since. We sent out the Orsini website link to a few people and all of the sudden, everyone had booked flights to come visit. Just to show how much we LOVE visitors (I am not being sarcastic . . . we really do love visitors), I am including the website information here: http://theorsini.com/ in case anyone needs any enticement to come and visit.
