It isn’t always roses and flowers
Unit 5: Real Estate in New York
Exercise 1: Listen the story and learn the moral lessons
Once upon a time in New York there were two Italian girls,who came to the Big Apple looking for the American dream. Everything seemed amazing and everybody seemed kind and enthusiastic about their future, but as the bad wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood or the poisoned apple in the story of Snow White, something wasn’t going right. The ones who broke the eggs in the basket were two single landladies.
One of the two girls was engaged to a dutch guy who really missed her so He decided to surprise his girlfriend by visiting her in NYC. It was a pity that her landlady lived with her and she didn’t appreciate the presence of the boy in her apartment because she felt uncomfortable. So She gave the two lovers two options: either leave immediately the apartment or pay $100 (on top of the monthly rent) per each of the days on which the guy was at home (sometimes money makes people more comfortable with foreigners)
The other girl was a paying guest in her friend’s apartment but since the landlady was fighting with her brother over their parents’ inheritance and she needed money to pay the attorney she decided to sign an agreement with a real estate agency to rent 2 rooms to 2 other girls even though the house had 2 bedrooms. (with 4 people and 2 bedrooms the count doesn’t work). The solution of the smart lady was to ask her guest to leave the apartment and — to stay in a hostel for the next 3 months because in her house she was an illegal guest.
At the end, both of the girls moved elsewhere. Now, the first one lives in a really expensive apartment but with friendly and open minded girls, and works as a server in a restaurant to compensate for the lost deposit- she is no longer engaged to the dutch guy. The second one moved to Astoria after having lived for 1 week in a hostel. She now has her own room, 3 wonderful roommates and She is finally a legal tenant.
Lesson number 1: Business is Business
Lesson number 2: There are hostels too
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