Day #1: Planning and sushi

[perldiver]

Today was my first day in the land of surfer-dudes.  Empirically, it's been a decent day:  I talked a bit with one of the roommates at the place I'm staying (let's hear it for AirBnB!), got a lot of good info about where things are and how they work, then headed off to an Internet cafe to do some planning and prep.  That got done pretty quickly:

1. Check Craigslist, put together a list of apartments I was interested in.
2. Walk over and look at the neighborhoods to narrow it down to just the ones I was serious about.
3. Along the way, I would stop at a post office and get money orders to serve as first/last/security/etc. 
4. Also, I had to hit a FedEx Office Center and print out my credit report (fortunately I have one from last May) and my current bank statement to show that I'm solvent.
5. Call Freddie (the super from my NYC building) and ask if he would be a reference that I'm a good tenant.
6. Call the various landlords of the properties I was interested in and set up viewings.

I got the list together, I called Freddie, and I located FedEx and Post Office locations, but I did not actually end up leaving the coffee shop all day--it started raining pretty hard, and I decided to wait it out.  Tomorrow I'll go even if it means getting soaked, but I figured it was easier to stay here and just keep expanding my target list
Observation #1:  I need to dress down.  My black wool longcoat stands out among people who are wearing either T-shirts and a sweatshirt, or leather.

And now, I am off to have Japanese with my friend Rich!  Huzzah!