A life without home headaches

'How to age ten years in ten days. Learn from me", regretted the Airbnb host about the leak. Soon I will be far away from there

I recently spent 12 days in Porto Alegre in an apartment with an outstanding view, located on Escadaria da Borges, one of the coolest spots in the city.

Porto Alegre, January 2024

On the day I arrived, however, the owner of the Airbnb, Dudan, warned me: "I just ask, please, not to use the other bathroom because there's a leak in the bathroom downstairs."

Even though I only used the recommended shower, the problem persisted. Dudan then asked: "Could you switch and only use the other bathroom? We need to figure out where this leak is coming from. This is annoying, I apologize."

It was 12 days of plumbers, builders, the building manager, neighbors complaining, using the shower from one bathroom, faucet from the other, and Dudan's son in my room. A chaos. "How to age ten years in ten days. Learn from me," regretted the host.

(There's another story that deserves a parenthesis. In an argument with the builder about whether it made sense to break everything, the guy said, "There's no 'if,' it'll work out", to which Dudan solemnly replied, "My friend, I am a logic teacher, don't tell me 'if' doesn't exist." They argued for about 20 minutes).

I was with a friend, and we were very willing guests. Others might have been less tolerant. We welcomed everyone whenever they needed.

I don't want to praise myself here, but part of the reason for being so tolerant comes precisely from the primary reflection of this text. The headache wasn't mine. It was Dudan's.

While he was losing ten years in ten days, I was calmly doing my routine remote work. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world to keep changing bathrooms all the time or to host people. But soon I would be far away from there, in another apartment, without this problem.

(Oh, I just remembered another brilliant phrase from Dudan to me: "Dude, if you need to, brush your teeth in the kitchen sink, please.")

When you rent or buy an apartment, you become responsible for many bureaucratic and practical everyday things, like electricity bills, internet, gas, renovations, and leaks. When you're just passing through, none of it is your business.

It's not that there are no problems in the nomadic life. There are plenty, as I recently wrote in the text "How to try (and probably fail) to reconcile career, family, and community in the nomadic life." In fact, many of these problems don't exist in a non-nomadic life. The conclusion is that, nomadic or not, we exchange the types of issues.

In my current apartment, I'm dealing with another very stressful situation: the internet has been down for a week, and the company that rents it via Airbnb provides the worst customer service I've had in these 14 months of nomadic life. I've been using my phone's internet and the neighbor's internet.

But it's okay too. Soon, this problem will be a memory and a footnote in my future texts. I feel that because nothing is truly mine, it affects me less. I don't lose sleep over it. Dudan, with the neighbor threatening to sue him, certainly must lose it.

At the same time (and again, I am looking for a counterpart), this kind of life without home headaches is expensive. I will explore it in a text in the subsequent editions.

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In September, I wrote about the end of the nomadic life with a great testimonial from Ellen Noronha. These days, I came across another former nomad on Instagram, Thayná Vervloet, who writes excellent reflections on Souvenir. She was celebrating her new home after two years on the road. I asked her how she was feeling, and I thought it would be nice to share it here.

Now it's all good 🙏🏽💙

But I had a massive identity crisis that lasted a few months hahahaha

So many questions arose that I became quite introspective in understanding what was happening. The traveler inside me is still here, but now she wants a home to come back to. It took a while to comprehend that, but the process was worth it :)

Have a great weekend everyone.