Apartments on the peninsula really run the gamut.

I have been apartment-hunting this week and have seen everything from super tidy crate-and-barrel square-box apartments in Foster City to cramped but warm/friendly communal spaces in Bernal Heights.  

One house I saw near downtown San Mateo really took the cake when it comes to oddball yet strangely fascinating.  It was a 5-room house with a huge backyard that included a number of fruit trees (avocado, fig, apricot, fuji apple, lemon, orange) and other fruit-bearing plants (10 different kinds of tomatoes, a blackberry bush), a full garden with corn, squash and the like, and a fire pit around which they "conduct Buddhist ceremonies." They plucked a ripe fig off their tree for me to take home.

The house is populated by "hippies who shower," though I had to raise my eyebrow a bit at that claim.  Here's an excerpt from the intro e-mail one of the girls wrote to me (yes, she included the scrolly header up top)...
_________________________


 
Hi Stephanie,

We met briefly last evening when you came over to see the house, and I regret not being able to talk to you a bit, and get to know you.  

A little about us:  M****** and I are both healers and we work day jobs, M****** builds magical healing tools, and I do intuitive readings.  M****** works at a coffee shop, and I work at a local furniture store.  We are both masseuses and energy healers as well, and we are pretty free about offering help to people in our lives if they need it.  I love nature, painting, dancing, and singing, and M****** plays guitar.  M****** teaches [Renaissance] swordfighting in the backyard, and I teach channeling classes out of the house sometimes.  Generally, authentic, deeply compassionate, honest people are a match for us.  Creative, nature loving, spiritually interested people are especially welcome.

Warnings: Sometimes the house gets messy, and stays that way for a week until someone has the energy to clean it.  A couple of our housemates smoke, but they do it outside.  And, there is cat litter.  'nuf said.

A****

5 responses
hmmmm..i love the fruit bearing trees, especially, delicious figs, but teaching classes in the house/backyard? i'm personally not ok with that, i don't want random strangers roaming around my area. and they do sound quite hippie, not saying it's bad, but totally different lifestyle from moi, so not sure if i'd jive with all the spiritual talk.
Having fruit trees is a plus b/ to deal w/ other ppls mess, is a turn off. Is this plc in the running for you?
heck no this place is not in the running! "MAGICAL HEALING TOOLS." 'Nuff said.
ROFLOL! Just making sure you weren't brain washed by their hippie talk. Good luck apartment hunting!
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