House Hunters International - General Discussion

[7isBlue]

1 hour ago, LittleIggy said:

Vienna: She sure didn’t seem to have done much research on housing in Vienna. The place she picked was like a dorm room. Bet the majority of the people who lived in the building were uni students. 

That was like a dorm room. I would have chosen that gorgeous apartment with the roommate for the same rent!

I’m pretty surprised Vienna lady decided to leave her dogs behind. I’m not half as “obsessed” with my dog, but he’s so attached to me that I know I couldn’t leave him. 

[WI GIRL56]

I loved the Vienna apartment with the roommate.  The roommate seemed really nice.  I did not care for any of her other options.  Not a dog person but I would think that would be hard to leave them behind.  I feel she could have researched her options a little better.

[LittleIggy]

Vienna: That hotel bellman’s mustache needs its own series. 😆🤣

[Ohwell]

Vienna:  Even though that woman's apartment was very nice, I could definitely understand the apartment hunter wanting her own place.  I know I would.

[chessiegal]

The 1st Vienna apartment was close to the Marriott we stayed in last year. Very nice neighborhood, grocery, restaurants, and close to the subway.

She annoyed me with her "What is a kilogram?" It's not rocket science you twit.

[doodlebug]

4 hours ago, WI GIRL56 said:

I loved the Vienna apartment with the roommate.  The roommate seemed really nice.  I did not care for any of her other options.  Not a dog person but I would think that would be hard to leave them behind.  I feel she could have researched her options a little better.

I am a dog person and I think the entire scenario was contrived.  She spent the whole episode gushing about her dogs and how she couldn't live without them, then, goes to Vienna and sees 2 out of 3 apartments where dogs are not welcome and immediately decides the dogs can stay back in the US.  I suspect  that the plan all along was to leave the dogs at home, they might've even belonged to her parents rather than to her.  There is no way someone who claims to love her pets as much as that gal did could leave them behind when going to another country for an extended period.  And there is no reason to believe that Vienna, unlike the rest of Europe, doesn't like dogs and has very few rentals to accommodate them.

[Chippings]

There was just a whole lot of negativity coming off of Vienna lady.  Anything she liked was quickly overwhelmed by things she didn't.  Also, so foolish to not have gone any further learning the language.  She knew she was going there for some period, weeks? months? -- lots of ways to study a language these days.  (pathetic note, if anybody here sees '90 day Fiance' they know the example of Paul, who after a year or more in Brazil still communicates with his wife with an instant-translating-app on his phone.  Lady could get the App, at least.)  

[abbyzenn]

Vienna:  Did I miss it or did she say she was looking for a studio since none of the three had a bedroom.  I thought 2 of them really seemed like dorm rooms.  Surprised she didn't yap about them being so small.  Her salary must really be small if she could only afford $850.  Vienna is a major city and I would expect it to pay more.  

Surprised at a 4th option - so that was the one I thought she'd take.  I am a dog lover and once I moved some place for a year that provided housing where dogs were not allowed.  So I had to leave my dog with my parents.  She's probably only going there for the one year so leaving the dogs behind wouldn't be that bad.

Netherlands:  I  enjoy these episodes - seeing the Netherlands not the house hunters and the houses/flats are usually very nice.  But the one before the latest one - I think it might have been in Utrecht and they had the "precious" boy - was the first time I thought all 3 choices were poor.  Very small places.  And I laughed at how they loved the roof top deck which was accessed only through some very steep stairs in the master bedroom.  Yes siree, I can just image carrying your wine, glasses, and cheese tray up a flight of steps that you need to use both hands to grip the railing.

[amarante]

Since the foreign house hunters are even more likely to be settled in a place than domestic, Vienna girl was obviously a completely fake.

Shipping the dogs (if they really existed) internationally for what would probably be a relatively short period of time would not make sense. Obviously if she really had wanted the dogs, she would have made a trade off in order to have them there.

There was a brief flash on the screen that said her salary was $35,000 and taxes in Vienna were approximately 42% so she didn't have much money especially if she wanted to take advantage of being in Europe. The place she chose was small but made sense on her budget - seemed like a very sleek dorm room.

[chessiegal]

4 hours ago, Chippings said:

Also, so foolish to not have gone any further learning the language.

When we were in Vienna, we didn't encounter a single person who didn't speak English.

ETA: Maybe I missed it, but was there some reason she needed to know German?

Edited August 29, 2019 by chessiegal

[Chippings]

3 hours ago, chessiegal said:

When we were in Vienna, we didn't encounter a single person who didn't speak English.

ETA: Maybe I missed it, but was there some reason she needed to know German?

Possibly it was producer foolery, but they did film her (hmm .. ??) trying to buy things from vendors who didn't speak English.  They are likely banking on viewers who (like me) haven't traveled outside of the U.S. much.  But if indeed most there do speak English, they were messing with us.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Chippings
spelling

[chessiegal]

We took the Queen Mary 2 to Germany last year. We spoke with a German couple with a younger son, who was very quiet. The mother explained he didn't speak English yet, and that all children start learning English in the 7th grade. I can't imagine it's that much different in Austria. Like I said, in 5 days in Vienna, never met a single person who didn't speak English

[Grrarrggh]

On 8/28/2019 at 12:29 PM, chessiegal said:

She annoyed me with her "What is a kilogram?" It's not rocket science you twit.

She was asking how it compares to a pound, not WHAT it actually was. 

[Grrarrggh]

14 hours ago, chessiegal said:

ETA: Maybe I missed it, but was there some reason she needed to know German?

The lingua franca of Austria is German.... 

[chessiegal]

11 minutes ago, Grrarrggh said:

She was asking how it compares to a pound, not WHAT it actually was. 

I know that, but it was still stupid. It's not that hard to figure out.

7 minutes ago, Grrarrggh said:

The lingua franca of Austria is German.... 

I know that, but everyone we met in Vienna spoke English.

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

 everyone we met in Vienna spoke English.

I was there for nine days and encountered many people who didn't speak English. It depends on if you're sticking to all the main tourist destinations or going off the beaten path. I was only planning on being there for a little over a week, yet I took an 8 week German class before I went. You'd think someone going there to live would be capable of doing the same. I was far from conversant, but I could order off a menu in a restaurant and get directions on public transportation. This woman just perpetuated the Ignorant American stereotype.

[eel21788]

On ‎8‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 12:37 PM, doodlebug said:

  And there is no reason to believe that Vienna, unlike the rest of Europe, doesn't like dogs and has very few rentals to accommodate them.

They allow dogs inside restaurants at their humans' tables with them. It must be quite a shock for Austrians to come to the US and find they can't go into a restaurant with a dog or a cigarette or drink alcohol if they aren't 21 yet. 

[eel21788]

16 hours ago, chessiegal said:

 Maybe I missed it, but was there some reason she needed to know German?

I would think being a Special Ed teacher would require the teacher to be able to converse with her students in their native language. 

[biakbiak]

2 hours ago, eel21788 said:

I would think being a Special Ed teacher would require the teacher to be able to converse with her students in their native language. 

There are several international schools where English is the main language used in Vienna.

Edited August 29, 2019 by biakbiak

[SmithW6079]

Ugh. Texas-to-Vienna woman was so unpleasant. I felt sorry for the "property consultant" forced to deal with her. She had negative comments about everything. 

The room she took was a dorm room, wasn't it? The fact that it had maid service seemed to indicate it was. (When I was in college, we had a cleaning lady for our floor.)

[Pickles]

The mother and daughter in Paris. Mother is from California. The daughter has been an au pair in England. Is her British accent kind of an act? Sometimes she sounds American and other times she has this very breathy British accent. 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

The mother and daughter in Paris. Mother is from California. The daughter has been an au pair in England. Is her British accent kind of an act? Sometimes she sounds American and other times she has this very breathy British accent. 

I didn't see it, but if she grew up in CA and has been living in England for a time, her speaking style may very well have naturally morphed into a combination of the two accents, and there may be times where one aspect is more prominent than the other (especially in situations where one is a little nervous and possibly even particularly conscious of how one sounds, like being on camera).  Or, yeah, it could be an affectation, because look at who they cast on this show.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Bastet

[judylo]

I found both mother and daughter insufferable. But the daughter was worse.

[Pickles]

2 minutes ago, judylo said:

I found both mother and daughter insufferable. But the daughter was worse.

Yes. The daughter really had me rolling my eyes with her very dramatic way of speaking. The mother was kind of gag worthy when she spoke about how "people are drawn to my daughter". Was the daughter continuing as an au pair, but just living on her own and no longer with the family? 

[doodlebug]

47 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Yes. The daughter really had me rolling my eyes with her very dramatic way of speaking. The mother was kind of gag worthy when she spoke about how "people are drawn to my daughter". Was the daughter continuing as an au pair, but just living on her own and no longer with the family? 

The daughter was a real piece of work, obviously very impressed with herself.  I don’t think her mixed American-British accent was natural, it seemed like an affectation to draw attention to herself, her whole manner was very affected and stagey, IMO. At the beginning of the episode where she was sitting on a sofa, waving her glass of wine while posing and preening  and talking about how she needed to live in Paris was just ridiculous.

Her mother also seemed like she encouraged the artifice and pretension.  Calling the daughter ‘beautiful girl’ in conversation, getting mother-daughter tattoos, bragging about how her quiet ways (not really, daughter did everything but shout ‘look at me, look at meeee!’) drew people to her.  Daughter was also a really odd looking woman, her eyes were so wide set I’m not quite sure how she focused them. Definitely not a beautiful girl.

Daughter said she had been working as an au pair in France but would have to return to California unless Mama bought a place where she could live free in Paris. I think the au pair job was done and she. was planning on just hanging out on mom’s dime.  Mother said she want d her to spend her days having a baguette for breakfast and sitting in Notre Dame to ‘absorb the history’ which doesn’t sound like a paying gig to me.

i liked the apartment they chose, though I kept waiting for Adrienne to tell the mom that The Marais is not the only neighborhood in Paris and living in a touristy area was not the way to get to know the city.  Then again, both mother and daughter had rather elaborate fantasies about living there so I got the impression that they didn’t want to have reality intrude on their dream world.

Edited August 30, 2019 by doodlebug

[LittleIggy]

Paris: $350,000 for a shoebox? 🙄 But, oh, it’s in a historical building! Think how many people stared up at those beams after having their brains f**ked out in true Parisian fashion! 😏 Those two can be pretentious all they want in that cracker box. BTW, I agree that the daughter was as affected as hell. Her breathy voice and indeterminate accent drove me nuts.

[LittleIggy]

Singapore: What is the Navy paying that guy that they have $6500/mo to pay for rent. I know Singapore is very expensive (I saw Crazy Rich Asians 😆), but really. Those little girls were adorbs. 

[buttersister]

Paris daughter was a pill. And her mother’s daughter. Now with 50% more affectation (looking at you, accent).

Adrian may have helped them find that Marais place originally, she has a lot of apartments and amies in the area—now looking at you, House #3—also, what’d be the use of trying to convince them to live elsewhere?

[Brit]

Yea I think it’s because they are both dentists.  I would never move to singapore!  Maybe I need to become a dentist so I can afford a better place than I have now.  I couldn't believe the second place was so small and like almost $7000/mo.  That last house though was amazeballs!!!

[Trinity]

On 8/27/2019 at 10:20 PM, Pickles said:

Do they wear bike helmets? I didn’t notice this family wearing them.

I was totally concerned about the helmets thing too!  I guess other countries don’t care so much about safety things like that

And can that Singapore couple adopt me?  They seemed like a cool couple and their kids and dog were so cute.  That Paris daughter though, ugh!

[Kenzie]

The Oakland to Paris daughter was quite full of herself and the vocal affectations were silly and pretentious.

[blueray]

8 hours ago, Pickles said:

The mother and daughter in Paris. Mother is from California. The daughter has been an au pair in England. Is her British accent kind of an act? Sometimes she sounds American and other times she has this very breathy British accent. 

I was about to post about this. I missed the beginning of the episode. I was confused about the daughter's accent as she at first seemed American but then British. And her mother was American. I was also confused on why they were looking for a studio when there were to of them. Was the mother not going to live there?

[Pickles]

19 minutes ago, blueray said:

I was about to post about this. I missed the beginning of the episode. I was confused about the daughter's accent as she at first seemed American but then British. And her mother was American. I was also confused on why they were looking for a studio when there were to of them. Was the mother not going to live there?

The studio was for the daughter, so she could presumably live the Parisian life on her mother’s dime. Doing exactly what, we don’t know. Perhaps adopting a French accent in place of her affected British accent. The mother’s plan was to possibly move to Paris one day and take over the apartment. 

[MartyQui]

Daughter was born in CA and went to college there as well (Linked In is your friend).  She had some kind of job in Paris in graphic design that ended in June.  The accent drove me crazy...she only lived in London for a little over a year!  I can’t imagine sharing that dark little room with another person for more than a few hours, even if it did have a medieval glam kitchen.  I have to give Adrienne a lot of credit...I’d be rolling my eyes so hard they popped out of my head with some of these people.  Can we nominate her for an acting Emmy?

[sempervivum]

Paris mom/daughter- did we ever hear what mom does for a living? I've never been wealthy enough to even dream of a second home in Paris, but why would a 10% price difference matter to someone with that kind of disposable income? She also had some serious hair loss going on.

I can forgive the daughter's fake accent, as I'm inclined to unconsciously mimic accents and mannerisms myself. But she needs to cut the cord, despite Mommy's bribing her with !The MARAIS!

[biakbiak]

12 hours ago, Pickles said:

The mother and daughter in Paris. Mother is from California. The daughter has been an au pair in England. Is her British accent kind of an act? Sometimes she sounds American and other times she has this very breathy British accent. 

There is an article from her former job that says she was born in England and she herself says she split her time between there and Oakland, perhaps her father lives there and she comes by the accent naturally. 

[LizBug]

Agree with everything previous poster have said about mom/daughter in Paris.  

What got me was not only daughter's on-again/off-again accent but her clothing choices.  Her pink coat ... 'nuff said about that.

Then when mom came to visit several months later, she moved daughter's phone charger.  Guess that will show daughter who's in charge.

[LittleIggy]

Manta, Ecuador: Did anyone else notice when the HH, a Spanish teacher, said she wasn’t a native speaker of the language but could “get by.” Shouldn’t someone teaching a language be able to do more than “get by” when speaking it in a Spanish speaking country? Just struck me as a weird thing to say. Anyway, personally, I liked the first place best. Loved the artwork and the big balcony with the killer view. How many bathrooms did the place she picked have? I just saw 1 and a half. I liked the college friend’s wife.

[blueray]

I took that as she wasn't "fluent". But I've heard many times people say that they aren't fluent and they speak just fine.  My cousins aren't native English speakers and have said that before. But when I talk to them they seem fluent to me and we have a perfectly normal conversation.  It's more of a confidence thing. 

[Ohwell]

But if you're a teacher, I would think that one would be fluent in the language they are teaching.  It's not just conversational. 

[abbyzenn]

Mother/Daughter in Paris:  Those were the 3 worst apartments to choose from.  The first two, including the one they chose, were smaller than most hotel rooms.  Who cares if it's in one of the 3 oldest buildings in Paris?  Only someone pretentious.   And what the heck was that view?  Inside the place you could have been in any dump in any city in the world.   3 months later and the daughter still had the bed and not a sofa bed?  So she and Mom have to share a bed?  Not even a chair to sit on in that place.  Laughed at daughter  talking about having a dinner party - everyone would have to stand or sit on the bed to eat.  

[Ohwell]

That Paris daughter was delusional, just like her mother.

[LittleIggy]

3 hours ago, abbyzenn said:

Mother/Daughter in Paris:  Those were the 3 worst apartments to choose from.  The first two, including the one they chose, were smaller than most hotel rooms.  Who cares if it's in one of the 3 oldest buildings in Paris?  Only someone pretentious.   And what the heck was that view?  Inside the place you could have been in any dump in any city in the world.   3 months later and the daughter still had the bed and not a sofa bed?  So she and Mom have to share a bed?  Not even a chair to sit on in that place.  Laughed at daughter  talking about having a dinner party - everyone would have to stand or sit on the bed to eat.  

The only use I could see for those “apartments” was as short term vacation rentals, a pied a terre in the tourist areas.

[Irlandesa]

On 8/30/2019 at 11:30 PM, LittleIggy said:

Manta, Ecuador: Did anyone else notice when the HH, a Spanish teacher, said she wasn’t a native speaker of the language but could “get by.” Shouldn’t someone teaching a language be able to do more than “get by” when speaking it in a Spanish speaking country? Just struck me as a weird thing to say.

I guess it depends on what she meant by "getting by." I speak two languages and even taught one and I might say something similar.  However, the more I learned the languages, the more strict I'd be about how I'd define my skills.  For some, conversational might mean being able to do some basic communication. I can achieve that in languages I don't speak but are similar to those I do.  For me, conversational is being able to have a conversation about almost anything I might discuss in my native language.  That might be considered fluent to others.  However, for me, fluency is being able to speak without even thinking.  Native level is completely understanding the nuances of expressions and words.

So yeah, I might say something similar to getting by, especially if I'm going to a country who speak the language faster or with a different accent than I'm used to.  I also forgot where she teaches.  Junior high or high school beginning Spanish probably doesn't need to have the same level of those who teach higher levels or college nor do they get the opportunity to practice as much as they used to.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Irlandesa

[amarante]

Not sure if it was an old one but there was an episode of a female lawyer buying a beach in a beach town in Brazil. Once again an inscrutable explanation of how this will help her hectic life. All I can think about is a day spent flying to a remote location. How often can anyone with a job realistically travel to a distant second home. 

The place she chose looked like a prison cell to me and the ending was that she had also bought two ocean front lots which she will eventually build on because the dream house next door only cost $100,000 to build. 

For some reason the editing seemed particular snarky because when she was extolling the virtues of living in the middle of a town that genuinely resembled a dump, there was a lingering shot of a stray dog peeing on the side of her house. 

[chessiegal]

9 hours ago, amarante said:

Not sure if it was an old one but there was an episode of a female lawyer buying a beach in a beach town in Brazil. Once again an inscrutable explanation of how this will help her hectic life. All I can think about is a day spent flying to a remote location. How often can anyone with a job realistically travel to a distant second home. 

The place she chose looked like a prison cell to me and the ending was that she had also bought two ocean front lots which she will eventually build on because the dream house next door only cost $100,000 to build. 

For some reason the editing seemed particular snarky because when she was extolling the virtues of living in the middle of a town that genuinely resembled a dump, there was a lingering shot of a stray dog peeing on the side of her house. 

Oh yes, that was a repeat.

[laredhead]

Amarante, yes, there was a discussion about this episode previously.  You can find it upthread, or it may be in the archived area because when changes were done to this forum, all discussions before a certain date were archived.  Most people agreed that the place looked sort of like a prison cell and uninviting.  We also laughed at the dog's photo/video bomb.  The beach looked beautiful, and it will be a great place to have a getaway home, but it is remote.  As I get older, my priorities in a vacation location would include things like access to medical care in emergencies.   

[amarante]

I've never been able to search for old posts since searches are limited to the specific pages.

Is there some kind of search trick that enables one to do so?

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, amarante said:

I've never been able to search for old posts since searches are limited to the specific pages.

Is there some kind of search trick that enables one to do so?

When you click in the search field (the one that appears below the thread title, to the left of the follow button), you can select to search for your term(s) everywhere, this forum, this topic, etc.

[LittleIggy]

On 9/1/2019 at 12:02 AM, amarante said:

Not sure if it was an old one but there was an episode of a female lawyer buying a beach in a beach town in Brazil. Once again an inscrutable explanation of how this will help her hectic life. All I can think about is a day spent flying to a remote location. How often can anyone with a job realistically travel to a distant second home. 

The place she chose looked like a prison cell to me and the ending was that she had also bought two ocean front lots which she will eventually build on because the dream house next door only cost $100,000 to build. 

For some reason the editing seemed particular snarky because when she was extolling the virtues of living in the middle of a town that genuinely resembled a dump, there was a lingering shot of a stray dog peeing on the side of her house. 

😆 I mentioned that dog peeing shot as an editorial comment on that town the first time the episode was shown. Great minds, etc.