I met Joel at the school we were both teaching at in Santiago Chile. He was waiting for me by the computers. I remember thinking he looked a little too straight laced to be someone I would actually hang out with, but I supposed he’d be a fine roommate. We walked the short distance to my apartment so he could see if he wanted to move into the spare room or not. We didn’t have standards back than, we rarely do now, so I think we both knew the viewing was just a pretense. We liked to think we had somewhat of a choice, even though we knew we would take the maid’s quarters off the kitchen and ask to have the bed thrown in to sweeten the deal.