DD is currently in NYC on her gap year adventure. She was to be in NYC for 1 month, staying with her Uncle in Mid-Town Manhattan.
She has been having a great time, lots of exploring, spreading her wings, being a solo traveler etc.
This past Friday, I get a text from my Brother in Law (Who is a major drama queen LOL) anyway, evidently his apartment is having plumbing issues and his entire wing top to bottom has sprung a leak. He is not coping well and sends me this message: "we need to arrange for DD to return home, this is just a disaster".
He lives in a beautiful PreWar 1929 Apt. bldg and the pipes might be original. So all the "G" Apts from street to roof have had their water shut off, several of the units flooded. BIL's did not flood as he and my DD were home at the time and were able to mop/soak up/catch in buckets and dump the water and shut as much off to the unit as possible until the "Super" cut the whole line. (the "Super", that makes me giggle, its such a New York thing)
My reaction to myself, Ummmm, No, DD is not coming home, she had almost 2 weeks left of her trip and I don't want to have to make her come home if I can come up with something else.
As it so happened, DD had planned to spend the weekend away from BIL's Apt, she was staying with her BFF and family in Brooklyn as BFF goes to school in Brooklyn and the parents flew in for BFF's 18th b-day, so DD was with them all weekend but I needed a plan of what to do with her come Monday when BFF returned to school and the parents returned home.
Returning to BIL"s was not an option, he was having all he could handle as he had no water in his unit and was staying with friends. Note, it is now Wednesday and he has a flushing toilet and water in sink but that is it, so this was not a minor issue, this really is a pretty substantial plumbing issue. BIL has lived in this same building since 1984.
Hotel is just too expensive. My DS suggested Airbnb for a room rental.
You want to talk about doing something out of ones comfort zone, try renting a room from a stranger for your 19 yr old DD in NYC!
My DD who has lived in suburbs of small cities her entire life and any big city adventures always included parents/grandparents/Older Brother to direct the path.
At first DD was leery of the idea but I convinced her to give it a try with the unconditional "if you are miserably uncomfortable I will not hesitate to fly you home" clause.
We found in her words a "lovely" Airbnb host with a room in a great neighborhood and DD retrieved her stuff from her Uncles and moved on to her Airbnb on Monday. She is having a great time, she is now actually glad this happened, is enjoying meeting strangers in Brooklyn and hanging out with a NYC native who I hear is a great cook and the ultimate hostess!
It would have cost me a couple of hundred to change her plane ticket and bring her home early, the airbnb cost me $400 for the time remaining of her trip and that $400 is money well spent. The experience is priceless.