Advertisement
Published: August 15th 2013
Edit Blog Post
I may have been slacking off a little on the updates, but I guess time flies when you're having fun!?
A lot can change in 2 weeks and the biggest difference is that I found a place to live. It was the last place I'd arranged to see and it was at a time when I was just about done with the whole process of trying to find somewhere and starting to consider some alternative options.
When I came to see it, there was a couple here to see it at the same time, group viewings are always a little awkward but I had a quick scan around the place, reasonably clean in the bedroom and bathroom, kitchen was a bit grimey but all the rooms were a good size, my bedroom came furnished, pretty good location and the rent is within my budget limits. So I shoved the other couple out of the way and signed up for it there and then (they were French and were having a discussion so I got in first while they were still deciding)
So I moved in on the 1st of August and will admit that when I first got
in here I noticed a few things, like it wasn't quite as clean as I thought it was and the blinds in my bedroom are pretty shot (one of them fell off the window when I tried to open it and the other had missing slats). There were also no curtains in my room, the sink in the bathroom was blocked and there was a cupboard door hanging off in the kitchen. I spent that first day contemplating picking up my search again to try and find somewhere better to move into in September. I then spent a baffling hour and a lot of dollars at the supermarket trying to make sure I wouldn't starve (food is very expensive here)
But as with previous things, this was just a bit of a culture shock. It's the first time I've ever lived away from home and I've chosen pretty far away to try it for the first time. I was also struggling under the weight of the whole undertaking. I gave up a good job and have put a lot into this trip and subconsciously put myself under a lot of pressure not to screw it up or waste the
opportunity and it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't know what the hell I was doing!!
It didn't take long for things to start looking up though. I met a couple of my new housemates on the Thursday but it was the Friday night when things really got going and an impromptu house party broke out in the kitchen as people came home from their days hard work/days hard vacationing. A crate of beer appeared and more people kept appearing and it was good fun.
There are 8 of us living here, 2 of us have bedrooms upstairs and the rest all live downstairs in the dungeon (as we lovingly refer to it). Previously there hadn't been a lot of housemate interaction but a few of us all moved in around the same time and it seems to have kickstarted a bit more of a social living situation. Everyone is on different schedule, some work, some go to school and some of us aren't doing either so there are days when we just pass each other in the kitchen and say hi and then everyone re-treats to their room, but getting more common now are days when
a bunch of us will end up in the kitchen having a few beers and chatting while various meals are prepared or a few of us will watch a movie in the living room as people drift in and out.
Apart from the occassional issues with there being too much food in the fridge and not enough space for beer, we all get along and it's a good situation. I actually feel like I live here now rather than just visiting.
Oh and I got the blind that fell down to go back into it's bracket and as long as I don't touch it too much it stays put. We had a little bit of a cleaning session the saturday after I moved in and got the kitchen and other shared areas into a cleaner state. We got the handy man in to unblock the sink in the bathroom and re-attach the cupboard door in the kitchen and I took a trip to Value Village which is like TK Maxx but everything is second hand and I picked up some material which is now tacked up as curtains so the sun doesn't blind me in the morning when
it comes through the missing slats.
If I was in England and looking for a place to rent, I wouldn't have looked twice at this place, but travelling requires a certain amount of adaptability and I now know that I'll actually miss this place when the time comes for me to move on.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0356s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb