Housing

I can't believe I have been in London for almost 2 weeks! Time has flown by. Things have not turned out the way I'd planned or even hoped they'd turn out. I got in on Sept. 27th and had scheduled to look at 4 potential places to live during the week. The plan was then changed to looking at places on Saturday. Before Saturday 2 of my options had disappeared b/c of last minute family issues, no fault of the people who'd offered me a place to live, but I was suddenly down 2 options. That was okay though, because on Saturday I had two more places to look at.

Matt, the son of the people I am staying with, took me to the places on Saturday, Oct. 1st. I arrived at the first place and the lady told me she decided to raise the price by 100 pounds. Immediately I think anyone who does that in the last minute is lame. Then she showed me the room: a closet with no windows and room only for a bed and then a slice of space to walk out of the room. As much as I love Harry Potter, I do not wish to live in his cupboard! Especially since I know there is no Hagrid coming along to give me a wand and an invite to a school of magic. What she was offering was ridiculous for the price. But most importantly, I am a writer, I came here to write. I need space for a desk and to be able to write since I will be doing that more than anything else.

Went to the last option and as we sat there talking, the lady gave excuse after excuse for why her room would not work for me on a permanent basis. Hmm. Too bad, I loved her personality: beautiful, loud Kenya woman. She would have been fun to live with, but I could tell she was rethinking her offer. Since 3 people backed out and I don't feel a cupboard is a valid offer, I suddenly went from 4 options to no options! Matt drove away from the house with me in the passenger side fighting the panicking feeling that gripped my heart and ability to breathe.

Matt took me to lunch and the lovely, greasy Chinese food helped settle my stomach a bit. Then he took me miniature golfing, or "crazy golf" as he called it. That was fun and took my mind off of my homelessness completely. I relaxed, forgot about the housing issue and was more myself, loud, competitive me. I beat Matt by one point, though I wonder if he 'flubbed' as he called it, one of the holes for my benefit. But I did get several spectacular holes in one.

This past week has been stressful, with me worrying about where to live. The people I am staying with said it would be no problem for me to stay for a few weeks while I figure out my life: that was on the Sunday after I lost all of my options. Then this past week they told me they had decided to move and thought they could get a two bedroom house and I could share with them since, Gloria, the mum, is also going to my uni! Ta da! I'm back in the game! I have options again. I love it. Gloria and David are amazing and fun and I am very comfortable with them. I would love living with them.

I shall see what will happen, but for now I am not on the streets, I have a room with a desk and a window (I never realized how much I took for granted having a window!) and I get to start my classes tonight. I am so happy to be in London. I swear I walk around grinning like an idiot-though part of that is listening to the wonderful accents around me.