Nick is wrong.
(nick, your place in brooklyn is fabu compared to 90% of the poo-poo places i’ve seen in manchester, and in all of them, you pee on your feet and shower and shave at the same time. i really didn’t think places could be so nasty until i’ve seen places around here; i’d trade it all for 57 herbert street any day.)
so while we’re on the subject, allow me to describe the jail cell i visited today. it was supposed to be privately rented student accomodation by salford university, which is about 20 minutes from my school. however, after a 20 minute bus ride and a 25 minute walk over the rainiest, windiest highway overpass you’ve ever seen, i get to a petrol station. next to that, wedged between a home for the mentally disabled and a halfway house “where the naughty big boys go”, there’s salford hall, which you have to get beeped through several gates before entering. if you can imagine the sketchiest-looking motel in the heart of texas, then multiply it by 10 and add a few hardened english accents, that would be salford hall. the “warden”, keith, liked me cause i was white. he didn’t want to put me in “chinatown”, the end of the hall where the chinese kids live. instead he recommended, if i wanted to move in, that i wait for a few more weeks, when a room opens in “the more…european section, shall we say…”
needless to say, i started choking on my own spit and am continuing to fight the good fight to find a new room asap. i told the roommies last night that, simply stated, my funds won’t cover their place and i cannot open a bank account and pay for school until new housing gets settled. i blamed that all on the uni, and frankly, it kind of is their fault. everything is very disorganized this year, since my uni has merged with another.
anyway. a pal from my program, also from massachusetts, needs a room and she might be able to take my current one. i’m bringing her home tonight to see the room. and tomorrow i’m driving an hour away with sam, the possibly-sketchy possibly-indian guy who owns one or two rooms in oldham, a few light years away from my campus, but at a whopping $280/mo, quite possibly the cheapest room i’ve ever heard of.
thanks for tuning in, guys, and i hope my drab complaining isn’t too tedious or self-absorbed. i recognize you can find better reading material at the back of a Ragu jar, so i do appreciate your visit to my little blog and your support in general. yes, especially your support.
i’ll tell you all about how and why the british are insane tomorrow, when i select the lesser of the four evil living situations i have seen this week.
i love you all, i really do. i really really do, i really love you all! bahhhhhhhh!