cruel truth

The Holidays finished and so my studies were about to begin. After few struggles I’ve decided to accept the offer from QEM course. The course is organized by 4 known worldwide universities: Paris Sorbonne, University of Bielfeld, University of Venice and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. The course lasts 2 years and I would study 1 semester in Paris and next 3 in Barcelona. Of course this is the path I’ve chosen you can also study in other universities if you want to. Anyway I decided to start my university journey in Paris. The problem was that I still didn’t have the place to live and Mark didn’t have a job. We booked the hotel with internet for the first 10 days hoping we’ll sort everything out by that time.
It was the most stressful 10 days I had since very long time. Everything was falling apart, Mark was not working, we were living in a hotel struggling to find housing. The time was passing by like crazy and there were only a few days before my classes were starting. I have skipped all free guided tours in Paris organized by my university, because we were looking for the apartment. We were calling all day long to every acceptable advertisement but nothing seemed to work out. The French do not want to talk in English and my campus administration is only pretending to be there for students, so they didn’t eased my pain in this apartment battle at all.
Finally one day something moved and we were going to view a few housings. The sun was shining we were very happy and full of hopes that we will pick something and:
Apartment no 1: the flat was far from the city centre but close to the underground station and newly refurbished. Only the neighbourhood wasn’t too pleasant. I couldn’t see white man there at all, I felt like in the middle of some gangs ghetto, which could turn into massacre any minute. No wonder the guy didn’t want huge money for that place.
Apartment no 2: we enter the apartment and landlady shows us a room which is connected with another room, so if our room-mate would like to get out of his place, he would have to wonder through our room. We went to see the kitchen and there was a hole close to the celling!!! I opened the toilet and there were posters on the walls instead of normally painted walls. It all looked like a crap hole that I wouldn’t be able to stand even for one night and then the landlady says she wants 800euro monthly for such thing! Plus charges of course. I was amazed that people can offer such accommodation.
And the funniest part was that there were 2 students living there already.
Apartment no 3: we run to see it afraid that we’ll be late and there was no one in a house. The landlord was late… (better him than us )
Finally he arrived and opened his chamber of secretes. I couldn’t believe it! Again it was like a huge mess. I don’t know if anyone has cleaned that place at least a year before. I was seriously watching it there will be some cockroach wondering around.However the price for it was good only 650euro per month (yes it is a cheap price for an apartment in Paris!) and moreover it was 5 minutes walk from Notre Dame.
After long discussions we decided to take apartment no 3. Mark called the guy the same evening and told him that we want to rent his place. He said ok I will get back to you within 15 minutes. Mark said ok and hung up. After 30 minutes of silent phone we called him again and he said: ‘I am really sorry, but someone else decided to take it for longer time then you would like to rent it’.
It was like a bad dream, once again we end up no where and there were only 3 days before hotel check out.