Moving

There has been many issues between myself and the landlord I have been staying with. The main issue that is created that stems to all others is the view of her to be a mother and watch over, advise, and teach me. Given, there a lot of students out in the world that are still watched over and cared for my their parents for every step they take, however, this is not the case for me. I have always been independent and striving to have my own experiences, my own views on life, and my own morals. Every day I am eternally grateful to my wonderful parents for teaching me the values and morals that have made me the person that I am today. There is a big difference however from teaching someone the values needed to live a good life, and enforcing those values to exactly one's own viewpoint.

With Jennifer, my landlord, she felt it necessary to critique me on staying out late at night, how to setup my room, setting restrictions for when I can leave my room, and multiple other things that stem from her trying to be a mother to me. Needless to say, having such an independent lifestyle and then have it be so constrained caused me a great deal of stress and it was apparent in every conversation with her. There was a lot of resentment for how she was treating me, but I needed to a place to stay so my arguments or discussions with her were limited.

This all came to an end the day after St. Patrick's Day. Apparently she did not enjoy the fact that I had 3 days of celebration and failed to meet her regulations for when to leave and enter the house. It was when I returned from the next day from school that she bluntly informed me that I had a week to move out of her house and find a different residence. Now, we had our differences but I did not see this coming.

I agreed and contacted the college's accommodation department to arrange a different host family to live with. Then I was surprised again because Jennifer had already contacted them and said I was "unfit" to live with anyone else. The idea that someone would kick a foreign exchange student out, and willingly make their chances of getting a new residence slim is beyond me. Due to her opinion the accommodation office provided no help to me finding another residence, and merely told me to look for a new place on my own using their directory. After making multiple calls and looking up different places I was getting no where...

A week had almost gone by and my already planned out spring break trip was approaching in two days. So as a last ditch resort I went to the head of the accommodation office and explained the situation with the point that putting me on the street would not be a good thing for university relations. After an hour of me talking with her, she said that she would call the dormitories and see if they could make an exception and take me in as a temporary resident.

The next day she contacted me and said that there was a spot available in the dorms, but I had to pay the entire rent of 101 pounds per week, and must have a contract until June 27th. With one day left before spring break, I calculated the costs and found I would be losing a substantial amount of money, but my choices were limited. Therefore I accepted and moved in the same day.

I'm now living in the dormitories and found that the luxuries of bed linens, toiletries, and laundry were no longer being provided to me. More money wasted, because of my previous landlord. However, the benefits of not being in a restricting household is enormous. I now feel that I am living on my own again, can make my own rules for my "household", and may leave and enter as a wish. Therefore it is debatable if my comfort is worth the amount of money I have spent.

Either way it was an experience worth having. :)