Long story short, I hated my house - it's old. It's dirty (& being in a different country has really brought out my germaphobia-ness). It's dark. & it smells. I unfortunately had already paid $1800ish which really converts to over $2000 US (first month & a half of rent + bond). So I had to find someone to fill my spot. I also had to find somewhere else to live. Finding somewhere else to live seemed to be the hard part but luckily, a spot opened up at the International House, which is kind of dorm like, in the sense that it's all students and closer quarters, although it's in more apartment style buildings. But they're newer and nicer and I was down.
So it turns out, the hard part was finding someone to fill my room. After posting my room on Gumtree (their version of Craigslist..a not as good version of Craigslist...I miss Craig) half a dozen times, I was ready to give up and the IH said they would only hold my room until the end of this week. And so I figured I was stuck here. Until this guy, Steve, wanted to come check it out after I posted the last ad I said I would post for this room. My landlord happened to come right when he was checking it out (my landlord loooves to come here unannounced. & she also loves to use her own key to get in and invade our privacy) and they ended up getting along great and that was that - he signed a contract & now I'm FREEE :)
So now the challenge is finding a new place. Yes, the IH is ideal and I have friends there, but Nate gets here tomorrow and I feel like I can only sneak my boyfriend in (AKA have him live there) for so long. It might be different if I got to know my roommates and they were all fine with him staying a while, but I can't really just show up with two of us. So today I am off to look at places closer to the city in the Richmond/Burnley/Hawthorn areas. I'm hoping they work out & I figured if I'm going to be paying so much (IH is NOT cheap), I may as well be in an area that is closer to the city & to potential jobs we [hopefully] will get. YAYY for change & things working out :)
My family told me I should just suck it up and maybe the place will grow on me. But I've just been miserable here. Miserable as in I don't walk around the house without shoes. Miserable as in everything in the kitchen is sticky because all the cabinets and drawers are so old. Miserable as in I barricade myself in my room and I have a slight (okay HUGE) fear that Huntsmen spiders are about to attack me. So why stick with miserable if you can make some changes yourself? Okay yes, the place got a little less miserable after a while, but still bad nonetheless. If I'm going to be spending maybe a year in this country, I'm gonna do it RIGHT and make the changes I see fit.
& PS - if you are a future student that will be studying abroad in Australia & going to Deakin, do NOT use Burwood Student Living unless you want landlords that act like your parents (she legitimately has come to my house unannounced about 6 times now, has gone through our stuff and told us to clean up after ourselves, calls us at 7/8 in the morning etc). I guess I got the shittiest house and there are nicer ones that they rent out, but I wouldn't want to live here because of the landlords, PERIOD. Just a heads up:)