In the Future, Find a Home

I'll blog about Paris later, since I barely have a free second to breathe this week, however...WE GOT A HOUSE TODAY. It's perfect, if I do say so myself. Well, perfect for a student house: I think I watch too much HGTV for me to have any realistic expectations of what I can afford at this stage in my life. However, this place comes pretty close to what I had in mind, since it's clean and recently re-done in all the important places. The location is perfect, right off Unthank Road where everything is and which was my primo location. It's also walkable into town, or you can be lazy and take the bus. The bus is the main way to get to Uni, which I'm happy with: no more 15 minute walk in the cold! It'll only about 7 minutes to the bus stop, and it feels a world shorter. From the outside, it doesn't look like much, but the landlord thinks he'll be able to re-do the front over the summer, as well as put in some grass in the back garden. Even if he doesn't, it's ok: if the front entrance becomes nice, there's a chance that it'll become the main entrance into the house (the back door is now), and the front door leads directly into what I have a feeling will become my room. However, we can easily just not use that door. The house is directly next to a Chinese food takeaway, and by next door, I mean I can literally lean out the entryway in the downstairs bedroom (which I have a feeling will become mine) and stick out my hand and take a bag of food from someone standing in the door of the Chinese food place.


As you can see, the Chinese food place is right there. The rest of the pictures are in THIS Facebook album. The outside may be plain, but the inside is in better repair and upkeep than most student properties out there, I'd say. And you simply can't beat the location, the price, and the size.

The current tenants, four girls, are very neat and apparently are aspiring interior designers who like pink. I don't know if we're going to be able to live up to the decorating jobs they've done in their bedrooms, and I think our current bedroom preferences have been influenced by the decorating which won't be there when we move in anyway: we all seem to like one the best, and it's definitely the one with the most attention to detail. Honestly, though, in the end I don't mind which room I get, since the three upstairs are about the same, and the one downstairs is huge (though downstairs). The kitchen is clean and new, and the bathroom is clean and huge (though I'm probably going to scrub the shower walls first thing: my only concern about the whole place is a small bit of discoloration between the tiles). Our landlord seems incredibly nice and helpful, whereas we weren't even sure if the estate agent that showed us around yesterday was a man or a woman. Of course this doesn't necessarily have bearing on personality, but they didn't seem very nice, either.

I'm so happy I could scream. The two places we saw yesterday, which were not UEA approved, were shiteholes. I'm so glad we didn't settle for the better of the two, since although I could have survived in that house, it was nothing like I had in mind, and it made me seriously begin to worry about what sort of place I'd find myself living in next year. I feel light and free now that we've found a great place that fits all of my criteria (OK, no tumble dryer, but basically no one in England has one. There's a laundrette a 7-minute walk away if I really need a dryer).

I guess I just find it interesting that I just got a house in England, and it's my first real place that's not owned by anyone but me (OK, the landlord, but I mean, some place where I'm completely independent, with no uni regulations). I've been wanting that since I was twelve, and I still sometimes laugh at the fact that I'm getting all this at twenty. I thought I'd have to wait at least another five years.

On a completely random note before I go find something else to procrastinate with: Jónsi of Sigur Rós is releasing a solo album in April as I previously mentioned, and the second single of the album was just released:

Jónsi - Go Do from Jónsi on Vimeo.

I love the song, but I think all the makeup and costumes and bird feathers are overkill. I like simplicity, but whatever. I can't wait for the album!

ALSO: I'm now going to both Germany (Dusseldorf) and Greece for spring break officially. Whew. However, I grossly overestimated how much my four trips this term would cost, and I've got...a significant sum of money left over. I'm trying to turn this into another trip with Alex, perhaps to Prague to visit Jane, or to Sweden. I sincerely wish more people had interest in coming with me to Iceland, because I can actually afford it. However, they don't actually start running guided tours or anything like that until June because it's, uh, too cold. When I tell people this, any slight spark of vague interest in them disappears. I wonder why? Flights are about $500 round trip, which is expensive as all hell for a student, but...actually within my budget. However, if I were to go alone, I wouldn't want to just wing it: I'd want to go on one of those guided tour groups, and preferably one that starts in Reykjavik for a day or so and then goes around the Ring Road in a coach (AND INCLUDES AMPLE VIEWS OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS). As I say, these don't start until June, usually, and are about $1,000 from the get-go, without the $500 airfare. Le sigh. SOMEDAY, DAMMIT. I need to find a travel buddy for that particular destination in the meantime. Hmm.