Accommodation Search: 2010

One of the things I was told by BUNAC before London2 was to not find a place to live until I had found a job. The thinking was, how will I know what I can afford unless I know how much I make? What if I commit to living all the way in East London and my job is all the way west? These are solid points, one might say.

FALSE!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to job search from a hostel? A hostel that is all the way west, because it's the cheapest, but therefore a million miles away from interviews? A hostel where you have to pay for internet? A hostel where you can't save anything to your computer? It's...it's a challenge. Which is why I threw solid points to the wind after a week and committed to Maryland Sq.

Knowing how much I hate operating from a temporary location, and finding out that the affordable hostel is 2mi from Stratford, I made finding a place to live my number one new thing to stress about focus on. Here are the steps I took:

• Stalking websites SI sent out a housing letter, since UofB is set up to house students in Birmingham and most SI students live in Stratford, and this included two letting agents that work with students (dwellings.co.uk and http://www.belvoirlettings.com/). I stalked their websites, but nothing really seemed to be viable. Because I am living the life of starving grad student, having kitchen access is vital, and those rooms in my price range were bedsits with microwaves, or not furnished (shipping a bed to England? Buying one there on my budget? Equally not happening). The housing letter also included some private individuals who had rooms to let, but there were only three. Two of those were rooms in private houses with families (not ideal, and not something I was willing to commit to without scoping it out in person), one of which was 30 minutes from the Institute. The third was private, but way out of my price range.
• RoomBuddies.com An English site that pairs people looking for rooms with people who have rooms to let. It's almost like a dating site, since you are advertising yourself. Stratford came up with six searches, including one that sounded promising, and two people messaged me about rooms they had, but one was a private family and the other gave no information.
• LiveJournal Communities Yes, yes, yes, I still have a LiveJournal. Most of my friends are off it, now, or hardly ever update, but there are a few who do and make it worth keeping. Also, it was a time killer last summer (summary of all entries from 2009: I hate/am worried about money, I miss England, I need a job, friends are great, I like Shakespeare...seriously, that pretty much covers everything). BUT MOSTLY I find that the communities actually are incredibly helpful. I have used the North American at UK Colleges and Universities for multiple queries during this whole process and find Brits Americans to be a great source of information. So I posted with housing queries and got some responses/testimonials as to how hard it would be to find housing.
• SI Contact List SI sent out a form for anyone who wanted to be put in touch with other students looking for accommodations, and I responded with my information. They then compiled the responses into a list of about six students that was sent back to us.

You know what's crazy about that? IT WORKED. A girl from Texas emailed a few of us with an introduction, I responded with an introduction of my own, and then a third girl from Chicago emailed back to say she was finishing her Master's but beginning a research degree and had a house with two rooms and who wanted in? TX and I both jumped at the chance, Chi responded in the affirmative and now I have a place to live!

Chi.Roomie is finishing her dissertation, so there are details still to be worked out (do TX.Roomie and I pay rent for September? Who gets which bedroom? Etc.), but I'm really pleased with it. It's in my budget, only six blocks from the Institute, furnished and both girls sound great. But mostly I'm just ecstatic that, after traveling for 24 hours, I can walk from the train station and get to my room. I can unpack, I can sleep, I can stay in one place, I will be home. That is going to make a world of difference, having those first few days free to explore Stratford and get my bearings, rather than frantically trying to see flats before classes begin on the 4th.

Also, my visa arrived yesterday. I have all of the pieces and now just need to tackle my list of things to do in VA before I get on that plane.

Days until flight: 24