A Homeless Student

- Travel Journal: September 3, 2007 -

Also not a good day. I overslept and woke up at 10 am, whereas I initially intended to be at school by 9 am. Not that I have a class schedule or anything, it’s just that I want to take advantage of the internet on campus to continue my housing search more than anything else. This time, I tried to personally contact my country’s student association mailing list for help. I also decided to bring my large suitcase to campus and store it at the International Student Office, so I don’t have to move around carrying three pieces of luggage at once at any time.

So I did that, and I went to the room where the French language test (to determine which level I will be in – like I have to be tested anyway, I’m a complete beginner) is going to take place in. Long story short, we were given a presentation of survival things such as how to ask for a place, which train tickets to buy, etc. At the end, those who considered themselves complete beginners were suggested not to bother to take the test and automatically included into Group 1. Hey, sounds good to me. But we had to wait until 4 pm (we got out from the classroom at about 3 pm) for the room announcement starting tomorrow morning. Aw, shucks. After a little bit of surfing around and still had no luck from the apartment search, I waited with other students at the main hall for the room announcement. It turned out that the announcement was posted at the billboard at 4:45 pm. 45 minutes of standing there, chatting around without doing much of anything. Oh my God. Oh well, this is something to get used to. From the presentation earlier, I found out that 15 minutes late is common in France. I know this is 45 minutes late, but hey, go figure.

Since tonight would be my last night staying at the Formule 1 Hotel at Cergy St. Christophe, once again I asked my Pepperdine colleague if I could stay at her place for one or two nights starting tomorrow. However, she said I could not since her roommate hasn’t come back yet and she did not want to start the roommate relationship on the wrong foot. She promised to ask her roommate for a favor if he is back tonight. I completely understand that, but I just couldn’t help feeling down once again since I would end up wasting more money for checking into another hotel. Nevertheless, I have to check out from this hotel tomorrow morning since it will be full-booked for the next two nights, at least.

- to be continued... -