So for most of the summer, I’ve been faced with the prospect of not knowing where I’ll be living in September. At St. John’s College, they give you two years to complete a Masters. After that, they boot you out even if you’re not done. Well, I’m at the end of my two years and I’ll need a little bit more time to finish up.
You can apply for an extension, but the whole process is murky and a bit shady. Rarely are extensions given, and when they are, no one really knows why or how they got it. I could write a whole book about the mysterious workings of the SJC administrative staff.
Anyways, yours truly applied for an extension and I didn’t get it. For the last several weeks I’ve been wondering what the hell to do. I was wait-listed at a few UBC residences but I wasn’t getting in anytime soon. As of last week, I was number 13 for a one-bedroom apartment at Thunderbird, but there was no guarantee when I’d get that.
I was fully prepared to live at home for the beginning of the school year while I figured out what to do. Mentally, I began to prepare to eat with my parents for dinner again and maybe even let my Mom tuck me in.
Yesterday though, I received an e-mail from Thunderbird Housing. They had reached my position on the wait list. They were offering me a one-bedroom apartment on campus. My problem had been solved.
Today, I went to the housing office to accept my assignment. The lady there gave me some choices: there two apartments available on the 16th of this month or one apartment on the 20th of September. I didn’t want to pay rent for two places at once, so I chose the latter date. Also, that apartment was closer to SJC than the other two. I also know it’s a split-level apartment. I have the address and I’ll probably go look at it this week… from the outside at least.
I’ve never lived in a one-bedroom apartment before. I also don’t have any furniture. I’ll need a bed, desk, and a chair. I’ve determined those are the minimum items I need to procure for my place. I’ve already got my kitchen and bathroom stuff from SJC. My living room will be barren. Everyone is invited to come on over, but you might need to bring a chair. It’d be crazy for me to start buying stuff since I’m poor and I’m only going to be there for seven months.
So, the only complication is that I’ll need to move out to my parents’ place for about three weeks. Two of those weeks will be school weeks, so it won’t be that bad… I hope. My goal is to leave a bit of stuff with my friends here at SJC. What a pain it would be to move all my crap to Port Moody and then move it back just three weeks later.
I’ve got half a glorious month left at SJC and I’m going to make the best of it.