Signing My Life Away (deja vous)

I finally found a place to live, and today I went in to sign the lease. What should've taken one hour became a two hour nightmare errand. Originally the place had electrical problems with the bathroom light and bedroom light. When I refused to sign the lease until they are properly fixed, the leasing agents got an electrician in to fix it. Today when I went to inspect it, the bathroom light was fixed but the bedroom was not. My main concern was the bathroom light seeing that it has no windows. So I acquiesced because I didn't feel like dragging out this lack of housing nightmare anymore. When we got to the deposit and one month rent, I pulled out my check book. The agent looked at me and asked me if I had a money order of a bank cheque. I answered yes and pointed to my check book, issued from a bank. Turns out, a bank cheque is like a money order from the bank. My attempt at a post office to secure a money order using my debit card was a miss. Not only was my transaction denied, the woman behind the counter scolded me and insisted that I should return before 5pm with the proper funds so she would not have to cancel the money orders. Fabulous seeing the closest branch of my bank is two train stops away at my work office. So I walked back to the real estate office and informed them of the circumstances and went to the train station to procure a bank cheque from my bank.

When I finally signed my lease I was somewhat relieved and hesistant, much like when I signed my offer letter to work in Oz. I wonderd if I'll be happy living on my own for the first time in my life. I liked the neighborhood albeit its dodgey reputation, but the truth was I felt immediately at home walking the streets of "freaks." And to call them "freaks" is a gross exaggeration. The area reminded me of Berkeley; it felt real.

Soon I will have my clutter shipped to me in 14 neat boxes. This weekend I am focusing on getting a bed and sofa in there. Hopefully it will be inhabitable by next week. Here is a link for the pictures from the ad I saw. It does not come furnished. I plan to do something different with the living room, it could be amazingly contemporary or horribly communisitic.

http://www.domain.com.au/ore/Gallery/Photo.aspx?adid=5037692&pic=1