Things Clicked!

Victory! I found accommodation. In short, I did thorough planning and contemplation on living in a camper van during the studies. But first I had to know for sure if it was a valid option. I sought advice first from the municipality and then from the university. I discovered that it is not a legally possible long-term solution, which is why I didn't pursue the contingency plan. However, after getting more knowledge in the matter, traveling and living in a camper van is now in my bucket list for sure. During the second inquiry I was offered a room from the Hague, and there and then I signed the papers.

I must admit that it was getting rather depressing reading all the fine folks looking for rooms in the Facebook housing groups. It's a rather shame that the university doesn't have either numerus clausus for majority of the studies to limit the amount of students, or even better yet: an improved housing system for the newcomers. At least a big warning in the university's housing pages would be in place.

The Apartment

The first and second night reminded that of a hotel room: everything was provided and taken care of. The furniture, kitchen utensils and bed stuff were ready for me. The apartment is spacious, luxurious in terms of its modern looks, and is located within superb connections. Overall a very dope place. Also, I have great flat mates and neighbors, some of whom are Finnish too!

First impressions aside, the real dark secrets began unfolding as I started living there. First of all, I cut my mouth while eating my morning cereal: the spoon was so sharp that you can shave beard with it. Second, the bathroom sink actually broke the other day. It came crashing down as my flat mate was about to use it. Another happy landing. Third, my lamp had little chunks of dried concrete, dust and few rocks inside the lamp stand. Indubitably, I was speechless and astonished at that point. Finally, DUWO, the student housing corporation, has obviously not thought the following through: as we live together I can't comprehend why we would need to own six wok pans or six corkscrews. This only brings chaos and lots of dish washing hours.

We, the ones who live in the shared spaces, should be given two different packages, with different utensils in each of them: the kitchen equipment and the individual equipment. Overall, I am very disappointed, but vastly grateful that I got a room. Though, in my opinion we should still hold certain quality and living standards.

Actually, there was even more to it, but I won't get into it. I filed a tasty complaint and gave general feedback. Honestly speaking, I have no faith they will improve their services. In my experience, most companies don't listen to their customers and just give a mundane 'thank you for your feedback' response. Most likely no actions will be executed, but at least I did something. Personally, the biggest disappointment was the kitchen cutlery since in my point of view as an amateur chef, the kitchen utensils were practically useless and needs to be replaced. DUWO has clearly gone with route of quantity over quality, which is a shame.

The Flat mates

Now, the great part: my flat mates. They're young fellows, almost entering their 20s, from Sweden, Peru, South-Korea, Italy and Germany. They are very eager to experience the life in the Netherlands as am I. In one week already we have had many delicious dinners together, made friends with the neighbors and joked about many things. Additionally, we agreed to have a few basic ground rules, and discussed about the list of items we need to purchase to make our new home more enjoyable. Things are starting to roll very well indeed.

The living spaces consists of three rooms and a common area where the kitchen is located, and of course bathroom is also included. The rooms inhabit two guys per room. It's not too shabby, since in the military I had to sleep on a double-decked bunk and share the room with 12 other guys. Not a big deal for me, even though I value privacy and enjoy solitude.

Meditations

Eventually, it all pan out well. Although, the results were not without effort and sweat. And even when this was, at its core, just pure luck, one can enhance one's chances by exposing oneself into as many instances as possible. It's all statistics dude.

#househunting #Holland