October the 8th must be some magical saint's day who helps the poor college students, because most of our flat's main issues were all resolved (at least for the time being) yesterday.
Our mail for one thing has been finally arriving to us. Before the semester even started, I had ordered a SIM card to be sent here so that I would be able to call people when I arrived, but it never came. My flatmate also had a SIM card sent to our flat and a book bag shipped here to use, and neither of those came. After about a week of expecting them, we went to the hall office and asked if they had any mail and just were not giving them out yet. The woman at the counter told us that if your name was not on a list of summer students, everything (up until the first day of Fresher's week) was sent back. This was really irritating because they never told us that, my flatmate had paid almost $50 to ship her book bag and other stuff, and we had arrived a week before everyone else so they probably came while we were living there but the school just sent them back.
We ended up ordering a phone cover and two more SIM cards, but still nothing arrived. Eventually I received three different letters, which was a shock. Apparently regular mail can get to our flat just fine, but anything else is stopped. Although a different room-mate did end up getting a package from her dad, and because of that my first room-mate, Austin, and I went back to the hall office to see if her book bag had arrived now since her parents had not gotten anything back. The woman at the counter repeated everything she had said earlier, but this time rather rudely. Austin and I asked her some more questions which she pretty much answered, "it was sent back", but when I asked if they had a list of what was sent back and who it was for, she said, "no". All in all, it is just a very disorganized system that makes almost no sense.
Eventually, about a week ago, Austin ended up getting a letter in the mail telling her to pay more money to get her package from the local post office (who knows why it was there) and we received two of the four SIM cards all on the same day. Austin, reluctantly, paid the money and just got her book bag yesterday. It was a joyous day here in our flat, but I am still rather irritated about the poor system that the post office and school seem to have.
What also ended up working yesterday, was our heat! We have been here a month now and not once did we have any whisper of heat. Luckily we had some extra blankets and sweatshirts to keep us warm, but it was still freezing at night.
We had asked the hall office about that as well, to which they told us multiple different stories all of which were apparently untrue since our heat never came on. Finally, my last room-mate, Amy, and I went down to the hall office and filled out a form saying that our heating was broken (since by this point all the other flats around us had heat) to which they sent out someone who got it turned on yesterday! I woke up this morning all warm and snuggly, and could not help but feel happy that I was not going to have to wear my winter coat to bed this year.
And lastly, I got a new phone. My mom let me take her blackberry overseas since it is suppose to work over here, but it had been a while since anyone had used it so it was very finicky and would just die almost right after charging it. So, I had to go to a pay as you go phone company and purchased the cheapest phone they had without a SIM card (because I had finally received mine). It is this extremely cheap, flimsy black Nokia that people probably haven't been using in real life since phones stopped being attached to cars. (Although, it is very small. It is only about the size of a pack of gum.) Also, it has almost no features except adding contacts, sending/receiving texts, and calling people. And yet, I find myself in love with it. This probably stems from the fact that it actually works when I need it to and what it does do, it does it without complicating everything. I wish I could take it back to America and use it there too, but I think it is purely a British phone. How will I be able to part with it?
Until next time...
Embrace the Odd,
Caitlin
"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?" -Harry Shearer
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