Housemate diaries

I was never lucky with housemates.

When I first entered college I shared for around half a year the house I was living in with a classmate. I soon discovered it had been a bad decision. For several reasons.

The first day we were supposed to live together, she got seriously drunk at our course's students party and locked me up outside our house. Lucky for me, I was with some friends and somehow managed to convince her to open the door, despite her drunkenness.
Influenced by that sad event I never managed to be "friends" with her. I was pretty weak at that time and couldn't "defend" myself should an argument arise.

Time went by, and the most unexpected and rude thing happened. She had brought a baby cat into our house, without even asking/telling me. I found out one day, when I open the door and see the cat inside. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love cats and have many of them, but this is just plain inconsiderate!

It was Winter, meaning cold weather and (very) strong rain (at least in Portugal, in Japan it's different). Regardless of the season we were in, I found myself arriving home with the cat locked in her bedroom, with the window (in the ceiling!!!) open! This marvelous episode happened at the very least 2 times.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have my housemate as a really stupid and irresponsible girl, who never really did any effort in whatever she'd do, so she gave up our East Asian studies course and therefore, left the house.

However, the person who replaced her was also kind of weird.  This time, it was a woman, in her mid thirties. Due the age gap (I was 18 at the time) I never really had any interest in becoming friends with her, I was a little apprehensive too, because I was going to live with a real woman. A woman looking for a job, completely adult, who had had her college education and etc. This, for an insecure 18 year old living "alone" for the first time was frightening.

But anyway, she had the bad habit of smoking, and to make things worse, in order to lessen the tobacco smell, she would use incense, which would make the smell not necessarily worse, but weirder and very strong to my nose. As for the rest, perfect.
She left the house after around 3 months in there, her mother got sick or something and she had to move again.

These two experiences were not what I had expected so I decided to rent the rest of the house and live alone until the end of the school year.
And for the next two years I was going to live in the house next door, alone. In a T0 (meaning no bedrooms), a pseudo "loft", haha.

There was this cat in the "neighborhood" that would come to my house very, very frequently (pretty much on a daily basis). I was better off without people now, I had my cat friend and the ignoramus of my course had all given up from it. So at school was me and my friends, after school it was me and my friends at the cafe studying or just having a nice time, or at the mall. Studying at the mall was also a constant. Oh I miss doing it.
Actually the friends I studied at the cafe were from my class, the ones I studied at the mall were from the 1st year and the ones I studied at the library were a mix of the 3 years. Usually no less than four of us at one time.

But anyway, and because I'm already changing the subject, here's some pics of the house were I lived during my second and third year of college, before coming to Japan.

This sofa was the epitome of comfort. And the cat agrees.

 

Sunny day. And a fellow cat enemy. Look at her heroic stance.
 

For when I had friends coming over. And for myself too.

She had a good life during those 2 years. She even had her own blanket : D

Ah. Gotta love relaxing. (This was taken in my last day at the house actually.)

So now I'm in Japan, sharing house with a japanese. And again, I'm not very lucky with the people that live with me.
I mean, it's a matter of education, respect, manners or whatever you want to call it. But when you finish the toilet paper roll, you are expected to replace it with a new one, so that the other person doesn't have any lack of toilet paper problems when using the bathroom. This is one example, I could name a few more.

Considering that the person I'm referring to, is an adult (some months younger than me), a japanese native, is being paid by my university to work as a "tutor" and pays no rent (someone told me, not sure it it is true or not), this person, more than anyone should be more responsible, and somehow, lead by example.

Not doing it tells me you are (either):

- very inconsiderate, very rude, uneducated - bad manners (which kind of surprised me, since I'm "in Japan")
- doing it on purpose (why, I don't know)
- a very, very spoiled brat, who expects other people to do everything
- just be somehow blind or have some other physical or mental disability (which I find very, very unlikely)

I mean, it's basic manners, right? I'm not the one who's wrong here. Specially when I do my best to keep everything perfect around here.
I should congratulate the person's parents for the wonderful education and manners they thought their toddler. Yes! Because I wouldn't be surprised if this came from a 4-10 year old, but nope, we're dealing here with a young adult. Shame.

So, not that lucky when it comes to housemates, oh well. Need to keep working so that I am able to find a good job and finally settle in some place just for myself and eventually some partner.

Now I'm going to take a walk, while listening to some music to get in the mood and do some studying. 

Have a nice weekend!