Tomorrow I am crossing the pond with the feeble hopes of securing a place to live for my upcoming year in London. Over the years I have spent much of my time analyzing housing costs in numerous cities, and have basically had my hopes crushed in all instances. Finding a place to call homes feels nearly impossible sometimes. However, like the good little researcher I am, I have been logging numerous hours on websites and responding to ads for tiny, one room "flats" that may or may not be in an area that guarantees a nightly stabbing. My goal was to spend a week and a half in London searching out the perfect place to spend my postgraduate hours, hopefully alone and with my own bathroom -- I dream big. No flatmates need apply, I'm impossible to live with. However, with less than 24 hours to go before boarding my flight, I have received minimal responses from landlords willing to show me what they have to offer. I am nothing if not persistent, so upon landing and after downing a pint of scrumpy jack I will call each and every one of them and explain why I am indeed the perfect single, student they are wishing to let their flat to. Even if I end my sentences with prepositions. Here goes nothing.
The more exciting piece of this journey is actually what I will be doing in the middle of my time in London. After a few days of non-stop flat hunting, I will take a hiatus and head over to Budapest where I will meet up with some of my favorite people -- my Habitat for Humanity team!. From there we will head over to a small village called Beius in Romania and build a house together. A whole house. In one week. This is my second Habitat trip and I could not be more excited to mix cement, build roof trellises, tie rebar, stucco walls, and drink cjuc. My friend Mallory and I have been spending time thinking of our "Top 5s" with regard to travel. And though we only tackled "Top 5 Cities," I have to put it out there that Romania is probably one of "Top 5" countries. Everything about it is amazing, even the fried brains. I look forward to working with old and new friends and celebrating our fearless leader's 10th build in Beius. I hope some day that I can find the guts to lead my own build.
After recovering in the Budapest baths, which happen to be built by Turks, I will return to London and spend the rest of my time finding a place to live, opening a bank account and scoping out the LSE campus. Here's hoping that I have some good "home" karma stored somewhere.
