(Mis)Adventures In Accommodation, Part 2

Part 1 is here.

One night, at about 9 pm, the woman brought back a guy she said was a medical student who wanted to see the room, to rent it after I had moved out. They had both been drinking. They came in the room, sat down, and started a conversation. In English. I haven’t the vaguest idea today what it was about, but I remember that it was in English, so I could understand it at the time. It wasn’t overtly threatening, but here they were drunk in my room not really willing to leave. Fortunately, the shrieking brother was my hero – he’d been woken by the noise and got the pair of them to leave.

I got out of there as fast as I could – I didn’t spent another night there after that one. While I don’t think I was ever in physical danger, this has to have been one of the most unpleasant experiences of my time abroad. Living in a place that doesn’t feel safe, on whatever level, is very bad. Looking back, it crosses my mind that it could have been some kind of bizarre plan – to make me pay the rent and then leave early so they could re-rent, but I really don’t think it was. Still, I kick myself for staying as long as I did. There are a variety of very real reasons why I did, and it’s obviously a clearer path from bad to worse in retrospect than it was in the midst of it. While it’s going on, you don’t know that it will get worse…though a few bad incidents like the ones here are probably a strong sign.

And if I’m honet, a big reason for not leaving was that I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of having made me leave. Even if they weren’t trying for that. I didn’t want to leave and lose something that I was fairly entitled to – the room I’d paid for – because of them. Looking back at my story here, it strikes me yet again that it was incredibly stupid to stay as long as I did. In the end, I’m okay. I’m one bizarre story richer – and really, it’s like a story and a half if I can make two TEFL Logue posts about it – and while I perhaps still don’t always make accurate snap judgments about character, my ability to successfully remove myself from this situation gives me confidence for other such situations.

But I really hope not to repeat this one.