Mare's Crazy Adventures and other silly things

Lost In Space

Homelessness is a problem that is rampant in every country. It is an issue that is hard to tackle because nobody wants to have the burden of housing every single citizen since it is a very expensive task. Also, in most peoples' minds, the homeless are often poor, drug addicts, alcoholics and they reek of urine. This image discourages folks from wanting to associate with anything that has a connection with these 'citizens of the world'.

If, years ago, I was told that I would find myself out on the streets one day, I would have laughed my evil, snobby, witchy laugh (the manga kind) and snorted the thought away. However, after arguing with my psycho au-pair family over their uncontrollable and disgusting, 'butt-obsessed' children, I haughtily walked off and told them that I did not want to stay with them anymore. I called my friend, Jeremy, and asked to stay with him for a bit. At first, it felt refreshing to be away from the parents of the family who had yelled at me for every little thing and even said that I seem to be always 'dreaming' ( ditzy, in other words). But, as the saying goes, 'Pride goes before the fall' and for the past week and the half I have truly been homeless; I did not have my own room, my own toilet, my own address.

It is really frustrating not to have an address. I got so irritated when I was asked where I stayed and I had to say, ' oh, i am crashing with a friend' and people look at you with sad doe eyes, although my friends were kind enough to offer whatever help they could give. The most annoying thing is that in Paris, if you do not have an address, and therefore a fixed telephone LAN line, you really cannot survive. You cannot have a bank account, you cannot apply for student cards, you cannot do anything even if you do have the money to pay for these things; the agencies just will not accept you.

After realizing how horrible being homeless is, the next step to take is to find an apartment. Good luck with that. In Paris you have plenty of rooms, sublets, apartments and houses to choose from; most are horrible, all are expensive, none worth the money that you pay for. I checked out two places before I ran to wonderfully excited Dr. Costello, begging to get a dorm room instead.

The first place I checked out was a two storey house at Porte d'Orleans. It was horrendously ugly on the outside but very pretty and cosy inside. The landlady was an old British woman who is an artist and who freaked the shit out of me as she opened the door to let me in. Her face was saggy and she wore something close to a 40's ugly flapper outfit, complete with head band. She had green eyeshadow smeared across her face and on her pinched snake eyes. She really frightened me with her look of something between a witch and a clown. But, she is actually a lovely lady who asked way too much for her house that I would have to share with two other girls. 600 euros/month is just too steep for this lost sheep.

The next place I had on my list was so horribe that I wanted to run the moment I walked into the digustingly tiny apartment. It was a place owned by a snobby photographer whose nose was positioned so far above me that I thought he would have a nose bleed. By the end of the 'interview' I wished he did. He was quite rude but what really pissed me off is that he asked me to pay 600 euros/month for a room that is just a bed space above a bathroom, both of which have no doors! I just skidaddled out of there as soon as I could.

So, after the fruitless one-day apartment search I talked to Dr. Costello who has wonderfully set me up, not at the Foyer Naples where everyone else from UIUC is, but at Foyer International where no one I know stays. I have a nice single dorm room and the dormitory is situated right next to the Jardin du Luxembourg. Although, now, living in Paris costs a lot more than it did when I was doing the au-pair job, the important thing is that, being at the Foyer, I now have internet access. Hail WiFi.