All these things I say to you, all these things I say are true

I think that's in a Coldplay song. It fucking sounds like Coldplay and it might not even be in a song, but whatever.

I haven't posted enough about how generally beyond shitty many of the experiences in Norwich were for this semester, probably because the posts would have been full of expletives and I would end up punching the computer.

So I'll let this real survey from UEA Accomidation do the talking, along with the answers that I wrote out for them:



If you called the accomidation office, why did you need to come and see us?

I along with one of the other residents in MCC went to ask about the incident of a non-resident gaining entrance to the flat and abusing the utilities, which made the residents feel unsafe. We had to go into the accomidations office because we were not informed of how the issue was resolved and were still feeling insecure.

Did you feel that your query was dealt with to your satisfaction?

No

Please detail why you felt this.

We were patronized by the people in the security office and told that our worrying was nothing more than 'fear mongering', and then informed that they did not have the manpower to simply leave a message of some kind in the flat telling us that we were safe and that the situation was being dealt with.

Do you have any other comments about the services offered by the Accommodation Office?

I booked my reservation for my flight to England from the United States three months before departure, since I was operating on a budget and that was the best time to get those tickets. A few weeks before my departure I was told that I needed to be at the office to pick up my key at or before 5 PM on the day that I got in (Friday), or else I would have to book a room in a hotel for that evening, at my own expense of course. With the type of ticket that I had bought there was no way of getting a flight into London any earlier on that day. I arrived in London at 11 AM on Friday, and had to rush to get to UEA on time, the entire process being incredibly stressful and difficult to manage, especially for someone who had never been in the country before. I literally got to the office at one minute before it closed, and from that point on was apparently entrusted to find my way there and manage the moving-in process. I was never told that there was no internet in the dormitory, and because it was Friday I was unable to get online until Monday afternoon, and though I understand that there is a good reason for registering for internet, an initial warning of the lack of immediate service upon moving in would have been helpful. Also, not having a liason from the housing office available at MCC during all hours (save for the housekeeper who was only there for a few hours each weekday) was in my opinion unacceptable and probably contributed to the insecure conditions of the apartment, since not only did the one incident of break-in occur, but two weeks beforehand another woman who was not a resident had somehow gotten into the flat and set a pile of phonebooks on fire under the stairwell. That there is not a front desk system or a nearby security office from the University for Mary Chapman Court makes it an unsafe situation, and though I personally think that residents and students should be treated with respect as they are adults, this should not be viewed as a sort of abandonment by the University (with the exception of the cleaning staff) that compromises our safety and general welfare.

Please can you detail in the box below the things that you liked most about your UEA Accommodation

I appreciated having a housekeeper to help with the general state of things in the kitchen and in the bathrooms, and the location in the city center was a good way to get to know my host city while on my exchange.

In the box below can you tell us the things you would most like to change about your UEA Accommodation.

Having a front desk service or any sort of 24-hour assistance on the site of the dorm itself is necessary for the well-being of its residents. Even in private apartment complexes, there are building supervisors and superintendants and a front desk that is on call to help with any sort of service or security issues. The fact that this was only immediately available to us on certain hours of the weekday is a serious problem, and a safety and health hazard.

If you have any other comments about your Accommodation this year please can you detail them below.

The presence of mildew and rust stains in the bathroom is unacceptable. Mary Chapman Court itself is almost depressingly decorated, we don't even get proper walls, just painted brick, the washing machines left holes in my clothing, the showers were easily clogged, the beds were small and uncomfortable, and the radiators were turned off without residents being informed and, in several of the dorms, the entire heating system would break, in the middle of winter. Also, the system of 'if you lose a key you have to go to campus security (a 30-minute bus ride) and pay a £20 fee to get a new house key is unfair and unreasonable.


I'm in a little place called Stevenage right now, staying with Amanda's relatives, and I swear it's like I died and went to heaven by comparison to all that crap.

Retour

I'm in Paris again. And I'm leaving tomorrow to go back to England.

I know that that seems like a completely lackluster pair of sentences. Fact is that I'm in the middle of a lackluster trip, part not having enough time to enjoy the things I want to enjoy, part remembering all the reasons why not traveling a lot with my family is, well, a good thing, and part straight up repetition. One day I'll come to Paris and not be required to go to the Louvre; I really don't think that visiting it every time is worth the nine Euro. Truth is it's just too damn big, and too damn hard to get around in. And the crowds are hell.

My family took me going to England as a perfect excuse for them to go abroad as well, which has, at the moment at least, resulted in me having to listen to two people snore at the same time. You would think that they would find some somnambulistic way of synchronizing. My brother, who is 14, is sharing the room with me, and he prefers to sleep on his back, with his head thrown back and his mouth wide open, and he snores with such conviction that either he has a breathing problem, or he dreams of being Laurence Olivier. My father on the other hand sleeps in the other room, above the covers, and his snores are accompanied by clicks with each in and exhale. I know these things because I have traveled with my family before. And I don't sleep very often when I do, you see, I'm a sensitive person when it comes to noise; anything dissonant or continuous (say, a car alarm or the ticking of a clock) is bound to keep me awake until I stubbornly fall asleep, most likely with a frown and crossed arms. And of course I'm sick of doing the whole faily schtick, the hypocritical gesture of being old enough to drive, drink, vote, pay taxes, and keep a job, and yet every summer be forced into the back seat, given a list of chores, curfews, and the pidgeonholing action of making me try to sleep within ten meters of my brother. I love him, I do, but ever since he was four his sleeping habits have been a problem for my sleeping preferences (when he was a kid he insisted that we left the bathroom light on in the hotel room(s) as a nite-light, interfering with another one of my sleeping requirements: darkness), and the more I live on my own, the more pissed getting stuck with him makes me; of course I can't afford my own room, but there must be something to be done. Some sympathy for me not getting sleep would help, which for my mother is just me being dumb and stubborn, and why-not-just-get-earplugs.

So there's that, and then there's the day-to-day life of Brennan Family Travel: my father not being interested in what's significant around us (PARIS) and going on and on about his job that I know all about, my brother not really caring too much one way or the other, and my mother berating everyone else's decisions or ideas if they conflict at all with her's. You should have seen them trying to conduct a car in Britain. Good grief.

So other than that, I spent hardly enough time around my favorite pieces of art in Musee d'Orsay and didn't even get a chance to see Cupid and Psyche in the Louvre, the Opera Garnier was closed, and what hit me the worst, I only got a few minutes in the upper chapel of Sainte Chapelle, because everyone else had "seen enough" and was "about ready to get going", after spending about ten minutes looking at some of the most beautiful stained glass in the world. And I don't even want to start on how everything I tried to say in regard to the art, or museums, or Parisian things in general was either shot down via rolled eyes or completely ignored.

Oh, and I got almost-heat stroke dehydration in the Louvre and blacked out in the entrance hall, then spent forty minuted lying on a cot in the infirm, trying to explain the nurse that I have cramps from hell in French. "J'ai de al mentration....je souffre."

Oh, and the apartment we rented has mildew and roaches.

Good rant post, Meg. Good think I'll be home tomorrow to amend this.