Nuts to You Too

I am in a decidedly unhealthy state; my nose runs and I keep sneezing violently and at a high frequency, too. I've decided it is due to the state of the room, which until a few hours ago was horribly dusty--at least the other side of it was...

...I should start off chronologically, for ease of recounting and remembrance. Therefore I will begin my recounting about four days ago, on Saturday (technically, as it is after 12 now, it was five days ago).

It is a long time since the events in my last blog post, but rest assured that nothing of great moment occurred in the intervening period; the time was spent running around for meetings and outings and sometimes spending lots of time sitting at the computer (which only occurred one day out of five last week, now that I think of it). I got quite footsore and my free dryfit vest got a lot of use.

On the Thursday of last week I went down to the Hall Office (they had sent me a letter some time back offering me accommodation, which I naturally and happily accepted) to ask to move in early; due to the Youth Olympic Games, which the University is hosting, the schedule for this academic year has got quite messed up--I have exams 'til the 23rd of December!--and all the hostels had sent out letters saying to move in only on the Sunday before school began. Not wanting to skip church and wanting to avoid the mad rush, I asked to move in early, and they said I could do so on Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning I woke at 7 and was out of Announce-chan's room by 8, with one of my larger bags and most of my electronics in my backpack; I arrived at the new Hall presently, all sweaty, and received my key. And then I went to my new room, along with a friend who was planning to squat with me (he hadn't got an offer for accommodation), and then... well.

The room was filled with boxes and bags, there was rubbish all over the place, and there were two people sleeping, one on each bed. I knocked about 15 times (during which the friend kept urging me to ask to be reassigned to a different room) before one of them woke. The Hall Office had said that the previous occupant had yet to check out and was due to check out the next day, so I chose to tolerate it; I merely woke the occupant up and told them I was going to move in.

The moving went on until about 12pm, and occurred by taxi and walking; during this time, the person we'd woken up had made himself scarce and I've never seen him since, and the other person remained asleep throughout. Therefore the only course of action available was to stack everything on the bed that I was going to occupy, as no other surface was in a usable state. Having done that, I changed clothes and went out, having already made plans for the rest of the day. (I also stopped by the toilets and was shocked into speechlessness; I took photos of it later, and everybody who's seen the photos has also been shocked into speechlessness, which should say something. In fact just having me be shocked by dirt should say something about it.)

When I returned that night, the other person was awake and about, but disappeared shortly after introducing himself--he was Indian, a fourth-year EEE student, and I've forgotten his name and face--and I went to sleep on the floor, having cleared out a bit of space to put my pillow down amongst the bags and plastic random items; even so, my head rested on the pillow, my back was on the floor, and my legs were on a large hard-shelled bag, and I was woken around 4am when the roommate stumbled back in and accidentally kicked the bag on his way to his bed.

The next day was Sunday; I woke and left for church, hoping to return to a half-empty room--the Indian had said that he and his friends (there were apparently five people's belongings in the room!) had chartered a lorry and would be done that day. I left, therefore; after church there was a dedication of a daughter by one of the church members and I was invited along to play the keyboard and attend and have refreshments after; and then I rushed back to the hostel to help Announce-chan in his moving.

I stopped by the room to change clothes, and found it just as overflowing as before; the Indian was awake and on the phone, and claimed to be calling his friends (who were all apparently asleep) for help. I left, and helped Announce-chan, and then my friend (who had decided that he would rather squat somewhere else upon seeing the state of my room) to move; then I and Announce-chan dropped by my room and found it being emptied, which was a hopeful sign.

Suffice it to say that today is Tuesday and not only did they not finish moving on Sunday, but I haven't seen hide nor hair of them since then; I think they've given up on the belongings they left behind, so I have put them on the sidewalk and written an email to the legal occupant to inform him so. I also did a bit of mopping and cleaning of the toilet on Sunday night, and now it's practically livable.

...the only thing that bugs me about all of this is that last Saturday I and the Gobbler joined in a Bible study, and one of the action points was to put others' needs ahead of one's own, at least three times this week. And while I might think I've done that, it's also possible that I'm just being mean to people who didn't manage to do all their moving earlier and have been too busy over these two days of school to get it done; and of course their slovenly way of life shouldn't be an indictment against their entire character. But then I'm sneezing madly and it really was disgustingly dirty--they not only have dust bunnies, they have pieces of dessicated cockroach mixed in with the bunnies... well, they had. I've removed both bunnies and cockroach pieces. But yeah; I wonder if I've been, well, unChristian by tossing all their remaining belongings (gleefully, I might add) onto the sidewalk (but in an arrangement whereby the pedestrians are unimpeded)? And of course I did the usual looting; I did not toss out their LAN cables or a particularly nice new black leather belt or a little plastic case full of coins or their thumbtacks. So yeah--it's more gray v. grey than white v. black (or yellow v. brown as the case may be).

And I must sleep; we shall talk of classes some other time. Good night!