"Have you found a place to live yet? Cause we prayed for you in church."

The search for a flat in London has been no easy task. "I’ll find a place in a couple of days of hard searching," I'd told my mom leading up to the trip. "I mean how hard can it be? It's a big city; lots of people are offering room lets!" Well, I was right about one thing; lots of people are offering room lets. I just didn't take into account the enormous amount of people looking for room lets. I thought that Saturday and Sunday would be great days to see a few places, given people's schedules could be a little less busy -- wrong again. I am beginning to realize viewing apartments is a little like a business and on the weekends it's closed. Of course, as an American I don't think any store, office, establishment should ever really "close". We have 24-hour stores; bank ATMS, restaurants, etc. Here the harsh reality is at 7 p.m. if you haven't eaten or gotten what you plan to eat from the supermarket -- don't expect to go there. Saturday was a complete bust when no one returned any e-mails, calls or text messages. Kelly suggested I take a day to not think about it and try again on Monday. But the thought of having school and searching for a flat is too much for my little mind to contemplate at this point. So the search continued late into the night on Saturday night. I must have searched through 100 plus room advertisements, e-mailed at least 20 people and texted even more! I've found that to be a player in this game one must be aggressive. The rules of calling and texting people you've never met are much different than in the States; while the stores might close the people don't. I've sent e-mails to people about rooms and gotten texts from them at 11 p.m., 1 a.m. 8 a.m. etc. There are no boundaries when finding a home/flat mate (unless it means SEEING it on the weekend)! Waking up Sunday morning was a little disappointing when I found only one person out of at least 20 people had responded to my e-mails/texts. But I was able to confirm a time to see a one bedroom apartment way out of my price range ... maybe I could find a roomie? Desperate times call for desperate measures! As the day progressed I received a couple of more texts and was able to set up three viewings for Monday evening after my 9-5 induction lectures are finished. These are closer to my price range and cheaper, in the areas I wish to live and seem really wonderful! The flat mates seem like a fun crowd as well. Things might just be looking up. The hostel where we currently reside is actually a pretty cozy place. The owners have completely redone the inside and it's nicer than any hostel I've ever stayed! There are marble floors in the hallways, tile in the kitchen and hardwood floors throughout the bedrooms. The all girls dorm of eight only have four girls staying, including Kelly and myself. The room is complete with a fireplace, crown molding and mood lighting in the ceiling. There are two kitchens on the first floor and both have granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. There are 4 ovens, 4 microwaves, 7 toasters, washers/dryers, free tea and toast and much more. Over all it’s not a bad place to spend a couple of days. Of course, the bathrooms in hostels are always a challenge. I’ve never been so happy to have my wet wipes along! A swift wipe of a wet wipe allows me to sit comfortably! Yesterday Kelly and I went to the fabulous Waterloo flat to take “one last good shower” since Alberto had been so kind to allow us one extra day to move our things (many thanks again to Douglas for the use of the flat!). We enjoyed every minute of the clean bathroom and good water pressure and bare feet. However, tonight when I climbed into this hostel shower with my shower shoes I was not disappointed! It felt as if someone had turned on a thick water hose of warm water. It wasn’t until I turned off the water that I realized that I was in fact still in the hostel! My current roommates are pretty great as well. One girl’s name is Pam and she will be 27 on Wednesday! When I told her my birthday is tomorrow she graciously invited Kelly and me along to her birthday dinner on Wednesday with some girlfriends she thinks we’d get along with well. She said we could have a joint celebration. We graciously accepted! The other girl has been here four weeks while waiting for her boyfriend to move to London. She was talking about how he is hopefully moving this week and they will just go out and find a flat on Friday. She said, “It won’t be quite hard. There are loads of people around offering flats. We’ll just pick a place and be out of here.” I almost laughed out loud. She sounds like me just a week ago! Perhaps she’ll have an easier “go at it”. The hostel does offer free wireless internet, but it is spotty at its best and non-existent the rest of the time. I had written on Will's wall earlier in the day yesterday and I was a little disheartened when I saw he had been online but hadn't responded to me when I noticed his wall post, "Have you found a place to live yet? Cause we prayed for you at church." Keep those prayers coming little brother! :) I realized tonight while drying my hair in the hallway (because there are no plugs in any bathroom or bedroom – I just don’t understand the logic! There MUST be a reason) that I’m happy here. Yes, I’m homeless. Yes, I am over an hour commute to school daily. Yes, I have to wake up at 5 a.m. and leave before 6 a.m. Yes, they are doing work on the tube so I’ll have to catch two buses, three tube lines and then the train to school, but I still really like it here. I’m so excited to get settled. Once that happens I expect a steady steam of visitors, because this is one of the best places in the world!