Hi arachnids, how u doin :D?

Its been an EXHAUSTING week, physically and mentally, but a pretty worthwhile one. Obviously, I moved out and got all my things in the new house, and even met one of the roomates :0.

But before that, I should mention the exams…

I PASSED!!!!!>:D!!!!

FREEDOMMMMMMMMM

FINALLLYYYYYYYYYY

GOD, the buildup was STRESSFUL. Every day up until today would sour so fast whenever I thought about the marks releasing on september 1st, but yea I guess I was worried about nothing tho (~_~;).

Now im OFFICIALLY a university of leeds student >:).

I ate at a cool burger place to celebrate (though theres more to it than that you’ll soon see :’)) and had a really good burger and side, though I didnt finish the side given how BEEFY it all was. I mean seriously, all I ate today was that damn burger and half of the loaded fries and im STILL full, its crazy.

It was HOOYAH, if you were wondering, and I had a nice chat with edd (the owner? idk, seemed liked it). He came over and chatted me up after I finished eating, and we talked about the food, travel, AI, a lot of stuff honestly. He was really nice to talk to, and I enjoyed my time with him.

Anyhoot, I should just get to the moving out bit. Id explain in detail (and I probably will), but if you wanted a summary of the bad stuff, both:

I CANT USE THE BATHROOM

and

THERE ARE SPIDERS FUCKING EVERYWHERE,

Would probably be enough to get the message across :’). Lets get into it bit by bit, and starting with the positives.

I got the contract signed as soon as I could with unipol, which was wednesday, for some reason. They were closed till then, meaning I only had 3 days to haul everything, but thankfully they were able to get the contract and keys ready almost immediately after I asked, and the guy and girl that id talked to in trying to get things singed were really helpful. Afterwards, I got the bus pass like I planned on, and started hauling stuff the next day.

At first i’d just uber whatever stuff I didnt see myself hauling something I had on me on the bus, like the piano and its stand, so that ended up costing me two uber rides to the place (went back by bus), one on the first and second day. The first day had 2 trips back and forth trips, and the second had 3, but by the third day it was clear I needed to haul WAY ass, so I went about 5 or 6 trips total, all using uber rides to get to the house and then take the bus back. It was pretty cumbersome, but we got through it, and thankfully the uber rides made it much easier and more manageable.

Then went back and slept, and moved the last batch of stuff yesterday, the final batch, an hour before I had to leave the property.

And thats really about it for the moving itself. As for the place, there was a lot I got to see every time I passed by, and honestly, a lot to love, even more than I initially realised in the viewing.

For one, the area the house is in is right by where my foundation year centre is, so im pretty intimately familliar with many of the places around me already. That, and MY GOD is it greener than the somewhat murky city centre, and I love that. Honestly, the greenery is so refreshing.

O, and about the kitchen, A DISHWASHER, I HAVE A DISHWASHER THANK GOD :0. NO MORE DISHES WHEN I MAKE BIG BATCHES OF MEALS, AWESOME.

Then the room I have itself resembles many rooms ive had before, just bigger and with somehow MORE STORAGE SPACE than my city centre apartment!?!?!?!???

Of course, thats probably to account for the fact that the bathroom is tiny as fuck and that I wont have that much kitchen storage space to put stuff cuz id be living with 4 others, and honestly I havent fully settled in and organized everything, but still. The several cupboards in my room alone, even if they dont slide open (which is kinda annoying), provide a lot more space to store stuff, which is great.

Honestly, just the house itself, since the moment I entered, struck me as extremely “homey” if that makes sense. It feels right to be in, you know? The nearby houses, the birds and bees, the several benches and easy access to all the cool places that ive already gotten to check out earlier in the year, and the other places around the area that im yet to check, especially THE PARKS :D. The students and british folk living their lives as opposed to the busy business of the center of town, and the much quieter atmosphere because of it. It just all feels so right, and way better than anything I had in the city center.

Still though, theres a couple of problems that ive also seen creep themselves up, thatve made it hard to live like I wanted to. These mostly started with when I was unpacking the other day, and to explain them I think I should just explain how the unpacking has been going and continue on from there. Basically…

I DONT KNOW WHERE TO START!

Honestly, theres so much stuff related to the packing, and I dont know how much space I can take up in the kitchen. Ive already taken up 2 cupboards, a whole desk, and a row in the fridge and the freezer, and im STILL NOT DONE.

Admittedely, the stuff on the desk is all my cooking machinery, like the air fryer and pressure cooker, which everyone is free to use as long as they clean after themselves. Same goes for the cupboards, theyre filled with containers, medicine and spices, and while I obviously wouldnt let them take my meds, I couldnt be asked to care less about the rest of it given were roommates¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I mean, MAYYYBE the spices, id like it if they restocked them too after they used them, but we’ll have to see how it works out when we get there. Its not like theyre here yet. Theres only 1 roomate currently around, the rest are either on vacation or just dont exist, idk.

Besides, theres a good chance the tenants who DID live here never really cooked with the kitchen, given how FUCKING INFESTED it is, and the fact that theres a bunch of takeout and arnold eats mostly rice with meat or tuna, which ive never seen him make but he has ready in like less than 2 minutes. Its not like im ever in the kitchen when he cooks so i dont really know, but the other day I heard him microwaving the food, and the first time he made minced meat and rice there were no dishes when I walked in (he washes dishes after eating).

Maybe the rice is pre packaged? Ik he ate tuna from the tuna can I saw in the bin that I NEVER SAW ANYWHERE BEFORE that, but idk how he prepares the rice or where the meat came from or any of that.

Mystery food :].

O wait right, his name is arnold btw :D. Fake name, but real guy, cool guy, he doesnt seem to mind the infestation.

Infestation?

Yea, the infestation.

I mentioned it like a bajillion times THERES A GODDAMN SPIDER INFESTATION, AND IM FUCKING SCARED OF SPIDERS, MOSTLY THE BIG FAST ONES THOUGH.

Its mostly in the kitchen, but it HAS spread to both the living room and, in one particular instance, to my bathroom.

And the bathroom, my god is the bathroom in a bad state. I dont know how I didnt notice before in the viewing, but its the gross kinda nasty >:/.

Aside from the fact every metal is rusted, theres a spudge of some weird color (about an inch in size and far but on top of the toilet near some metal), the floor comes off where it meets the shower tub, and the shower tub is also riddled with gunk and mold, particularly on the floor.

Remember how I said id disinfect it yesterday? Well, I didnt, and its about time I mention that too.

Other than the incessant and unaltering urge to not go near an inch of the shower tub and mold, I also had to clean and organize a majority of my room, since yesterday was my first day. So I decided to just do that instead for a couple of hours, figuring out what can go where and moving stuff to the kitchen in the hopes to declutter and reduce the chances of spiders showing up in any cluttered space.

Around 10:30 or so, I walk into the bathroom, ready to finally push past the grossness of the bathroom and clean it dispute how nasty it was. It was then that I noticed two VERY fun NEW pieces of information.

The first, there was a hige clump of hair, cobwebs, and gross shit behind the pipes on the top right of the room where the sink was, probably due to a crack.

The second, is that then and ONLY then, was when I realized that the spider infestation wasnt only limited to the bottom two floors of the house.

There was a spider, an inch or two bigger than any id seen downstairs (and thicker), chilling in said shower tub.

:DD.

Well then..

Yea, I didnt clean it. I just went and had dinner, got a meal deal from sainsburys and drank the dr pepper like a divorcee in the living room, staring at the spiders in the ceiling and listening to a 5 hour danganronpa 3 diss X).

So uh, thats my first day here. To be frank, the days leading up to it and the day itself left me exhausted, both physically AND mentally, my long standing arachnophobia and now maybe mycophobia (general fear of anything thats too gross so not just fungi, might not count so idk) are really being tested when im already tired as shit from the move itself.

God really does give his silliest battles to his funniest clowns :].

To be clear, despite how shitty this all is, I dont actually regret moving here at all. Im not even mad. It sounds almost silly, like im just coping hard (who knows maybe I am) but there are a couple of reasons, the biggest of which regarding the issues present themselves being that ive reported both of them, and im asthmatic on their system too so theyre likely to deal with the bathroom part soon >:) (though it means ill be showering in the gym for a while from here on out).

Theres the spider infestation too, which may take longer (or maybe both will be dealt with this week too), but honestly isnt even as big a deal when you look at it from further back.

We’ve just began spider season (september to october), so its not like this is specific to this house (AKA this mightve been an issue in any house share), and even if it werent, spiders are easily the LEAST problematic pest I couldve gotten, trust me ive started looking into it (~_~;).

Ants are horrible, there are bajillions of them if you get them, flys and mosquitos are obviously worse and more dangerous in terms of disease since they kill way more ppl worldwide, and the odd centipede or silverfish would probably make me burn the house down anyways.

Instead of any of that though, we got spiders, which have never killed anyone in the UK for over 40 years (apparently) and KILL other bugs for you, like some of the mosquitos that have been mucking about in the house. So far, ive only gotten relatively small ones too, no more than 2 inches, so no HGS’s (thank god). Even with my fear for these bastards, its not the worst it could be.

All things considered, probably the best pests to deal with :).

Many even say to keep them, looking into it a lot of people keep the long legged ones since theyve learned to live with humans in a positive symbiotic sort of relationship (there was a more specific word but I dont remember it), and even keep the bigger ones, like the medium small sized spider in the tub, as a pet.

That being said, IM NOT DOING THAT, I WANT THESE MOTHERFUCKERS AND ALL INSECTS OUT, but its good to know it could be way worse.

It also gives me a chance to battle my arachnophobia anyways. Even if stuff like going to the bathroom and entering rooms in general is much harder for now, the exposure will probably work to help push me to get used to them (at least for as long as the infestation stands), and maybe eventually I wont have the same irrational fear caused from the MANY, MANY times these motherfuckers screwed with me as a kid (mainly 2).

Id like that. Its not something thats ever bothered me too badly, since there are barely any spiders where ive lived anymore, but if its something that will pop up from now on, might as well get used to it, right? Beat the phobia while I can hopefully.

Also worth mentioning, YPP (my old company) is WAY worse than unipol. Ive mentioned it already, but unipol, likely due to its incentives as a non profit, is way more reliable in communications and payments (YPP has tried several times to overcharge us until we show them official records of payments :/), and unlike ypp havent ditched SEVERAL maintenence problems I asked them to fix (like how they only cleaned the windows near the end of tenancy and WOKE ME UP WHILE DOING IT instead of cleaning it months ago when I asked, total cunts).

Anyways, all of this is great and all, but whats MOST making this situation worth its while, even if its unbearable now, and way more than anything else, is nothing to do with the actual stuff I can do to circumvent the issues. It’s what it means for my family too.

My family has been paying 900 pounds a month to ypp, and before I moved they were gonna charge us 1134 pounds per month, which ive already mentioned before but it needs further restating. The 900 pounds a month pricetag was ALREADY unsustainable, LET ALONE the huge spike in uni fees now that im out of foundation year, and now they wanted to INCREASE it, even though they added NOTHING to justify an increase?

(in fact, they never gave us the fobs they promised when we moved in, so less than nothing tbh)

As ive been reminded so many times over due to family drama too, my dad is already busting his ass off not only to pay MY fees, but also paying several family members in lebanon as the breadwinner of his WHOLE side of the family alongside his brother.

That, and more importantly, my sister is gonna graduate soon too. Shes gonna need the money to graduate, and the money to find a university like mine.

There was no way I was gonna have him pay 900, let alone 1134, to a company that would spit in my face if it werent for the money I were giving them, even if the place was nice. Not when hes already doing so much, and my sister’s gonna follow me into a uni as well. I mean seriously, if I end up being the reason she doesnt go to a good university? i dont know what id do with myself.

The whole situation sort of just left me without the heart to go for any properties even just near the upper range of the budget I was given on finding a price per month for the flat, 600-800 pounds, so, even if the place is a houseshare (meaning itd be cheaper regardless), the fact that it costs 580 a month is a huge win. Its not insanely far off half the price of the old flat price, and is basically half off the price they were planning on making us pay.

I want my sisters to keep living well. I want to see my oldest sis in a university she likes, abroad (like shes made very clear shed prefer), and still have my family live as nicely as theyve been living already. I dont want this to hold them back any more than it needs to. So if theres anything that im good for, its this (im notoriously good with limiting spending when I put my head on it :p). If it were even worse, id still handle it regardless, its the least I can do before I get a part time job, which I WILL get alongside a scholarship.

I have to do it, for the sake of everyone involved, and I hope it’ll benefit them in the long run.

So yea, things arent that great right now house wise. Things feel gross without a shatafa, the bathroom is unusable for me cuz of that, the infestation, and the mold, and I havent even BEGUN to have fully moved in yet given how disorganised things are and the amount ill probably have to throw out. Ive started eating out more since I cant cook with the infestation, and probably will continue to for the next week or two until things are resolved. Things may get worse before they get better.

But it will be worth it in the end. There are several positives with having housemates, people I can live with to help alleviate the admitted loneliness of living alone, and I CAN work on making the bathroom and the house as a whole more usable. I CAN make this better (hell, there are already way less spiders since ive begun killing them). I already spent a sizeable bit on eating out and probably have to continue doing so till the infestation is gone (or at least is more reasonable), but im more than willing to dump the rest of it into cleaning up the bathroom since it takes maximum priority, and MAKING THIS SITUATION FUCKING WORK.

And if not for any of that, if not for the things that I CAN control, the many positives the house provides AND the potential for good housemates, I might as well be content with it for the sake of my family, at least for now, until things are sure to get better.

Lets hope things get better soon, and ill keep my head up for the soon to be awesome first year at the university of leeds :).

Before we head off on such a cheesy note though, how about food talk?

Ive finally started spending money out even though I disavowed it (but trust me I will go back on this HARD when I get the chance) ,might as well talk about some places ive been right?

I already mentioned hooyah, but the only other place ive been (remember its only really been two days (^_^;)) was jollibee.

I like jollibee. Honestly, its not crazy, and I know my first experience was pretty rough, but now that ive given it another chance I think its pretty solid. Still, not a place thats as good as KFC or Popeyes for me, im still looking for a place that rivals them that isnt boycotted, but I cant lie that they have a nice burger (with an okay sauce), and I really digged their spaghetti. Probably wouldnt go back since im still looking for the perfect chicken place to take prime KFC’s spot in my savory chicken monkey brain, but if I ever feel like having a sorta cheap but good spaghetti with good chicken too, ill be back for more.

Also had jasmine snow tea frappe from teapresso on the way back home today, and it tasted sorta sweet and sorta like what a jasmine would taste like. Its a crazy combo, and heytea had a similar thing going on. I dont quite get how, chinese tea sort of eludes me in its ways, but goddamit is it not fucking delicious when your in the mood. Hits one hell of a spot when other teas dont and I love it for it <3.

Anyhoot, thats all for now. I should go, its important that I wake up early since my gym pass is only for certain morning hours till im a uni student and can update it at a discount. Ima just leave you with one youtube video this time, wastelandia. Really nice pilot, I wanna see more, go check it out and give it some love, and perhaps we WILL see more >:).

As always, thanks for reading :). Love you all, you YES YOU, I love you to bits <33. Have a great rest of your week.

Bye now.