Crocodile Dung and the Woes of Dun Laoghaire

I'm not entirely sure how this whole "having-a-place-to-live-thing" is going to work out.

I'm at the hostel right now. It's not bad, but the bathroom smells like crocodile dung. Not that I know what crocodile dung smells like. But it smells awful.

There are three other people allegedly staying in the same room as I am. There's Burcu (pronounced Bur-ju, but the ju is more of a French sounding zhu) who's from Turkey. At first I didn't think she spoke English, but she's just not very comfortable with the language. She stays in the bunk under mine. She's in Dun Laoghaire studying English. Deborah is a student from the United States. She's here completing an MBA program. She also hate pants and speaks French. Though she speaks French more fluently than do I, so I'm jealous. And then there's Eliana or something like that from Spain. She has her luggage in here and pops in every so often, but she hasn't put a sheet in her bed or slept there. So, I don't know what's going on there.

I like meeting all these foreign people, but socializing is a lot of work. I need at least 800 hours/day to myself, so this is difficult. The problem is that once you've met people, they want you to do things with them. And that cuts into my not-doing-things-with-people time.

I've stayed mainly to my room or out in the town where I'm not expected to socialize.

But when I did go downstairs to the lounge/kitchen, I met John, who is native to Ireland, but he's been traveling around the world. Then there's Diego from Brazil. He speaks very little English, but Google Translate is a marvelous tool. I hablo'd un poco de espanol to some girl from Spain, though I don't know her name.

But I'll be moving out soon.

By "soon," I mean "tomorrow."

Of course, I have no solid plan for moving out tomorrow, but when do I ever have a solid plan?

I've looked at a few rooms for rent. Everything here is over 9000 dollars. That might be a bit of an exaggeration; it's closer to 500 euros/month to rent a room. That doesn't include bills or food.

So, as disagreeable as it sounds to me, I'll probably stay with one of the teachers from the school. It's farther from the town center and the harbor than I'd like it to be, but what's an hour walk to the sea? The cost would be about 680 euros/month which includes three meals/day. The main problem I have is that she would deny me access to the kitchen, and she would do my laundry for me. I don't particularly like to waste my time cooking when I can pay someone else to do it for me, but the idea of having what I eat and when I eat dictated to me is unnerving. I haven't had to follow someone else's eating schedule since I was like... 6. And what if she likes to put ketchup on everything? That simply would not work. Ew, or what if it's a lot  of cabbage? And then I'd much prefer to do my own laundry. I've done my own laundry since I was 10.

However, since I wouldn't be buying my own food, this arrangement would probably be cheapest, and therefore would leave me with plenty of money for traveling about and out of the country.

Decisions, decisions.