kidnapped by a helpful lady

Well, I feel like I've explored Guelph fairly thoroughly! I waited till noon to call about houses, which was probably silly but I don't want to piss off potential landlords. So I called the overly friendly lady that I spoke to last week and she said she would come pick me up. And she did, and had a chat with the overly friendly lady I am staying with temporarily, which let me off the hook for once. Once I was in the car, the lady said that she didn't have the one-bedroom available any more... but she decided to take me on a driving tour of the university anyway. !!

By then it was too late to escape (plus it was a nice thought, if strange not to tell me the place wasn't available BEFORE she picked me up). She then added that her friend Jocelyn had a room and she was taking me to see her. !!! So off we drove to Jocelyn's. I actually really liked Jocelyn - she reminded me of Auntie Barb, which can only be a good thing - but rather than a self-contained suite like I was looking for, she had a room with a pull-out bed. We had tea with Jocelyn, which I found quite surreal since I had basically just been adopted by this lady out of the blue! Good tea, though.

Then Lady 1 had to go to the mall, so I caught a ride out there and thanked her profusely for her "help", and scampered off. So a bit of a strange experience, but clearly well meant and anyway, I did get to see a good portion of Guelph.

At the mall I bought a mobile (email me for the number!) and, after going round the mall three times because people cannot seem to give good directions, found the bus stop. However, I misread the signs and ended up on the right bus going the entirely wrong direction. (Steph, sound familiar? but the 9 and not the 6 this time). I was on my way to see another house, but took 45 minutes to get there in the end because of going along the ENTIRE bus round. Hi Guelph! You're looking awfully familiar by now!

The house was actually a basement suite. So here's the deal:

Cons:
- dingy, kinda ugly
- not a whole ton of light
-shower but no bath
- landlord doesn't speak English so much
- separate entrance, but steep and narrow/scary stairs

Pros:
- big for a basement suite
- quite liked the landlord, although he barely speaks English so communication was difficult
- landlord says I can paint away the dinginess if I want
- laundry and utils included in rent (which isn't bad, $675)
- biggest pro is it come more-or-less furnished - couple of couches and chairs and a BED! That would save a lot of trouble in the mattress department.

So? What do you think? I have one more to look at tomorrow or Tues, but really need to decide fast because I can only stay here till Tuesday morning...

I will be so glad, by the way, when I have my own place. Two days of being uber-polite at all times is starting to wear! Every time I go downstairs it's a half-hour chat, which is fine, but bring on a solitary lair...