The apartment at "RUE de BITCHE"

No kidding, my apartment-to-be was located on a street named "Rue de Bitche," which despite the name, was in a well-to-do/posh area of Strasbourg.

I should have taken the name as a sign of what was to come, but...in the end, I suppose I didn't have any choice! I SCORED A PLACE TO LIVE, and that was ALL that mattered at the time!

Excited as hell, I moved in most of my stuff immediately - but since I still had to purchase a bed, I wouldn't be able to sleep there immediately. Knowing this, I saved 1/2 of my load for a second trip, and made my way back to Germany for the night.

"C" and I shared one more dinner together that night, and said our final goodbyes the following morning- but this time it was REALLY for good. Somehow we both knew it, feeling a sense of "finality" in the air, and this knowledge made us both feel a bit strange. For starters, I think we were surprised that I had actually pulled this off, and so "last minute," after MONTHS of stress and painful preparation. All of a sudden - - - I was gone!!!!

I moved in to my new place on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and came to find my landlord's son hanging arond in the apartment. That was when I realized (for the first time) that he'd be sticking around quite a bit...in fact, by THAT Sunday evening, I wondered if he was literally GLUED to my living-room (which he called "his office.")

The apartment itself was pretty sweet though, totalling 67meters-squared, to which I had 3/4 access. My fully re-finished/freshly-painted bedroom faced West, (which I was very happy about, since it allowed me to take in the late-afternoon rays before sunset), and my bedroom view overlooked a large private garden, full of pine-trees and lavender bushes. Yet, the very best aspect of the apartment itself was its huge balcony, overlooking a quiet street...and this is where I spent almost the ENTIRE month of August! NO JOKE. (Explanations will appear in later blog entries.)

As an added bonus, my place of work was perfectly situated just 10 mins-walking-time down the street, along with the lovely French outdoor-markets, beautiful parks and the riverside-quais...ahhh...more than quaint, I thought it to be ROMANTIC! (Damnit, it was certainly a pity to have been so down-hearted and shit-out-of-luck in the romance department...)

So, I reasoned with myself that I had scored a great deal, and for a relatively decent price. Although the decor was...well, needless to say...extremely outdated (filled to the brim, in fact, with PLANTS, war-medallions, garden-gnomes, toy-cars, antique-figurines, cigarette-stained paintings, religious paraphenalia, and Alsacian collectible items)...I was SO looking forward to cleaning the place up and making it my "own" before heading back to the States to re-claim my dog, a 2nd, and MUCH MORE DESIRED "ROOMIE!"...I was sooooooOoooo pysched!

However, day by day...I discovered more and more about the apartment, and the family with whom I had signed a (minimal-3-month-stay) contract. Apparently, the apartment had belonged to the (late) grandfather of the family, who had just passed-away 6 months prior to my moving in. This not only explained the decor, but I suddenly rationalized the EXTREMELY TERRITORIAL BEHAVIOR of my "surprise" roommate, who was there from 6am in the morning to 2am at night most days of the week.

When I first raised issue to this increasingly apparent "problem" to my landlord (the protective father of this young man), I heard one excuse after another: His son was "merely using the living room as his OFFICE-space," and reminded me that he was not "officially to be called or considered a 'roommate,' since he would be soon vacating the premisis to go to the University to finish his studies."

I took the man's word for it; after all, what choice did I have? I couldn't handle moving AGAIN so soon after getting settled, and anyways, I had WAY too many other things to think about...

But come late-September, I had learned that my landlord lied about his son, who indeed no longer even TOOK classes at the University! Apparently, he was doing a couple hours a week of internship-studies and research in a bio-tech lab...but didn't work outside of that, and had ABSOLUTELY NO SOCIAL LIFE...argh I was SO very frustrated, on top of (still) feeling down-and-out, under the weather and alone after my break-up, which I'll get into later.

It is here, rather, where I should mention that my "rommie" was OBSESSSED with plants - and although that would normally be delightful (since I too LOVE PLANTS) he seemed to be particularly keen on DYING and ROTTING plants... you know - the ones that attract bugs and flies. NO JOKE!!!!!

He assured me that his "carniverous selection of plants (and believe me, he had a lot) would take care of any pest problem, but the kid was surely mistaken...and obviously OUT OF HIS MIND!

And JUST to be SUUUUURE to attract the right amount of flying creatures into (MY) home, he left out bowls of rotting fruits and fruit-skins on his desk-table, which piled up day after day, despite my asking him to clean up...

Finally, when October rolled around, and I realized I just couldn't handle it anymore. I was going insane. The kid ("G," I'll call him) was there far too often, far too late, and far too early...always humming and whistling along (and OUT OF TUNE, mind you) to bad techno, rap, and nasally-girly-rock music - which I HATE - always facing his computer in frog-form posture (he literally "squatted" in his computer chair for hours on end).

His "posession" over the internet network really freaked me out too...I knew he had access to my networds codes, and every passwords, which subsequently made me begin to suspect that he was causing the VERY POOR internet service...(to this day, I still don't know if he had anything to do with that!)

At one point in late-September, just before making the decision to move out, I had invited a friend of mine to stay with me for a week, since he had a philosophical conference to attend to in Strasbourg. Not only was he totally freaked out in the middle of the night by a glowing statue of Jesus, but he admitted to having several nightmares about the gnomes and lizard decor! hahaha...he really cracked me up, the poor kid; but unfortunately for him, he was forced to sleep in the living room, despite the fact that the apartment contained a large spare bedroom, which was allegedly "off-limits" to me...(twilight-zone CREEPY!!!!!)

One "G" took off one afternoon, my friend and I decided to check out the spare-bedroom one day, and we came to find a mini-shrine to the family...there were TONS of pictures of my "roommate" all over the place, as well as pictures of the belated grandparents - along with all of their belongings. (Nevertheless, there WAS a queen-sized bed that was being unused...but I couldn't even go therel I suppose it would have been sacrireligious or something!)

As one could imagine, I soOooooo CRAVED just ONE WEEKEND alone, without having to bump into G wearing his grandmother's apron in the kitchen...(using MY stove...MY oven...to bake his damn cookies and produce his home-made jam.) Just ONE MORNING, I wanted to make a pot of coffee, and let it sit - HOT, - while sitting and finishing my first or second cup, out on the balcony, without his unplugging the coffee machine my back (he ALWAYS claimed that keeping appliances unplugged would cause fires, and no matter what I said, he wouldn't listen).

The much-needed weekend never came, however...so I was forced to give my notice - OCTOBER 1st. Hell, I wanted to move out SO badly, that I paid for 2 months rent at the same time, so that I wouldn't have to wait until February to get outta' there! (Now that's what I call desperate...)

KEY WORDS: Living in France, Living abroad, American in France, Strasbourg, Apartments in Strasbourg, Weird roommates, Poor living conditions.