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~ this is a rant. Skip it if you dont have the stomach for it ~
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Allora, Thais and I are moving end of this month.
We havent started packing yet but since we dont have that many stuff, I am sure it wont be too much work. We are sad about the whole moving thing but things have become almost unbearable to live here. The saddest thing is that the apartment is so close to our class that we can smell the white board marker from our room.
The other 2 inhabitants of the apartment are Italians. They are really sweet people – helped Thais set the room up before my arrival and took her around to buy stuff and meet people at parties and all. They shared their food with us and taught us how to cook Italian style.
However, they are not particularly clean – they leave pots and pans and plates and glasses in the kitchen sinky for weeks if you dont remind them to clean up. They leave half eaten food on the kitchen table with bread crumbs and whatever not. They also did not clean the apartment according to the Roster Thais drawn up – and one actually gave me an excuse that “a lot of bad people live in this house” (please take note that they are learning English, so this is not meant literally).
At first we reminded them to clean up after themselves, and they did. I reminded them that the top shelves in the fridge and freezer are for non-pork food stuff, and they used the rest of the shelves for said items. After a while, I am sure their lives picked up and all, it took them longer and longer to clean up, up to a point when asked to clear the sink because I needed to use the kitchen to cook our meals, they washed a pot and left the rest. I found salami on the halal shelf and salami just sitting on the kitchen table.
I am not one of those spotlessly clean persons, my family will gladly tell you the mess I made in my lifetime, but when there are 4 of you living in a cramped house, it really is important for everyone to keep their own things in order. Thais informed one of them that if things dont improve, we will leave. I, especially, dont want to live in a dump, where I cant even cook my meals which is important to me because it helps keep my cost of living down.
And then there was the noise – from the TV that blared through the night and Italians – housemates and guests - in 'discussions'. If you have heard these animated discussions before, you would know how loud they can get. It doesnt help that the walls here are paper thin. Although I can sleep through it with nat king cole and billy holiday on my earphone to drown the noise, Thais is a little more sensitive to it. The worst thing for her is that she has to wake up at 6 to go to work. We constantly have to ask them to pipe down.
So early this month, I told Thais that I am leaving. The situation was not working and I really want to live in a house that I am comfortable in. I left it to her to decide if she would like to come with me or stay. We talked and she said she wanted to move with me. So, that was that. So we told the others. Since the apartment is near a university, it didnt take long for them to get a new housemate. In fact, we got one the very night we told them our decision.
And then it started. They took Thais aside to tell her how dissapointed they are in her, that Thais has changed since I arrived, that I am disrespecting them for not talking to them. And because Thais told one person and not both of them, they did not acknowledge that we warned them that we would leave if the place continued to be a dump. Of course, they couldnt say anything to me, for one I can hardly understand them with my slow-ass teething italian, for another I am not as nice as Thais, I would definitely give them my piece of mind just the way they give theirs regardless of whether they understand me or not.
I have no excuse for not being social with them. I am just saying that after the umpteeth time of reminding them to clean up and being ignored (and no, to them, leaving their mess in my face is not disrespecting me. Being loud at midnight almost every night in spite of our requests is not disrespecting us) I got tired and angry and was so not in the mood to be nice - baby, i aint you mama. So I keep to myself and tried my hardest not to make them matter. So, shoot me, I am just like that. In Kuala Lumpur and Rome!
They keep telling us how in Italy renting a place together is not just about signing a contract, it's a social contract. But at the same time, they absolutely refuse to acknowledge that they contributed to us not wanting to live here anymore. They think I am rude for ignoring them, but they dont think they are rude for ignoring my requests that leads to me being rude to them when it is common sense to clean your own mess and not expect other people to do that for you (oh, my family will absolutely love this!). They said Thais have changed since knowing me, but they dont even want to consider that the reasons she is not out partying with them anymore is that she has to wake up early for work the next day and that she is getting a little tired of the partying scene. And the worst thing is that, they absolutely refuse to consider our side of the story, what they think is the absolute truth and we are absolutely wrong. They have convinced themselves and are being closed minded about any other possibilities.
Now, I just cant wait to leave. I am upset but I know we made the right decision to leave because some differences will somehow rise some day and we would still be in the wrong. I dont want to think this is how they do it in Italy, I am sure this is a special case, but I have to work hard at understanding that. I am sad that they might go away from this with a bad taste in their mouth for Malaysians and Muslims in general but I dont want to continue to live in a dump. They said they will change for the next girl who will live here after us, but their attempt in the last few days is hardly a success.
Thais is as traumatised by the whole affair. So much that she came up with a suggestion. And this is the absolutely best part! Both of us are going to work at the chain of hostels she is currently working at. We give them 8 to 10 hours of our day (half of it will be spent sitting and waiting) 6 days a week – everything is negotiable if we need time to study and travel – and they give us free lodging and almost half of what I get paid in Kuala Lumpur!
And the best thing is we get to live in the city centre, 10 minutes walking to Kailash's crib, 15 minutes walking to the english cinema we go to and right smack in the middle of shopping district :) The bad thing is if you guys come to visit, you wont be able to bunk with me. but you can stay in the hostel i work in and pay from EUR10 per bed - but you get to be served breakfast by me and i'll even make your bed so tight that a coin can bounce on it! (thank you, TKC!)
Dont get me wrong, it will be hard work and they understand that studying is our priority, but this way we wont have to deal with the issues we are dealing with at the moment, and that if we clean after other people as we are doing here, we are getting paid for it! I look upon this adventure as a scientist would upon putting electricity through a corpse – desperately and not without excitement.
We'll see how things go.
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