Househunting

I am a getting anxious and desparate. Been searching for a place for two days, and there is nothing that I like. If a place is not too expensive, then the place is too far, or much too dirty and run-down. So I have been walking around the city, back and forth, going from apartment to apartment, hoping something good would show up.

And everytime I leave an aparment, I feel so deflated, because I have to continue looking. It is really exhausting, especially since I have not done any work for my studies yet, and nor did I have the time to buy books for what I need to read.

So as I came home again late at night, I felt really heavy with tension and stress. Every day I do not find an apartment I must pay a lot for my hostel, and I simply cannot keep on this for long. And living in a hostel means that I must eat out, which also costs a lot of money.... not only that, I feel so unhealthy, as if I do not get enough vegetables and nutrients whenever I eat out... so there seems to be a viscious cycle of despair, which all comes back to the fact that I STILL DO NOT HAVE A PLACE TO STAY...

Despite all these misfortunes, I did have some good fortune today. So I went to open a bank account, and this Asian lady helped me. When she asked for my ID, I gave her my passport, and she flipped through it, and was especially interested in the fact that I had many visas to Taiwan.

"So you go to Taiwan often, I see", she said.
"Yes, because my family lives there. And I was born there."
"Oh, me too!"

Turns out, the lady has been in Canada for 12 years, and also came as a young student, and has since been working at the bank. We started talking in Mandarin, and she was not only helpful in opening the bank account, she even showed me some places to look for an apartment, and offered to help if I need anything. This was a really welcome show of support, and made me feel all the less alone in this big, big city....