So life in Cambridge, MA has been pretty dandy and work has been pretty
good before I head out to the bay. And I ran into James Fish after
incidentally running into some HAAAARVARD student who was talking about
this James Fish. But the real reason why I have been driven to write
this email is to explain the absolute epic that was my weekend. Alyssa
has probably heard this tale in its entire length so bare with me.
So this summer I have made the very unwise decision to live in a MIT
frat house on the Cambridge side. First of all, never live in a frat
house if you don't have to. Secondly, if you are going to, do it on the
Boston side. Apparently it is customary to have circa 20 irish kids
stay in said frat houses. As much as I love the Irish, these kids are
basically illegal workers coming over to the states to "find" work and
take advantage of the cheaper cost of living. Instead, most of them are
unemployed and just sit around drinking alllll day. However, the said
frat house was in incredibly poor shape. Around two weeks ago, the pipe
connected to the hose that went up to the roof to fill up the hot tub
burst. This resulted in some serious water damage to the 5th floor.
This has been going on for 2 weeks! The entire 5th floor becomes a
swamp since the walls are saturated with water. This water then seeps
into the 4th and the 3rd and the 2nd and the 1st. Fortunately on the
3rd floor where I live, there was only a small leak from the ceiling.
The water on the flooded floor damages the fire alarm two saturdays ago
and alerts the fire department. They are not please with the number of
zone violations that they see. However, the fire alarm went off again
this time bringing in the chief fire marshal and the building
inspectors. The flooding on the 5th floor by now created a breeding
ground for all sorts of critters and the air was putrid! Thus, they
deemed the building completely unacceptable to live in, unsafe,
unsanitary, and that we must all go. Except that it was late on Friday
so they couldn't call anyone.
I depart for work (on a Saturday, yes, I know...) and come back after a
few hours and see the entire house filled with the National Disaster
Response Team, all wearing masks and carrying large fans around. The
entire carpet was stripped and the wood flooring was taken out. Of
course, that weekend, several of the frat brothers and their
girlfriends left for a trip to a CT summer house. That of course meant
that they had a crapload of stuff on the 4th and 5th floor which had to
be moved out. My room in turn becomes a giant storage closet. That
being said, I packed my life into two suitcases and marched out looking
for a new home...
Fortunately things worked out. I was able to stay at a few friend's
places. I got half of my summer rent back, and now I have a cute sublet
until the end of August where as I was suppose to be housed in the frat
only until August 15th. I extend my invitation again, if you are every in the Boston area,
please let me know.
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