I`m not sure whether it`s the shared bathrooms, cold showers, general lack of toilet paper, living and eating in the workplace or what, but I`ve finally come to the conclusion that living in a hostel is not much fun.  It`s ok for a few days… a few months is a different story.  It wasn`t too bad when I had my own private room, however, that lasted for only about 1 week until the tourist season picked up.  Now it`s the norm to have 5 other people (who in a few select cases have all been snoring at once) in my room each night.

Originally I was able to have two beds, one for my stuff (which was spread out all over the bed in a semi “organized” way) and one for myself.  I knew things were going downhill when I came home one night at 2:30am from work only to find a sleeping body in place of all of my belongings.  All of my things had been moved to the bed where I was sleeping.  Too tired to care, I basically pushed everything to one side and jumped into bed.   This is the state it`s remained in for about a week and a half.  I am now profoundly unorganized and pretty much ready to not live in a hostel.

The clincher came about 2 days ago when I was looking for my flipflops.  I use them in the shower (because millions of other people use it each day).  I was quickly able to find one and easily found another slightly similar one that somebody had left behind.  I continued to look for my other flipflop while knowing deep down what had really happened… needless to say, I`m now going punky brooster style and wearing two different flipflops now.

This has lead me with no other decision but to move into an apartment.  I can`t really beat free room and board, but my psychological well-being has recently become a priority.

Fortunately, I didn`t even have to look around for a place.  My friend Melissa told me about a house which is generally reserved for volunteers and has an opening in mid August.  The rent is cheap and even includes  internet and computers to use for free (this is a huge plus).  I`ve already gone through the process of signing up to live in this place and will be moving in Aug 13th.  Being completely unable to wait until then to move, I`ve decided to sublet my other friend`s apartment while she is away.  I`ll be moving in there Aug 1st…