Yesterday was the biggest joke of my life.
I just need to tell the whole story because I haven't really understood what actually happened yet.
So as you know I had found this perfect apartment announcement in the 9th on a website called appartager.fr (where I'd spent at least 20 hours trying to find a nice place to live) and during one week I'd been in contact with a girl called "Pascale. Everything seemed normal and since I was the first person to contact her, I really thought I was going to get it. I therefor stopped looking for other offers and started counting down days until friday when I was supposed to visit the flat. I couldn't think of anything else and dreamt several nightmares about screwing it all up.
So when friday came, I spent two hours in the bathroom preparing myself, wrote down questions on a piece of paper and said prayers just to be sure.
Francois and I arrived slightly after 5 o'clock and since I didn't know which floor it was and "Pascale" didn't answer the phone, I stopped and asked a girl in the staircase if she might knew where we should go. She indicated the second floor to the right.
A girl opened the door, we noticed directly that she was extremely nervous. She told us to take off our shoes and put on some slippers instead. The apartment was amazing, beautiful wooden floors, a huge kitchen and "my" room had flowery wallpaper and a large window. The girl showed us the way to the salon where she first asked us to clean our hands with a disinfection gel before letting us sit down on the sofa. Two seconds later she leant over the sofa table starting cleaning it with a towel, going over to the sofa to reset the pillows in order, and asked me when I last was ill.
She said she had a real problem with bacteria, and had to know if I was a clean person. I answered that I took showers like a normal person and started telling her about myself instead, my job and where I came from when she interrupted me to say that she was feeling bad because of a scent of dust in the room. Francois excused himself and said that it might me the smell of smoke, and she had us switch places.
she asked us if we wanted something to drink and she went (without listening to our answer) to the kitchen to fetch us a bottle of water (new but without ticket) being very clear about not leaving it on the table in front of us. And also telling me that my handbag could not touch the sofa and that I had to hold on to it on my knees.
I felt so uncomfortable being there but in the same time I knew that I had to get this apartment if I didn't want to end up on the street. Obviously I would have had to avoid all the common spaces but I was still considering to live only in my room. She told me that she would take care of the cleaning during mornings and afternoons and I'd get to do it in the evenings. I tried to calm her down a bit and said that I also liked order, and Francois said "Oui Emma est très attentionée" and she answered "Oh really? good, good.
She said that Pascale had left the apartment in a terrible mess and that she couldn't stand disorder. (Pascale was the last room mate)
During at least 45 min she had me answer all these crazy questions and in the end she lay the contract on the table and said "I like you, you can move in. will you?" You'll have to disinfect all your things before moving in but that's OK, isn't it?
I said I needed to think about it, and but that it was more a yes than a no.
Than she turned all stressful again and said that she needed an answer straight away and that she had an other person coming to visit in any second.
All these things went around in my head, The apartment was so cheap and the room was beautiful and I couldn't possible find a better location. I've told all my friends about the place, how happy I was moving back to that area. How I would buy flowers at the florist across the street and finally being able to settle down. But how could I possible live with someone like her?
"So are you signing or not?" she said again.
And I finished by saying "No i'm sorry...I needed more time to think"
"OK.. I will ask you to leave now, Quickly please."
Francois and I went back to where we'd parked our shoes and took off the slippers, then the girl from the staircase came in to the salon and the crazy girl said "surprise, it's a hidden camera, you will be on TV"
"Haha great, just what I needed!" imbeciles.
I felt so betrayed, and astonished that I burst into tears. Knowing that they were just playing around with me when I had two days to find a place to stay, knowing that I'd been wasting my time to be a part of a silly joke made me feel sick.
So voilà this is what happened... what are the odds.
This morning I laughed a bit about it, still need to find a home though.
