The Quest for Housing; or, There is a 75% Chance I Will Be Homeless in Paris

T-14 days until Paris

I've been told I'm a decent roommate. I don't nag. I'm not disgusting. I don't bring home people of questionable provenance/nature/hygiene. I clean regularly, and always when prompted to. I cook and bake. And pretty darn well I should say. I always pay rent and utilities on time.

Needless to say, my utter lack of success in securing any kind of viable living situation has been a deflating experience. I understand that I'm not in Paris, and that fact makes things exponentially more difficult. It makes people less trusting of me as a candidate. It makes anyone else on the same continent more attractive as a potential roommate/renter than me. Needless to say, this has done nothing for my fear of rejection.

Since I've left my job a month ago, looking for housing has been the only thing I would comfortably call a responsibility in my life. I go about it seriously. I get up at 9:00 a.m. and get set to work. I spend hours reviewing housing message boards, searching roommate network sites, and contacting friends of friends of friends. I've written hundreds of emails and gotten perhaps ten responses. Out of these responses, I've gotten only two that were even willing to talk to me via Skype. And today, one of those two cancelled our call and informed me the spot had been filled. Womp.

It's unnerving to me that I've had more success in getting a job interview/offer than I've had getting people agree to talk to me about me possibly spending my money to live with them/rent their apartment. I have so many things to worry about when I get there, setting up my cell phone, opening a bank account, completing my registration, finalizing loans, etc. that I was really hoping to have this part of my stay settled. Ultimately though, I know it is not a huge deal. But I find that I have to keep telling myself that I will go to Paris no matter what, and hopefully I will be able to crash on a couch or two while I look for something in person.