Rent, not the musical part II

July of the year two-thousand and eleven and yet it felt like the time period circa the fall of Constantinople. My class was going to start on Monday; so, I showed up to my temporary abode on Sunday. Mr. Sheesha wasn't there. It didn't really bug me at the time. I ended up sleeping on the couch that night and my stuff was in the living room as well. For the record, I didn't pack much (though Alexander would one-up me in this department soon enough) -- one duffel bag, one laptop bag and a sleeping bag. Actually, I also  had a chick magnet of a pillow. However, that's neither here nor there.

I woke up Monday and went to my classes (both in the morning) and was back around 12 pm. Unfortunately, my friend who lived here was asleep. But if your friends long enough, you can tell him/her to wake the hell up. Monday, once more I slept on the couch. Tuesday was more of the same.

An "extremely similar" sofa. 

It was either Tuesday or Wednesday (I want to say Tuesday) that Mr. Alexander made his appearance. Now, I consider myself a light traveler, but Mr. Alexander the Great is in a league of his own. He had one bag. I repeat, one bag! We're not talking about duffel bag or a suitcase either -- think sachel. And in this bag, he had his Macbook, the charger, an Ipad, a pair of shorts, some socks, and an extra shirt or two. This majestic scene has motivated me to up my game. Now I too try to get everything in one bag. But I'm nowhere near the spiritual station that my dear friend inhabits. The biggest difference is in the appearance. Deception is the name of the game -- having more than it looks like. But anyways, he also slept in the living room. Eventually I gave him the sofa for a few nights while I slept on the floor. Later we would keep switching.

Now, the conditions weren't ideal and obviously wasn't what was agreed upon but at that time I didn't really care. Neither did Alexander (as far as I know). It wasn't all that bad either. We played lots of FIFA 2011 and occasionally actually went out and played in real life. (Although, my anti-social self hindered this effort.). 

This lasted about two and a half weeks.

During this time, Mr. Yaseen Sheesha  made several appearances. (On a aside, I'm so tempted to write Yasmeen Sheesha by "accident"). His first visit was probably one and a half weeks in. He came, he saw and he left. Then he showed up again a week later, and finally began to move his stuff out. Apparently though, moving out is a process that takes more than one day for some students. I think in total, he made about three visits in order to move out.

Let's take some time to talk about Mr. Yaseen Sheesha. He had just graduated and therefore he really didn't need the room anymore. He had gotten into medical school. For all intents purposes, he had just entered a brief moment of happiness and jubilation in his life. Also, he is loaded. We are talking like fully loaded zero-meter car. I don't think he even paid tuition (at all, in other words, he was exempt). Apparently he always paid his rent beyond late. Now I pay my rent late all the time. We're given a 10 day grace period, and I make full use of it. However, in this case, I was told by roommates that they would actually get letters saying the rent hadn't been paid. (I've yet to receive one of those.) He also consistently got out of parking tickets on campus. Prior to the rent fiasco, I  had met Mr. Sheesha several times before, and the meetings were brief. He seemed a little aloof, but overall was okay.

Now back to the story.

It's important to remember, that Alexander and I didn't have keys or an ID at this point. So we relied more or less on our friend's ID, and since he tended to sleep-in, I ended up eventually just taking his keys and ID. 

Now up to this point, the cruelest thing I had to experience was visualizing a monstrous dish apparently known as qeemah channay. Aside from this, the living conditions weren't too bad. I mean, I don't really want to say it, but I'm desi. I've seen much worse. Much worse.

Looking back though, it's pretty obvious a confrontation was going to occur. Alexander was leaving for France 3 weeks in and would come back for the last 2 weeks and it had already we were already two and a half weeks in.