I’m going to start off by apologizing to any Leicester people who read this, since I’ve set these entries to upload as Facebook notes when I make them. I know I’ve probably complained to you about the vast majority of this already! Also I’m sorry for my gratuitous use of British cussing in the title. Except that I’m not. How could I resist? The title I wanted to opt for, “The Latest Outrage,” is probably my most-used blogging title of all time. It’s time for a change!

So what’s bothering me today? Much like Andy Rooney, I am quite eager to tell you.

I haven’t slept properly in days.

My bedroom is directly next to the toilet for my flat. This has actually been fine as the toilets themselves aren’t particularly noisy. The fans, however, have been a nightmare. On Monday one of them (because as near as I can tell there are two, and one is much louder than the other!) began running non-stop for hours on end. I put in a maintenance request and included an aside that one of my flatmates had put a sign on one of the toilets saying it didn’t work.

The next morning the nature of the fan problem changed. Instead of whirring constantly, which at least provided white noise, it switched to a pattern of whirring for a few seconds and then going silent, then whirring again and so on. I was in my room when the folks from maintenance came in to look at the toilet and it was doing this on and off whirring when they were there. I assumed they would do something, rejoiced and went on my way to class. Of course, Tuesday night was a night of continuous interruption. I sent an email to the Accommodation Office because I figured my problem hadn’t been attended to yet and I didn’t want to file another request form while one was still outstanding. I let them know that the fan was no longer running continuously and was instead going in spurts.

Wednesday I get a note under the door (because that is the way maintenance communicates with you. Heaven forfend we use email or anything so people have a way to respond) saying that no fault had been found. So Wednesday night = again no sleep. And then some clown decided to pull the fire alarm at 3am, causing everyone in Blocks A&B to have to rush outside in the freezing cold. I had just managed to fall asleep at 2. I was Very Unamused.

I sent in another maintenance request today stating that yes, there is a fault!  And could they at least please try to find it? And if they aren’t going to do that at least have the courtesy to tell me as much so I can request a housing transfer? Because they have a policy of “We’ll get to it when we get to it, unless it’s an immediate threat to health and safety” I also mentioned how this was quickly becoming a health issue as I grew more and more sleep deprived.

And lo! Someone responded to me! An actual email, giving the general outline of what they plan to do! It seems that a contractor installed some new fans this summer and they’re faulty. They’ve turned off the fan for the time being because they have to wait until this contractor comes in to replace them. Hey, I’ll take it. I’d rather share my air freshener than listen to that all day and night…

< / pushy American >

Another letter I got under my door last night was the bank letter I’d requested 2 weeks ago from the Graduate Office. They were really backed up because it was the start of term, which is why it took so long. As an international student I need one of these to prove to the bank that I am, in fact, a full-time student and that I really do live where I say I live.

I got to the bank today and the letter was all wrong. It didn’t have the bank name on it, my home (US) address or the dates of my course. I now have to wait for the graduate office to process another letter. Fingers crossed that they put the correct info on it this time!

I promise I’ll try to start doing interesting and blog-worthy (or at least photo-worthy) things very soon! I have a 4-day weekend coming up and I’m trying to recruit people to go someplace fantastic with me.

So, what’s new in your life?