After talking to Emma Connolly, who is apparently the go-to person for housing, I feel much better.

1. She said that all of the information I had received about housing was incorrect, as it was geared for single students. Because couple's housing is geared toward postgraduate students, they have some flats whose availability actually begins in June, July and August. This means that, if we choose one of those flats, we could actually move in as soon as we arrived in Edinburgh, which would be swell.

2. As soon as late next week, the university will email me a housing offer, which Ms. Connolly assures me is all the visa office usually needs to grant a visa.

As I said, I feel much better!

In other news, Matt and I are starting to feel desperate about the packing situation. People! Come take stuff from our house!

One of the ongoing struggles with which we are confronted is where to live once we arrive in Edinburgh. The campus offers university couple's housing, for which we have earnestly applied. However, there are a few glitches:

1. Edinburgh, like Glasgow, has a housing guarantee for international students. Unless you're a married couple. Then, no guarantees. When I learned about this (in March), I emailed Accommodations Services (AS) for a housing application *for couple's housing*. I wanted to apply for housing before the housing lottery at the end of March. Thus began a several month long game of email tag, which went something like this--

Me: I need a housing app for married couples.
AS employee one: Apply online at www.blahblah.co.uk
Me: That is only for single students.
AS 1: Oh. Talk to AS 2.

Then I would get cycled to the next person.

After I got cycle back to AS 1, I sent her a strongly worded email, and she finally sent me a paper app. This was now April 25th, one month after the lottery. I promptly sent back the app, and waited.

2. We're still waiting. In order to apply for a visa, we must have proof of accommodations. Ahem. I have now sent out 6-9 emails (if you count the CCs and whatnot) asking when we'll hear about housing. Grr.

3. All of the above is for the normal school year accommodations, which start September 9th. School for me actually starts August 7th. AS sent out an email directing us to apply for temporary housing for that month, and guess what? The application was for SINGLE STUDENTS ONLY. Now several emails have been sent out asking how I’m supposed to apply for couple's housing, all of which have been pointedly ignored.

4. Finally, we arrive in Edinburgh 10 days before any sort of housing is even theoretically available. And even the hostels are ridiculously expensive since it's festival season there.

Sigh. I wonder, are the park benches and bus stops are as beautiful as the rest of Edinburgh?