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?