During my second year of University I lived in a truly awful flat.
It had no central heating, just small electric heaters which cost lots of money to use and couldn't heat the bigger rooms up properly. Over that winter it was often colder inside the flat than it was outside. We could see our breath most of the time and I had ice on the inside of my windows.
Despite this, during the summer, my bedroom would become unbearably hot and opening the windows didn't help much (and also let in a lot of noise from the busy road outside). For some time, I think it was perhaps a month, though maybe less, we had no hot water and had to fill the bath using two kettles. One side of the building was lower than the other. The floor in my room sloped towards one corner so much so that if you dropped a pencil it would roll.
On top of all of these other problems, the flat was situated above a Chinese take-away. This resulted in everything in our kitchen being permanently covered with a layer of grease and we all smelt slightly like sweet food.
Though it sounds (and it was) horrible and I would never wish to do it again, I do look back on those twelve months and smile.
-Lauren Eldekvist
