arrrgh

Ugh. I have to say I know what an administrative headache is now, unfortunately. I haven't had many since I've been here, but this one tops them all I think. So, what I didn't know when I signed the contract to stay in residence here in January was that it said I need to give a month's notice when leaving, which is reasonable, but I didn't know. I've known for a few weeks that I would only need my room until May 2, because after that I'll be travelling for the month of May before I come home, and there's no sense in keeping a room just to leave a suitcase in it. So I realized on April 9 that I should go to tell them about this, and on the 10th I went and got an immediate response: "Ce n'est pas possible." So first of all, the rooms are rented on a month-to-month basis, so I had to ask for special permission to stay in my room for those 2 days after April 30 and pay for each individual day (even though I did arrive January 8 AND paid for the whole month upon my arrival). Secondly, since it was already the 10th, it was too late to give a month's notice and thus they informed me I would not get my deposit back (which equals out to around $200). C'est nul!!! I was upset, but there was nothing I could do. So I went back a few days later to talk to them again, this time bringing my friend Laura to help me out with the talking/convincing. It didn't work. Basically no matter what they're keeping my deposit. So, now I told them that I'm staying in the room until the end of May, and I'm pretty sure I can just use my deposit to pay for the month now. At least Alannah and I will have a place to stay for April 30 and May 1, and again when we get back to Bordeaux on the 24th. This is a good thing, but it just really sucks that I have to pay for May when I didn't want to. Boo French administration! Even Laura says that the administrative system here isn't good at all. Every one is always rude and they make up rules and exceptions all the time. That's one thing I'll be happy to return to when I get back to Canada: a (somewhat) fair and objective system of running things.