Been really busy the past few days cause assignment is due really soon :/ But had this post drafted up about two weeks ago, so I guess I'm going to interupt my NZ experience and just post this up first :)
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Most of my friends know that I stayed with a home stay family during my first year in Melbourne cause I talk about it endlessly on twitter, insta, and facebook...
Think it was a great start of Uni.. couldnt have started uni any better than that..
But, many people only heard about the fun side, the advantages, the best parts.. not many actually know that I met with a few scammers before I met this family.. not many know that I struggled to settle all these on my own - I don't blame my family cause my parents aren't English educated and I didn't ask my brother for help anyway..
So here's the frustrating side of the story you should know before you look for a homestay - it's not all that fancy...
But before that, abit about why I considered homestay and how I found them..
Since my uni applications were done through IDP, they offered recommendations for accommodations - Unilodge, College Square, Residential Halls in uni, and Home stays.
Since Unilodge was their preferred partner, that was my first option.
Researched really thoroughly but the cheapest apartment looked really small and I think I would feel really claustrophobic + beds looked like they creek when I go to bed... I mean I don't mind living in a small 1-bedroom apartment for a week or so.. but I think I'll be really depressed and home sick if I lived there for 2 years... and the rent for the other apartments under Unilodge werent really attractive, so I decided against it.
Then there were College Square, Residential Halls in uni, and Home stays.
So I went on to contact 20 over (thing is, home stay fam are not that responsive and I wanted to get a fam that I trust and a room+house that I like, so contacted a lot of them and picked from there) home stay families..
and met this lady, who offered a really good price (@$600 a month) for a pretty amazing apartment...
(Actually dont know what was wrong with me.... this picture clearly didnt look like an apartment. she must have accidentally added by mistake)
LOOKED SO GOOD RIGHT?! just that it's abit too green. but other than that, looks pretty good.
And looked so decent right? even wanted to get her lawyer to draft a contract for me...
She really sent a 'tenancy agreement' that I couldnt be bothered reading (no one reads such lengthy documents!) and her passport document...
But right about this time was when I received my first scammer alert from the site about the other guy I had previously contacted... so I was quite worried. started to be more careful about things and decided to request to inspect the property...
Yup, still told me she was 'god fearing' and all.. really won me over...
THEN THE SCAMMER ALERT CAME INTO MY MAILBOX TO TELL ME SHE WAS A SCAMMER TOO.
(*Actually had another bad experience, but I think I was so pissed I deleted all the emails, so cant show any correspondence)
Honestly, I really broke down... because I was so frustrated that I had to search for accom on my own... and I really didnt know how I could trust these people anymore... Even a "legal" document and passport photo to prove credibility wasn't sufficient... HOW ELSE. really, HOW ELSE CAN THEY PROVE CREDIBILITY.
Angela happened to be the next home stay (after the series of scammers) to contact me so I really poured out my frustrations to her about how I don't know how I can trust them..
But thankfully, she really understood where I was coming from cause she also finds it hard to trust people who fly over to live with her family with new born baby too.. so she tried to assure me by offering to meet me over Skype and giving me the contact of the student who was currently staying there (I had a chance with speak to her on Facebook to ask for a 3rd party opinion on the homestay). She also told me I didnt have to pay any bond and could pay the rent upon arrival so if I didnt like the environment, I can change my mind when I arrive <3
Really thankful for the family :)
-----
Most of my friends know that I stayed with a home stay family during my first year in Melbourne cause I talk about it endlessly on twitter, insta, and facebook...
Think it was a great start of Uni.. couldnt have started uni any better than that..
But, many people only heard about the fun side, the advantages, the best parts.. not many actually know that I met with a few scammers before I met this family.. not many know that I struggled to settle all these on my own - I don't blame my family cause my parents aren't English educated and I didn't ask my brother for help anyway..
So here's the frustrating side of the story you should know before you look for a homestay - it's not all that fancy...
But before that, abit about why I considered homestay and how I found them..
Since my uni applications were done through IDP, they offered recommendations for accommodations - Unilodge, College Square, Residential Halls in uni, and Home stays.
Since Unilodge was their preferred partner, that was my first option.
Researched really thoroughly but the cheapest apartment looked really small and I think I would feel really claustrophobic + beds looked like they creek when I go to bed... I mean I don't mind living in a small 1-bedroom apartment for a week or so.. but I think I'll be really depressed and home sick if I lived there for 2 years... and the rent for the other apartments under Unilodge werent really attractive, so I decided against it.
Then there were College Square, Residential Halls in uni, and Home stays.
- College Square looked alright. But I had that as backup plan.
- Residential Halls were way overpriced. Didnt consider them at all.
- Home stays were interesting (very aussie) and I could look for a room of my preference in terms of size, rent and distance from school.. so that was great.
So I went on to contact 20 over (thing is, home stay fam are not that responsive and I wanted to get a fam that I trust and a room+house that I like, so contacted a lot of them and picked from there) home stay families..
and met this lady, who offered a really good price (@$600 a month) for a pretty amazing apartment...
LOOKED SO GOOD RIGHT?! just that it's abit too green. but other than that, looks pretty good.
And looked so decent right? even wanted to get her lawyer to draft a contract for me...
She really sent a 'tenancy agreement' that I couldnt be bothered reading (no one reads such lengthy documents!) and her passport document...
But right about this time was when I received my first scammer alert from the site about the other guy I had previously contacted... so I was quite worried. started to be more careful about things and decided to request to inspect the property...
Yup, still told me she was 'god fearing' and all.. really won me over...
THEN THE SCAMMER ALERT CAME INTO MY MAILBOX TO TELL ME SHE WAS A SCAMMER TOO.
(*Actually had another bad experience, but I think I was so pissed I deleted all the emails, so cant show any correspondence)
Honestly, I really broke down... because I was so frustrated that I had to search for accom on my own... and I really didnt know how I could trust these people anymore... Even a "legal" document and passport photo to prove credibility wasn't sufficient... HOW ELSE. really, HOW ELSE CAN THEY PROVE CREDIBILITY.
Angela happened to be the next home stay (after the series of scammers) to contact me so I really poured out my frustrations to her about how I don't know how I can trust them..
But thankfully, she really understood where I was coming from cause she also finds it hard to trust people who fly over to live with her family with new born baby too.. so she tried to assure me by offering to meet me over Skype and giving me the contact of the student who was currently staying there (I had a chance with speak to her on Facebook to ask for a 3rd party opinion on the homestay). She also told me I didnt have to pay any bond and could pay the rent upon arrival so if I didnt like the environment, I can change my mind when I arrive <3
Really thankful for the family :)
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