Gamer Girls

After about four to six months of living in hostels, I finally found a place to live. It was a dilapidated flat (apartment) in an impoverished area of London (Tower Hamlets). It was a tower block and it had construction scaffolding all around it but I don’t know what, if anything, was being repaired.

I shared the place with a guy from the Czech Republic, two women from Eastern Europe who I didn’t see much of so don’t know much about, and a guy from Lithuania. I shared a room with this guy from the Czech Republic, the two women shared a room, and the guy from Lithuania had his own room.

I don’t remember anyone’s names so apologies for referring to them by their nationality. The Czech guy, who I shared the room with, was fine. He was a nice guy. He worked at Starbucks or something. He would bring doughnuts home on a semi-regular basis. He’d get them for free after work.

I didn’t have a blanket when I moved in so he gave me the blanket that his previous roommate had. I still have this blanket and still use it today.

So there’s no problem from my end. I liked him and he was a pleasant guy. But he HATED living with me. I’m a reserved guy at the best of times. And at the time, I wasn’t working and I was in a precarious situation. So I didn’t want to fucking have chit chat and pretend that everything is great. I was embarrassed and stressed out about not being able to find a job and I really hated not only having to share an apartment but having to share the room. I’m just not that kind of person. I’m not some bubbly, “Hey, let’s go hang out and go drinking” kind of guy. I’m a “Hey, I’d like to to be left alone” kind of guy.

This guy, like many others, hated that shit like poison. But it was nothing personal against him.

That’s the way that people take it, though. I’ve had this problem for many years. It’s not as bad now because I’ve worked on it but it was a huge problem for a long time. People say, “Why isn’t this guy talking to me? Is there something wrong with me? He must not like me” when what they should have been saying is, “This guy just isn’t interested in talking. It’s his problem.”

So one of the women moved out maybe a week or two after I moved in. I assume that it was coincidental because I don’t even remember seeing her.

But when she moved out, this Czech guy moved in with the other woman. That wasn’t coincidental. He didn’t want to share the room with me. He was still friendly to me but he clearly didn’t like me, which is fine, and I get it.

So then an Italian guy moved in. He became my new roommate. He was a graduate student or whatever the equivalent is. Some IT shit.

He was fine. We got along. We even went out for drinks a few times. He knew some women from Hungary and they were visiting. And the chubby one liked me. She kept trying to talk to me and I was doing my usual awkward thing. But she kept persisting so we all went out. I don’t know. I wasn’t remotely charming but we talked. She told me about Hungary or whatever and I told her about the difficulties in finding employment. And then that was that. They went back to Hungary.

This Italian guy was really talkative and knew a lot of people so it helped. He took dance lessons not because he was interested in dancing but as a way to pick up the ladies. So this sort of thing.

The Lithuanian guy was an asshole. He worked as a waiter. He had a few tattoos on his hands that the Czech guy said were from prison. I don’t know what he was in prison for but he would often make some odd comments about young girls.

We were all in our mid-20s except for the Lithuanian guy who was in his early to mid-30s. He had the lease to the place and he sub-let the place to everyone else. We all paid £50/week. So he was getting £800/month from the four of us.

He paid nothing in rent. Rent was probably £700/month. He was making money off of this.

Utilities weren’t included so we also had to pay £10 periodically. He would just come in and say that he needs £10. I don’t remember the frequency. Again, he probably contributed nothing to the cost of the utilities.

He was also drunk all the time. He would wake up and start drinking. Every day. He worked nights.

The other Eastern European woman moved out after she had a dispute with this guy over the cleanliness of the sink. This Lithuanian guy told her that she left a mess in the sink, she disagreed, they started yelling about it, and she moved out.

This all happened within the first three or four weeks of me moving in. Both of these women left within three or four weeks.

So now this Italian guy decided that he wanted to move in with this Czech guy, partly because I’m not a fun person to be around but also this Czech guy was vociferously lobbying for this. So whatever. I don’t give a fuck.

The Italian guy moved in with the Czech guy. The next day, the Czech guy threw a pillow at the Italian guy for snoring too loudly. The next day, the Italian guy moved back in with me, citing a need to sleep.

We need another flatmate. I wasn’t working so I was able to show people the flat. Most people took a brief look around, saw that it was shit, and made a hasty retreat. But there was a Muslim guy who seemed to like the flat. He asked if it was a problem that he was Muslim. Not knowing any better, I said, no. Of course not. Islam is the religion of peace. What’s not to like?

But he had a few questions about the place. Like why are bills not included? Because usually bills are included in these sorts of arrangements. I didn’t know. So I asked if he wanted to speak to the guy who’s on the lease. He said that he did, I called the Lithuanian guy up, and handed this Muslim guy the phone. The Muslim guy raised his concerns and the Lithuanian guy said, “If you don’t like it, don’t take it.”

So that was that. We probably dodged a bullet there.

Then there was a Polish guy who was interested in the place. Really, really, SUPER gay. Flaming. Richard Simmons would see this shit and say, “Come on. That’s a bit much.”

But he was interested, I was entrusted with finding a new roommate, and what do I care? So he’s gay. He’s not going to fucking bum everyone. So I took his deposit and said that he can move in whenever he wants.

The Czech guy and the Lithuanian guy were not overly pleased with this but it turned out fine. He was SUPER gay and came on to all of us but once it was clear that nobody was interested in that shit, he stopped doing it. And here was a case when my awkward and withdrawn behaviour really worked to my advantage. Not interested in that shit. Not interested in being polite or humouring you in any way. I’m shutting that shit down. Go to the leather bar if you’re looking for a good time.

He spent time with the Italian guy, though, because that guy was really outgoing and friendly.

While all of this was going on, I was looking for work. Every fucking day. I didn’t have a computer or the internet so I’d go to the internet cafe and send out resumes. I also sent out resumes just randomly to local businesses. Nothing ever came of that second thing.

I’d get an interview once in a while, they’d tell me that I’m too quiet and won’t fit in, rinse and repeat.

So I started looking for teaching jobs. I had the previous experience, having worked as a substitute teacher in the US. I wasn’t qualified to be a teacher or even a substitute teacher but I could be a classroom assistant or an “exam invigilator.” It paid, whatever, £80/day.

These jobs are all controlled by employment agencies, at least in London, at least 20 years ago. Not just teaching jobs but all jobs. If you want a job ANYWHERE, you almost certainly have to go through these parasitic middlemen. They offer absolutely no value to you, the employee, but employers like using employment agencies to find staff because agency staff don’t get the same legal protections that actual staff have. For example, you can fire agency staff for any reason at all, with no notice. You can’t do that with staff that you’re employing directly.

Employment agencies also skim money from your pay. So the school, in this case, might be paying £150/day but the agency is only paying you £80/day. They’re just pocketing that £70/day. For doing literally nothing. It’s a complete parasitic relationship and I would do everything I possibly could not to use an agency but it was extremely difficult because they controlled like 100% of the market.

You couldn’t just go to a school, in this case, and say, “Hey, I’d like to work here.” You had to go through an employment agency.

So I’d go to these agencies and it was always the same process. “Hey, your resume is really impressive. We have a lot of work. We’ll contact you as soon as something comes up.” And then you’d never hear from them again.

I eventually figured out what one of the problems was. The school district that I worked for refused to fill out the reference forms that these agencies would send.

It was a cultural difference. The questions on these forms would ask things like, “Would you hire this person again?” Employers in the US are not going to answer that because if you give a negative reference, it opens you up to lawsuits. So all they’ll say is, “This person worked here between X date and Y date.”

I would call this school district in the US, explain the situation to them, and beg them to fill out the form. There was no fucking problem. I left on good terms. I was never reprimanded or anything.

And they’d say, “Yeah. It’s no problem. We’ll fill out the forms.” But they never fucking did. Dozens of agencies sent these people reference forms and they fucking flat out refused to fill them out. Dozens of them. They would just lie on the phone when I’d call them.

I tried creating a fake reference with a Hotmail account or something but that didn’t convince anyone. So I decided that what I need to do now is find a place in the UK that will provide a reference. Maybe do some volunteer work.

Christmas is coming Everybody is leaving to go visit their families. The Czech guy asks what I’m doing over Christmas. I say, “Nothing. Just staying here.” He said, “That’s depressing.”

But I was doing it. I was living in London. I got away from that massive student loan debt. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. Minus the not having a job and living in squalor part.

The next door neighbours were a completely impoverished white English couple with a teenage daughter. The parents would yell constantly. The woman in particular seemed to be a real scumbag. And the walls were really thin so we heard all of this.

One day, the Italian guy starts knocking on the walls during one of these arguments. So the woman comes out and starts banging on our windows and yelling while the husband is trying to get her to stop.

I was getting £72/week from benefits. I couldn’t really go anywhere. I was eating peanut butter sandwiches every day. And I was having enormous difficulty in getting a job.

So I said to this Lithuanian guy that in order for me to get housing benefits, which would pay for my rent, I need a copy of the lease. He didn’t want to do that. He got really nervous when I asked that. He didn’t want me to see that he’s paying nothing in rent.

So I said, “Just give me something saying that I’m paying £50/week for rent.” He did that.

I took it to the Job Centre and they said that it’s not sufficient. I need something from the landlord.

So I asked the landlord. He was a Muslim guy. From Bangladesh or something. He gave me something. I don’t remember what. I took it down to the Job Centre and they said that it’s not going to work. My name needs to be on an actual lease.

Then the next thing I know, we’re all getting kicked out. Whatever I showed the Job Centre, triggered somebody that this guy owned the property and there was some illegal goings on. He told us himself that he owned several properties but he put them in different family members’ names. This is a common scam, particularly among Muslims, who have large families.

So the council, I guess, was coming after this guy for fraud or taxes or whatever.

I didn’t know that any of this would happen. I was just trying to get Housing benefit because I was living on £72/week and paying my rent and everything else with that.

So we all had to look for another place to live. We had one month’s notice. The Lithuanian guy blamed me for us getting evicted. I was there for about six months.

So I started looking for a new place and I found one down the street, in a small apartment block, with four guys from Brazil.