Living in a hostel

Originally writing at 27th Sep

During these 10 days I’ve been living in Nottingham, something really surprised me. One night before I left home, I booked a bed in a hostel for me. I had two options but I chose to stay in Igloo Hostel. It was fate! I made the best choice! Igloo is a very welcoming place! Even though everything seemed a little strange in the beginning before I started understanding who was who there (actually, I think it was my emotions, not the hostel).

Magda is the name of the girl who greeted me. A Turkish girl (I guess) very sympathetic. She got surprised when I told her I’m from Brazil – everybody does. “Oh, Brazil! Nice!”. She took me to the mix gender-10 beds room. I was a kind of scared. You never know who you might end up sleeping with (I swear, it is not an excuse!!! hehe). And I was alone, with money, documents, all my luggage. I had to lock everything.

There were a group of Spaniards (4 girls and 1 boy) not very welcoming, an Asian guy who was also looking for a place and a very friendly German guy. Bastin was the first one to start a conversation and the one who made me feel a little bit more comfortable. This French guy explained me that about 10 people are living in hostel, as permanent residents!! There is a Polish girl, Aga, who has been living there for 2 years!!!! How come? Sharing a 10-bed room with different people every day. Imagine: you go to bed with French, Americans and Russians and wake up with Mexicans, New Zealanders and Germans!!! (some would love this!!hehe)

I could not understand how these residents could do it. All of them are workers, so it is not a matter of money. But soon I started to feel that they would become a family. Everybody in the same boat, all by themselves, kind of alone, but supporting each other. They do dinner together, go out together, have different experiences every day when new people arrive from another place. And that is the reason for ex-residents or just guests to come back to the hostel and visit their friends, also the reason that brought me back to the hostel to celebrate Aga’s birthday.

There were about 20 of us all together, eating pasta, drinking a punch, talking and having fun. After that, we cleaned up the kitchen and went partying in a club (these people like clubbing). The place was full of young people in their twenties. During the whole night the DJ played 5 good songs, he’s not really good on this – and, please, respect my opinion, I know what I am talking about when it comes to DJs! But we really had fun, enjoyed the party, danced, the girls kissed each other and me.. Do you remember the unfriendly Spanish guy?... ye, ye, ye...