I stayed 1 month at Edward’s studio, as I was unable to find permanent accommodation before I was due to start working in Gent. The housing market in Gent is quite hectic, so if you do not start looking at least 2 months in advance, chances are that you will have problems in finding something decent at a reasonable price. Unaware of this, I had to resort to short-term accommodation, where you pay a premium over permanent accommodation.

My stay at Edward’s studio started off on the wrong foot. Apart from some minor setbacks, such as the inflexibility of the check-in times (which also happens elsewhere), there were some issues with the studio at the beginning, which left me with the feeling that I had chosen a very bad deal. For instance, during the first 2 weeks I had to put all my clothes on the couch, since there was not any closet or drawers in the studio. For the price that I had paid, this was clearly giving me the impression of a rip-off. Moreover, you need to be aware of the occasional noise at night during the week coming from the other studios, as they are mostly inhabited by students.

Nevertheless, and to be fair to Edward, at some point he recognized that he had failed to deliver on many aspects, so he tried to make amends. For instance, he offered me 2 additional nights for free. Of course, it does not make up for everything, but I really appreciated his honesty and acknowledgement that things had not gone the way both of us expected.