Anyone can imagine the frustration I felt when, upon my arrival at a new university, the campus housing office was discovered to have somehow bungled my application. I had decided late in the year to work toward my doctorate and therefore had to start my course of study in January, the beginning of the second semester.

All the rooms in town had been rented out, and I was now adrift, a woman with a Volkswagen full of luggage, frantically searching for lodging. Like an angel, Rebecca. a fellow graduate. student, befriended me in my hour of need. Over lunch in an off-campus coffee shop, she graciously offered me a room in the house she lived in. She told me that the occupants were either fellow students or university teachers. She named the price and I almost jumped out of my seat. It was so reasonable that I was compelled to... Read More