Any idea which pub this is? Next time I visit family there I’d love to go.

Every blyat and zasranets will.

I’m wondering if I should make a few separate posts about these, but for now let me tell you about the stripper/prostitute; we’ll call her Ana.

I’ll begin by describing this apartment. When you opened the front door you saw a long wood floor hallway. Every door was on the right. First there was a bedroom, then the bathroom, another bedroom, then the kitchen, another bedroom, and my room was at the end. No living room whatsoever.

When Ana was moving in she only had a few pieces of luggage. I invited her to my room to get to know her, offering to make her some tea. She accepted and while she’s telling me how she works at a strip club near midtown she’s eyeing up my room. Pretty quickly she notices one of my windows has a fire escape; the window facing the front of the building. It’s spring so the window is open. To her that was an invitation. She climbed out and started yelling down at the passersby while twerking. At this point I got a good look at her body; I mean it’s not like I didn’t notice she was curvy before, but now I could clearly see the butt implants. I started to put two and two together. After wrangling her back inside, I diplomatically moved us to the kitchen.

Later that week, early one morning, I heard screaming down the hall, but an unfamiliar man’s voice. Apparently she brought a “client from the strip club” home. Guess he wanted a little extra that morning without having paid. Ana pepper sprayed him as he retreated into the hall, and the first person to run out to the commotion was the French girl. She got pepper sprayed inadvertently. The guy quickly left, the girls got into an argument, and me and the rest of the residents stayed in our rooms until it became dead quiet. Ana was gone next month.

I’m at work now, but I’m happy to share later. There was a Kazakh family (new immigrants), a Syrian guy (there for medical school), a “stripper” with a large butt implant (on paper, but really she was a prostitute; not judging), an Italian guy (graphic design exchange student), and more. Usually every few months there would be a new flatmate.

All to say the apartment was definitely illegal, but I was young and couldn’t afford much.

No lie, about a decade ago I rented a room in a long-term AirBnB in NYC where the other 3 rooms were also rented out (so no choice in flatmates; shit was wild). One of the other rooms was rented by this 30-yo French girl from Paris who moved there to follow an ex-bf. Off the bat she was weird; she only ever cooked pan seared liver, toast, or white rice while talking about how she planned on getting this guy back. She would also always argue in French with the Belgian dude who was also renting a room while finishing his masters. Anyway, the kitchen was minimally stocked, so I bought an extra pot, pan, and a toaster oven. She would use the toaster oven but left plastic bags of bread on top, so it melted and ruined the toaster. She also burned rice into the supplied pot every day. It got so damaged after only a few weeks that I had to hide my pot from her, as she systematically destroyed every other piece of kitchen equipment and tried to move onto my personal belongings.

I have several stories from that AirBnB alone. Weirdest 10 months of my life.

Thanks, Reagan

You don’t frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person!

I think for some it’s a mix of patriotism and having poor taste in decor. I know people who also have American flag swim shorts, sunglasses, etc. Also, it’s not exclusive to America. My British side of the family (especially the ones who’ve met the former Queen) have a weird amount of UK flag decor too, ranging from clock faces, throw pillows, and even an armchair covered in a giant union jack.

TIL you can trademark everyday words in the NL. I need to read more about this!

Edit: turns out this is why

Dutch is so whimsical. I personally giggle at winkelwagen. Winkel = shop, wagen = cart. Also, love that they say helaas pindakaas, meaning “that’s too bad”, but if literally translated means “unfortunately, peanut butter.”

Anecdotal, but I grew up in the US and I learned this in middle school as a gifted student. Others have mentioned it depends on the state/curriculum. I imagine in other countries they also divide their students between standard/honors/gifted-type tiers; they certainly do in the Netherlands, which is where I did my graduate studies.

Wow I haven’t seen this since I was a kid. I believe this is a clip from the movie Wild Swans.

Right, which is why I said what I think they’re getting at. Profit on a necessity/right is scummy.

You do come off as a bit obtuse, and I think that what Gabu is trying to say is that only people should own residential property, not banks/hedge funds/corporations/etc. People should own their residence, and it shouldn’t cost half their income. Renting can be beneficial, but it shouldn’t cost as much as getting your own mortgage.

A cap on how many properties each person can own would help; no one needs more than a few properties. If residences aren’t treated like an investment, prices would be more reasonable, and the barrier to entry lower. Then you could actually move place-to-place every 3 years, sell, and not get robbed by realtors who don’t deserve the huge commissions they get on the already over-inflated housing prices.

Did you know that in some places, a seller’s agent won’t even talk to you unless you have a buyer’s agent?

Anyway, small landlords aren’t really the problem. It’s the big boys who own whole buildings and neighborhoods, driving up prices just because they can. Stricter regulations need to be put into place to make those firms go back to gambling over their shitty stocks and not the roofs over our heads.

Oops, you got a letter wrong. It’s spelled with an r, not an n.

When my husband and I had two cats both would refuse to come when called, but one would always come running when we called the other. Ya know, because, “Why are you calling the other cat? Hmm? Giving him something tastier than you gave me?”

But does it say it thrice?

deleted by creator