Roommates Part I

Starting July 1 we put our extra bedroom on airbnb to make some money and friends. Here’s a list of our past roommates:

(Names | Where they’re from | My guess at their ages)

Bev & Neil | Griffith, Australia | In their 50s
Our first guests were celebrating their second honeymoon because they said their first honeymoon sucked. Since they were staying at our modest place, I can’t imagine what their first honeymoon was like.

They were both great people, but Neil would talk forever. While we were sitting on our roof drinking beers, Neil went on for 15 straight minutes about his friend’s candle holder. I dazed off at one point and when I returned to paying attention he was still going about the candle holder. In all, he was a great guy and not nearly as weird looking as his profile picture depicted. Also one of his profile reviews said “Neil is like boy enthusiastic (…),” which meant to say that he was enthusiastic like a young child, not that he was enthusiastic for young boys.

Bev stumped our BCN knowledge when we didn’t have a good response to: “Do you guys know a good spot to rent a segway?”

In Barcelona when a building is torn down within a dense city block, the remaining wall is either left in tact with a fascinating outline of different wallpapers, interior walls, and fixtures, or the remaining wall is covered in a thick burnt-orange-hued paint, that I assume is a foam to keep the wall from deteriorating more. The orange walls are rather common. Yet Bev was blown away by their beauty and asked me several times where she could find more.

Ilona | St. Petersberg, Russia | 25
She was a professional hairdresser who exchanged a total of 5 words in the 2 nights she stayed with us. She was nice though. These were her profile pictures. I really enjoyed clicking back and forth between them.

John Cox | San Francisco, California | 50
Man. We fucking hated John Cox. He ate all our cashews without asking (he later replaced them) and he broke the door on our laundry machine (which he paid us for). But those are two big offenses none the less. He stayed at our place for a week, after he had lived in San Sebastian for a month, as he was on a sabbatical according to his airbnb profile. Over a meal I asked him what he was on a sabbatical for. He gave me a vague answer. Later on Sarah yelled at me and claimed that it’s not OK to ask people why they’re on a sabbatical. I thought it was fair game since he publicized it on his profile page. Truthfully, I’m still not sure if reasons for sabbaticals are OK to discuss or not. However, if I’m ever on a sabbatical, please feel free to ask me why.

Behnaz & her boyfriend whose name I forgot | Lund, Sweden | Both 27ish
The girl’s profile said she was a professional badminton player. This really intrigued me; I had a million questions for her and I had dreams of taking her to the beach and hustling people in games of badminton (despite the fact that nobody plays badminton on the beach). Unfortunately they were just at our place for two nights and we never really got the chance to hang out. Also Behnaz wasn’t really Swedish, she was Iranian, but I guess it made for a better transition to our next guest.

Hila & Gal | Haifa, Israel | Both 30ish
Gal was as awkward a Jew as they come – a real great guy, just quite uncomfortable to be around. I was cool with it though because it had been months since I had seen a real life Jew (aside from the half-Jew in the mirror), so I took what I could get. His wife/girlfriend/whatever was real nice and she told us she lead woman’s circles. They also brought us these peanut butter puff snack things that were insanely delicious. Hila was the only guest to cry in our house (at least within an ear’s shot), but that was a result of their rented car towed, which is a reasonable reason to cry in my book.