Repatriate Me!

I’m in Ottawa right now on my scouting trip in preparation for my move back to Canada next summer. When deciding where to stay in Ottawa this trip my priorities were on budget – I wanted the cheapest place I could get as long as it is clean. The size and amenities were not important. I found out that various Universities across Canada rent out dorm rooms during summer vacation so I booked a room at the University of Ottawa residence. This is my review of the residence after one night.

The room is small and clean. The size is about what I expected and honestly I don’t really care about the size since I only need it to sleep in. When I booked the room I understood that my rate was going to be $42 a night including parking (which is $12) however when I checked in I found out that I had to pay an extra $12 a night for parking. I’m not sure if I misunderstood the deal or if I’m being mischarged. In any case there’s some poor communication going on here.

I got the key to my room and went up and when I opened the door it was like walking into a sauna – it was about 10 degrees hotter than outside, which was already 31C. The tiny window opened on to a busy street with tons of street noise. I went back down to reception and asked for a different room – I got one not facing the street which was much better but the room temperature was the same. The window is incredibly tiny and barely opens at all. There is no air conditioning (that’s okay I guess for the price) but there is also no fan which means no air circulation.

I went out and about all day, did my thing and came back to the dorm around 9pm and had a shower. About 10 minutes after my shower I was a bucket of sweat again. Went down and complained, but was told that nothing could be done because the supervisor was not there – alright. I also wrote an email to the dorm people and am now waiting for a reply (expect one later today) Anyhow I somehow managed to sleep last night waking up a lot due to sweat and being extremely parched. I packed up my things and took a shower – as soon as I returned to my room I left before I started sweating again. Once outside the air temperature was quite reasonable and not sticky at all (at 6:30 am) even though my room still felt like it was around 38C.

The conditions are unreasonable and unlivable especially in light of the weather advisory currently on – The radio has several times a day talked about keeping hydrating and being inside with air conditioning. Yet the university is renting dorm rooms with effectively zero air circulation and not even a fan. Today I’m going to buy a fan, which I will use for 3 days and then throw away (what a waste of money) as well as a thermometer so I can properly document the temperature differences. Once I have this done and take some pictures I will post this review up to the internet.

Jul 10, 2010 Comments(2) Tweet

summer 2010 - ottawa - review