garage from hell

So we had our first “Oh crap” moment… well, sorta. We were staying at the rooster house for a night which was fabulous – our own bed. Electric blanket (look soon for a post on how cold it is here… it’s all building up until one day it will explode in blog form). TV and the Olympics. It was wonderful. Then Kelly and his wife Ruth were to return from their trip… so we had to move on. One of the girls who works here (she’s 17 and the sweetest girt you’ll ever meet – so generous and always looking to made you feel comfortable) offered us a cabin/room to stay in or we could stay in her garage (which they say GAY-rage which really threw me off...) on her bunks… told us it would be more homey and such because apparently it wasn’t a garage kind of garage but more like a spare room… so we thought – well, it would be fun to stay with her and her flat mates so let’s give it a go.
We entered into the house and I was brought back to the days when we first got our kittens and let them roam the house – everything had that ammonia smell of cat pee. Looking at the carpet – yep – that’s exactly what it was. She excitedly opened the door to the garage and well, Josh and I died a little that day… it was in fact a garage – a one car garage with bunk beds (the bottom being a double size), filled with dirty clothes (which I’m sure had cat pee ALL over), old bikes, surfboards, random eaten-up couches, junk, junk, junk, with a flickering fluorescent light above… dear goodness, save us now.
Being the polite Americans we were we asked again “Are you sure we can stay here, we’re more than happy in a cabin… Really… a cabin would be fine” but in true Kiwi style – she refused and gave us really no option without totally hurting her feelings… we were to spend the night in hell…
Sleeping bags in tow, we tidied up the area (as much as you can a rubbish bin) and made it our home for the night… I just couldn’t think about it. I made myself envision us lying in a 4 star hotel that just happen to have a dump across the way. Needless to say… we made it out alive… and no visible signs of physical ailments, but the emotional scarring would be enough for one night.
What’s funny is once Kelly (and even our new friends’ flatmates for that matter) found out we had stayed there the night before, they all said “Why?!?? Oh my goodness I can’t believe you did that! It’s so disgusting in there – I’m embarrassed that she would even offer it!!” So at least it wasn’t just me blowing it out of proportion… it truly was the garage from hell…