How to Find a Suitable Home in College Station

photo and essay by Yasser Alzahrani

Howdy (the common local greeting word) and welcome to College Station. When you arrive in the new city, one of your main concerns is to find a home. Therefore, a couple of ways to look for an appropriate place to live will be provided.

When planning your trip, make sure to book a flight that arrives to the city before the beginning of the semester, at least two weeks early. By doing so, you will find more options and variety of apartments for lease. Arriving late may narrow your choices in finding an affordable rent, a clean living quarter, and a good proximity to the university.

Once you arrive in the city, you may need to stay in a hotel for a couple of days until you find a permanent home. Whether you rent a car or not, it’s better to use technology to help you search for a home. There are many applications on smart phones and many websites you can use in your search. For instance Google Maps is a navigation application which can be simply used by typing “apartments” in the search bar to get a list of many apartments in the city area, and then you can click on each of them to see the working hours, the phone number and the property website. I recommend calling everyone to check the availability, prices, and leasing periods. Then visit their website to look at pictures of their floor plans and the available amenities they have. After this search, you will end with a list of apartments that you will choose from later on.

After prioritizing the listed apartments, you should call the apartments’ offices prior going to take a tour of their property. While taking the tour, the tour guide will take you to a model apartment that simulates other apartments offered for lease, and show you their amenities such as studying rooms, lounge, fitness center, body building gym and swimming pool. These tours will give you the chance to see the property in reality so that you select the most appropriate one.

To conclude, the most critical issue in the movement to another city is the issue of finding a convenient home to live in. Arriving early enough at your destination, and using technology to save you time and money when looking for a home from tens of apartments, as well as taking tours in the most affordable and appropriate apartments you found will hopefully help you find the most suitable home.

How to Control Spending Money

by Abdulaziz Malek

Studying abroad is one of the most difficult challenges in a student’s life. Because most of the time the students travel abroad without their families, so they have to know how to control themselves in spending money. Although it might be hard to control the way you spend money however there are some steps to follow to avoid wasting your money. I will give myself as an example to make it easier.

First of all, I have to know how much I get every month or week so I can decide what level of comfort I can get for myself. I am a sponsored student, and I get monthly stipend of $2600. This is enough to cover more than I need. In other words, it is not that good because if I have extra money, I will spend it in a careless way. So there has to be a way to avoid this issue.

Second, I have to save ep some money from my stipend I get. Saving money is very important because no one knows what will happen in the future. Maybe you had an emergency case and you are supposed to have extra money. For instance, if I get sick, I need to buy medicine, so saving money will help me to avoid running out. I save $500 of each monthly stipend I get. So I saved for my future. My stipend now is $2100, which is less than before. This is the best solution of spending money in a careless way because of having extra money.

After that, choosing the perfect place to live is important. Since I get a decent stipend, I can live in a comfortable apartment close to the university. I pay $830 in rent for a nice apartment close to the university. As you can see from this example, you have to know what kind of apartment you can afford.

Finally, I keep the rest of the money for food and my living requirements. Usually the first stipend I get in the semester is hard to save and spend, because I have to buy my textbook to study. I have to be patient in the first month of the semester. In the other stipends I get, I have to put a limit on spending money for food. I eat eat from restaurants a lot, and most of the restaurants’’ meals cost about $10. I usually eat lunch and dinner from restaurant, which costs $20 every day. On the other hand, I eat breakfast in my house, and I buy the food from HEB, which is a store to buy food and cooking stuffs, and it costs me every week $15 to buy the food for breakfasts. Now you should know if you eat too much or you eat less than others, and put limit on your spending for food.

In conclusion, these steps will help you control your spending of money. It will help you not be worried about money and pay attention to studying.