Member-only story
The Middle Class Is Living With Rats
Living with rats is the new normal.
In 2012, I was living as an international student in Canada. After a couple of months living with a really nice old lady but who had some peculiar habits, I decided to move to my own space, where I would finally have a kitchenette and would be able to cook my own food. I moved a few blocks down the same road to a studio flat.
At the time, I had a friend that lived in the same building and told me not to move there. Not long before, he used to live in the basement, very common in Canada and killed two rats in his bed. I didn’t listen because I was young, and that was what I could afford at the time. I remember paying something like 600 Canadian dollars per month to live there; I lived on the first floor.
My first nights at this tiny studio flat were sleepless; I was so worried about rats that I couldn’t sleep for a while. And I also didn’t have a good mattress. I had another friend older than me, and I asked for her help. I remember her checking with me all the spots that could attract rats and covering them, and she told me: never keep your food out. Always always keep everything in the fridge. I followed her advice, and I never saw a rat there. But I never dared to turn on my heather. I don’t know how I survived winters there.
