In my opinion, the most interesting and instructive story of our summer is coming up (not counting the trip to California:)). So, how did we end up in court?

As I mentioned before, last year I lived in a house that I really liked. This summer we decided to live there again. Last year, I didn't have any problems with the landlord (an elderly lawyer, Mr. Mullen). On the contrary, he even helped me talk to Dunkin' Donuts, etc. Everything seemed fine this year too, but Mr. Mullen appointed a certain Mr. Beatty to collect rent from us every week. That's exactly who we had all our problems with. At first, he just annoyed us over every little thing. He said we signed a contract and were violating its terms because we took mattresses out to the balcony to sleep and then brought them back in the morning. In short, he didn't like that, just as he didn't like that I was the only one who didn't want to listen to him and constantly argued with him.

And then we made the biggest mistake of the summer – we bought a grill for 10 dollars to cook meat for beer in the evenings. And we cooked it right on the balcony (why the hell not?!). Where else were we supposed to cook it? In the parking lot? Beatty didn't like that grill at all. He said that if he saw it even just standing on the balcony again, he would kick everyone out. Well, he did see it. And he brought a paper (only for me) stating that I had to move out of the house within 24 hours. And that if I didn't move out, the police would come and take me to the station (another blatant lie by the Americans, I've heard that somewhere before). And he left. And I was left sitting there with the paper. Then I just went to work because I couldn't think of anything else to do but move somewhere else. But I didn't want to move out of there, I was so used to this house! I had to find a solution. In the evening, my former boss Victor picked me up from work with my brother (his name is also Victor, like mine). I showed Victor this paper, to which he replied that it was complete nonsense. No one can evict me from the house except by a court order. And he advised me to call the police and report Beatty. I did just that. The cops arrived, I showed them the paper, and they told me it was nonsense and that I could continue living there until a court evicted me. Then Victor told me a phrase that I will probably remember for the rest of my life: "Never lower your head before anyone. And especially not before Americans. If someone raises their voice at you, raise yours even higher."

The next day was very interesting. At the appointed time, Beatty arrived and, surprised, asked why I was still here, telling me I was "Russian shit." I replied that I liked it here and that I would continue to live here. And that he could go to hell, since I rent a room in this house and am not going to move anywhere. And he could hang his paper in the toilet. You should have seen his face. Probably the only thing in his life he didn't expect was to hear the words "Get the f**k out" from a foreign student. I thought he would hit me on the spot. But for some reason, he immediately ran to his car and drove off somewhere. I won the first round. Absolutely legally. Even if he really wanted to, he couldn't have evicted me from this house. Firstly, because the contract says to give a person at least 3 days to move out, and secondly, because he simply couldn't, since the contract was drawn up incorrectly, and it was not in his competence to give me 3 days to move out, no matter what I did.

About a week later, I received a summons to small claims court, where Mr. Beatty asked to evict me from this house because I used a grill on the balcony. A stupid reason, isn't it? Especially considering that EVERYONE used the grill. But he was only going to evict me because he liked me the least. That's how it is. Seeing this summons, all our roommates, except for my brother and the Turk, decided to move out so that the same thing wouldn't happen to them. To be honest, when I saw the paper, I also felt a little uneasy. I had never been to court in Ukraine, let alone in America. It was scary even to imagine. But still, since there was no choice, I decided to go to court. I took an American who spoke Russian and agreed to help me, bought a shirt and trousers, and on the appointed day we appeared in court.

A small claims court in America is a small room where a judge sits, along with the people who sued someone (plaintiffs) and those who were sued (defendants). When the judge says for the next pair of people to come out, they come out and sit next to him. And everyone starts convincing the judge that they are right. The cases are so stupid that I have no idea how a judge can decide them. People provide absolutely NO evidence of their claims. While we were sitting there waiting for our turn, I was sometimes even moved to laughter. One guy was accusing his ex-wife of stealing a set of screwdrivers from him 2 years ago. How can that even be proven? I have no idea.

Well, back to our case. When our turn came, we (my American assistant and I) approached the judge and sat on one side, and Mr. Beatty sat on the other. He was a little surprised that I had the nerve to show up in court, and even defend myself. The judge asked what was going on, and we told the truth. In the end, the judge decided to evict me, since I had still violated the contract with the landlord, where it was clearly stated not to use a grill on the balcony. That's what American contracts are like. And also, in the state of North Carolina, it is forbidden by law to dig up the ground with an elephant. But that's just by the way. The judge gave me 10 days to move out and wished us a good day. In principle, we were satisfied. I didn't hope to win this trial, so this result suited me quite well. Going to court was more a matter of principle: not to chicken out, not to lower my head, not to run away, but to go to the end and not let anyone humiliate or discredit me, and not to back down from anything.

People, don't fall for scams, don't trust Americans, don't let them intimidate you. You have a lot of rights in America. If someone wants to do something illegal to you, don't hesitate to call 911. And remember, no one, I repeat, NO ONE can evict you from your home except a court in America. Don't be afraid to go to court if you have something to defend.