Finding a Flat

For all of you trying to go abroad I have some advise for you. Secure a place to live before you go there!
After I was accepted to my university I was pput in contact with a friends friend whom had a spare room. DONT DO WHAT I DID! I got in contact with the girl over facebook and asked if the room was still avaible and if so could I take it? She said yes I will get intouch with you mid August with the renting details. Silly me I let that be, I didn't apply for housng with the university, I thought I was set. This was half way through July. Then at the beginning of August I got in contact with her agai n and asked for some details so that I could do my finacials for my UK visa application. She sent me them; address, rent per month and so on.  Then I waited untill the 15th of August and no reply from her, so I sent her a message. There was no responce, so I sent another and another over the next two days and finally I got a message back saying "sorry but the room is not available any more, hope to see you in Edinburgh." So as soon as I got the message I went on the university site and signed up for student housing, I received a message several days later that I had applied to late and the cut off date was the 15th. So I started looking up renting and letting agents and websites for Edinburgh. I became a member of several of them and sent on average two dozen emails out a day to people looking for flatmates with in a 30 minutes walk of campus and letting agents renting out flat (appartments) in the same area. For the first week no one sent me back a message. Then when I was finally getting responces, they told me that I had to be in the city to veiw the flat. When I suggested i could be interveiwed via skype, phone call or video phone call they stopped their communications with me.
With only days at this point till I left the States to go to school I sent a panic message to some of my pals already in Edinburgh with places to stay asking if I could stay with them for a couple of days while I got a place to live. Then I increased my emails and my international phone calls to around four dozen seperate emails and 2 dozen phone calls a day. Out of those hundreds of phone calls and emails I was able to set up two flat veiwings for friday afternoon when I arrived in Scotland. But of course the morning of the day I left both sent me emails saying the flats were no longer available. Although I did receive a couple of messages back from my pals in the city that said it would be alright to stay with them. So when I got into the city and got to one of my pals flats  stored my bags in his room and went out with him to what ever flat letting agents we could get to before closing at 5pm. We were turned away by more then half of them saying that they would not let to students. After this fuitless endevere, which All I had to show for the afternoon was a larger dislike of crouds, dirty cloths and one letting companies property rentals print out sheet. It was the weekend so that means no letting agents are open in the UK so I resorted back to email and set up serval more veiwing for the next couple of days, all of which were cancelled two hours to thirty minutes before them were going to happen. On monday I went to my classes and then hit the streets search the city zone for zone calling every letting/ renting and for sale sign I could find. Fun fact about 95% of the signs saying the buildings or flats are for rent are for buildings and flats that have already been let out weeks ago, who know? I do now! The next day, the same drill, but with an exception I had two flat veiwings in the afternoon. The first flat I went to was about a 25 minutes jog dodging tourist and buses. Although it was a nice flat the room for let had no windows and my flatmate was the son of the landlords there for I would be able to get away with nothing. The next place was about 30 minutes jog if I took a sort cut down a hill through a park across a highway, through and other park, up a steep hill inhabated by the homeless (the drunk kind) and through 4 city blocks. The rent was High and my roommate although nice would have been a kinda weird guy to be truthful.
I desided that these places were not for me. I set up an other flat veiwing for the next day with what I thought was a good letting company, to veiw a property in the area of my friends flat. But an hour before the veiwing was going to take place the letting agent texted me (should have called) and told me that they had charged the veiwing to a plave "just down the street a block or two." I called the letting agents and they had rented the property other at like 10pm  the night before, which is strange because they close at 5pm everyday except for weekend when they are not open.  So I said why not go see this place if they think its simular. The new flat that was to be veiwed was about one mile down the busy city street about 35 minutes speed walk from campus. But wait there was a few toppers. While walking there 10 minutes before the veiwing the agent called me saying "where are you, are you even coming?" I said I was about five minutes away, he replied "are you walking or driving?" walking I said, "ho your going to be like fifteen minutes arnt you?" and he hung up. When I got there He was sitting in the companies car and refused to get out  for acouple of minute just looking at me waving for him to come across the street so we could veiw the flat. He finally got out crossed the street and gave me the weakest dead fish hand shack I had ever received and semi broke into the flat, jamming the wrong keys into the door and trying to force his entry afterward instead of finding the key. Finally the man living there opened the door and let us in. There was stuff everywhere and the agent gave me the crapest tour in the world. Heres the kitchen, bedroom, storage and the back door, so you want it? I desided no and walked out, then walked across the street infront of himm and called the letting agent with the closed office across the street.
The next day I sent dozens apon dozens of emails called so many people I had to retop up my sim card I just had gotten tow days ago. But finally I became a member of a city called gumtree and with in eight hours of making a advertisment for a student looking for a room I got a responce for a flat with in a couple of blocks of campus. I moved in later that day to my double room and double bed.
FIND A PLACE BEFORE YOU GO!!!!!!!!!