Canadian tutor in U.K. lives in tent to save cash
A Canadian student’s unorthodox pitch to save money on his university education is helping a British woman to obtain her high school credentials.
Evan Eames’s master’s studies at the University of Manchester were set to cost the Montreal resident more than $30,000 in tuition fees alone, sending him on the hunt for frugal accommodations.
The avid camper thought pitching a tent in someone’s backyard would solve his problem, and so he took to the Internet in search of a landlord.
He found one in Charley Mantack, a Manchester, England resident who offered to let him pitch his tent on her property in exchange for tutoring in math and science.
Eames spent about three hours a week helping her with her high school equivalency coursework. Final exam results are due next month, but Mantack was posting As in her classes and expects to graduate.
Eames, 25, said the inconvenience of living in sporadically damp or cold conditions was balanced by the fresh air and fun of doing something a little out of the ordinary.
“It started out as mainly an economic function, but very quickly it turned into something that I was genuinely enjoying,” he said in a telephone interview. “I was genuinely curious as to whether I could make the year.”