soseg, everyone says its a fun experience because it is. It's just a different kind of experience to what you have at home with mum and dad and your school mates just up the road. You make new friends, share experiences, learn self reliance and fly in challenging conditions just about every day with variables from weather, aircraft, pax, freight, destinations.
Some people pay big money to see what we see on a daily basis. I for one am so desensitized to it, that when people point out something (like crocs, sharks, schools of fish busting the surface of the ocean, flood plains covered in water so it looks like a large lake) I have to fake enthusiam.
As for the accomodation, for that money you can get a room in a small unit. Which is all you need. As for cleanliness, they are as clean as you and your flatmates keep it.
Anyone reading this thread. If you need convincing about going north, then you probably shouldn't be going up there. Those types of pilots rarely last long enough to find a job, or if they find one struggle from day to day to go to work. I've seen it and worked with it and it makes a terrible experience for the pilot, the collegues, the company and the clients.
If your not sure if you want to be an instructor or do it purely because you want to stay at home with mum and dad, thats not really the right attitude for instructing. Your short changing students.
People with the above attitudes are only in GA waiting for the airlines to call offering that big paying jet job and often are very bitter towards the industry. I have friends that are presently in regionals, domestic and international airlines and they all miss GA in a certain way and treasure the time they spent and the lessons they learnt.