Roommates = Love

I just got back from seeing Oliver, it was FANTABULOUS! If I weren't so tired and faced with the prospect of a long night of homework I'd be singing along to songs right now. It was a wonderful night full of roommate bonding. These days (or at least since spring quarter started) it seems like I leave the apartment at 8 a.m. and don't get home until 10 p.m. which leaves little time to hang out with the girls. Which is a shame because we always have fun together even if we're like all sitting in the living room doing our readings for class.

Roommates are probably one of the biggest parts of college life if you're living on campus. Which I absolutely, definitely recommend! You can't replace the dorm experience at all.

Freshman year I lived in Honors housing in East Hall which was all suite style living.
Side note: next year the brand spankin' new Race Street Residence hall will be reserved for Honors housing and it's suite style too. Anyway, yeah, Honors housing = awesomeness. A suite is basically a mini apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathrooms. I remember when I first walked in there with my parents they remarked that the place was more luxurious than our digs back home.
This was the view from my room:


















I had five roomies (twas a 6 person suite) on top of all of it! You can room with someone in your major or you can request to live with someone too. My roomie was a Business major and we got along remarkably well..mainly because both of us were pretty carefree people. The only issue the suite had was getting people to keep the place clean. We resorted to creating a chore schedule...it wasn't perfect, but we did what we did. We had some good times there...namely gorging ourselves on Ben & Jerry's while watching Law & Order marathons.

Sophomore year, two of my suitemates from frosh year (Jackie and Michelle) and I opted to live in North Hall, which was the upperclassmen residence hall. I was in a 4-person suite in North. Since there were 3 of us, I got a new roommate all over again. And I could not have asked for a more ideal roommate. Lauren was a Senior Interior Design major and while I was apprehensive about living with someone older we got along fabulously well. She got a job with an Interior design firm in Manhattan about three months out of college so she's off doing the real world thing now. I miss having her around. My favorite part about North, hands down, was that our suite had the craziest holiday decorations.
Case in point:

Check out the bats hanging from the ceiling and our life-sized skeleton. We also had a motion activated doorbell that scared the bejeezus out of anyone that knocked on our door.





















This took forever to do and looking back on it, it seems RIDICULOUSLY cheesy, but it was fun in the moment..











We made this life sized Santa by stuffing my clothes with a whole stack of newspapers and then tacking him to our door. We were nothing if not ingeneous. And we definitely had wayyyy too much time on our hands.

















Michelle and I decided that we wanted to find our own place come Junior year. We were going to get a house with 5 other girls but that didn't pan out. We met Jess in the process though and she became our third apartment-hunter. I found our current place on Craig's List It's about a mile off of campus which means it's an easy 20 minute walk. Even better is that the trolley stops right on the corner so if I'm ever feeling lazy I can take that to campus for a mere $1.30. That's like the cost of a pack of gum. The place is pretty swell. It's got a cozy feel to it... hardwood floors, exposed brick walls and skylights! We all have our own rooms and I've even got my own bathroom too! So off-campus living, definitely not a problem to find if you put in the effort.

So what was the point of my now ridiculously long entry?
Ah yes, I miss my roommates. Tonight was sorely needed. In most cases, your college roommates pretty much become your second family. They're the people you go home to at the end of the day, they're the ones that are there when when you stumble into kitchen in your PJs, bleary-eyed and hungry for breakfast. They're there for your most vulnerable moments and for your proudest. They're the ones that come to you at 3 in the morning when you're pulling an all-nighter and ask if you want to go on a Wawa run. Am I getting cheesy enough? I suppose luck may have something to do in finding the right roommates, but when you do, my advice is to hang on to them for dear life. Hands down I've got one of the best families ever...you'd probably lose if you tried to argue with me. ;)

Until next time...