Living in the dorms at UCLA, the concept of privacy has become all but lost. Living in one large room with 2 people, you learn the value of having personal time, how to make the smallest amount of noise, and how to dress/get ready for school/surf the internet when the lights are out. Most especially, it forces you to have a close relationship with your roommates, if for no reason than to have someone to talk to and someone to walk to Rendezvous (I miss Mexican food) with. If you don't get along with your roommates, then your dorm experience is pretty much soured.
Which makes living in the dorms at the University of Warwick an adjustment. Finally, I get a bed where I don't have to climb up to it via a ladder. Finally I get my own room. Finally, I get to play music on my laptop speakers instead of through my headphones. And finally, I get to share a bathroom with the rest of the people on my floor (something that luckily, I avoided when I was living in UCLA dorms).
I finally get my own room! And it comes with a reading chair!
What make the dorms (also called "flats" if they are arranged in the style of a small house, as mine are, though there are also dorms with long hallways and different floors) at Warwick interesting is not the communal bathrooms (or private bathrooms, depending on how much you are willing to pay for them). Rather, the interesting part is the communal kitchen and living room, which allows for interaction with your flatmates (we call ourselves that because we share a flat, not a room, thank God!). Most of the conversation takes place in the kitchen, as you're cooking food (both for yourself and for your mates).
What make the dorms (also called "flats" if they are arranged in the style of a small house, as mine are, though there are also dorms with long hallways and different floors) at Warwick interesting is not the communal bathrooms (or private bathrooms, depending on how much you are willing to pay for them). Rather, the interesting part is the communal kitchen and living room, which allows for interaction with your flatmates (we call ourselves that because we share a flat, not a room, thank God!). Most of the conversation takes place in the kitchen, as you're cooking food (both for yourself and for your mates).
Our kitchen, for 12 people.
At no time are you absolutely forced to get to know your flatmates. On the contrary, because everybody has separate bedrooms (no matter where you live; the Brits know the concept of personal space), it is very easy to become a hermit and only go out of your room when you need to eat. Yet, once you get pass that initial awkwardness, start talking with your flatmates while you are both making dinner and eating dinner with them, then the very act of knocking on someone else's door or stopping by your flatmate's room for a quick conversation becomes easy. After a while, it is almost like home (especially when you have a bottle of fishsauce to help make everything taste like home). And so, I have gotten pass that part of myself which is known in Vietnamese as ngại, past the shyness, past the bashfulness, past being uncomfortable. And it feels nice.
Though it still feels cold as hell sometimes.
At no time are you absolutely forced to get to know your flatmates. On the contrary, because everybody has separate bedrooms (no matter where you live; the Brits know the concept of personal space), it is very easy to become a hermit and only go out of your room when you need to eat. Yet, once you get pass that initial awkwardness, start talking with your flatmates while you are both making dinner and eating dinner with them, then the very act of knocking on someone else's door or stopping by your flatmate's room for a quick conversation becomes easy. After a while, it is almost like home (especially when you have a bottle of fishsauce to help make everything taste like home). And so, I have gotten pass that part of myself which is known in Vietnamese as ngại, past the shyness, past the bashfulness, past being uncomfortable. And it feels nice.
Though it still feels cold as hell sometimes.
Enjoying a midday meal together.
"Let's be friends!"
"Best friends!" (This was taken outside of my neighboring flat)
shriracha!!! did your mates think fishsauce is weird? --yo sis
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