Living in a College Dorm…It’s Not that Pretty


The webmaster has lived at the mostly Freshman dorms at the campus of the University of California, Davis. In particular, in the oldest building complex for dorms: the Reagan area built in the 1960s. Just remembering the school shooting that occurred 200 feet away from where I was studying during mid-December was quite memorable. (Look at the UC Davis shooting article on this webpage for more details).


Currently in my dorm situation, I am living in a quad with 3 other roommates. The quad has a common area (kind of like a small living room) in between the 2 small bedrooms. My roommate situation has just been simply horrendous.


Complaints about my roommate:
While playing videogames, he listens to his music loudly, turns the volume of the tv higher, and screams at it (all at the same time).
The unique odor: First my roommate takes a shower. Then he goes to PE class, and sweats a lot. Whenever he’s in the room for at least 30 min, the “ode de T.” goes into full effect. (This odor is the strongest male armpit odor that will just never go away especially when the my roommate closes the window and blasts the heater on high).
Now…the webmaster does talk while he sleeps (like I can control that habit). Of course, my roommate throws his pillow at me to wake me up, and doesn’t say anything about it nor apologizes.
Cleanliness: For some reason, I am like one of the most organized peeps in the dorm out of 60 college peeps living in it. When contract time came up and both of us discussed the issue of cleanliness, I didn’t care about what option to choose. However, my roommate chose the first option (1-4 scale….1 being super clean & 4 being messy), and I agreed to it. Ironically, my roommate doesn’t bring his friends to the room since I keep my side somewhat clean/organized while he puts his dirty underwear on the floor. At one point, he even complained to someone else that I was TOO CLEAN. (Excuse me…maybe you didn’t learn something called RESPONSIBILITY)!
Instead of sleeping in my room, I inflate an air bed and sleep in the common room (even though that’s not allowed). Plus, the common room has a couch in which one of the other roommates sleep on.


Here’s the situation
: One guy lives in one bedroom, another guy lives in another bedroom. The other two (including the webmaster) sleeps on the couch or an air bed.
This is just an extreme example of how bad college dorm life can get. There’s a reason why the webmaster wants/needs to go back home to San Francisco almost every weekend.

Best advice: Open and honest communication is crucial between all the roomates.


Check out the pictures to see for yourself:
The Webmaster’s College Dorm Pics

There are initials to stand for the photo gallery:
A=Dorm
B=Air Bed
C=My side of the room (Only used for storage since the webmaster doesn’t sleep on bed).
D=Temporary workspace in dorm lounge (The webmaster practically lives there)
T=My roommate’s side of the room

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