LIFESTYLE: ODD Couples

With some roommates, it's just like oil and water Some stare idly at their popcorn in the microwave, mystified at how the kernels pop with such vigor. Others unfurl soda cans and hang them on the ceiling next to pictures of David Koresh. These people are not inmates at a local penitentiary, they are University students and you may have shared a room with one of them. Like any institution where people have to live together, University has its share of roommate horror stories. Often roommates have basic cultural or social differences that make living together difficult. Other times one roommate may have a fetish or eccentricity that will bother or frighten the other roommate. These quirks will often cause a rift between students living together, but every once in a while roommates will remain friends despite the strange habit. Eric Polzella, a College junior, was faced with an interesting roommate his freshman year. "He set up a shrine on one of our shelves," Polzella said. "It had Indian corn, corn stalks, beads and all kinds of weird figures." In the center of it all, there was a picture of David Koresh. "He also had the most eclectic musical taste," Polzella said. "He had a can unfurled hanging from the ceiling." Polzella said his roommate also collected anything with the number "69" on it. But, despite these peculiarities, Polzella said he enjoyed his dorm experience. "He was actually a great roommate," said Polzella. The two are still friendly two years later; not all tales of interesting roommates are horror stories. Verena Streper, an Engineering junior, has two roommates. One of them she chose and the other was assigned randomly to share a room with her in High Rise East. "She sits and watches her popcorn pop," said Streper. Streper added that she seems to really enjoy it. But Streper said her roommate has other interests beside watching her popcorn. She "does the TV thing, too," Streper said. College freshmen Claudia Beraha and Jen Silbert are roommates who get along well. But Beraha was still surprised when she learned that Silbert washed her underwear with Pantene Pro-Vitamin hair shampoo. According to Silbert, shampoo makes them smell good. "I guess some people will enjoy that," Beraha said. Director of Residential Living Gigi Simeone said these are the types of habits that cause arguments or hostility between roommates. She said roommates usually do not have problems because of different fundamental philosophies of living. According to Simeone, problems arise when one roommate wants to be social in the room while the other wants to study or sleep. "Often, there are conflicts about use of possessions," Simeone said. "People often have very different values about that. Usually, conflicts don't come because of great philosophical differences." Most incompatibility is caused by differences in habit and "day-to-day" living, she said. Simeone also cited differences in musical taste and telephone usage. As a freshman at Wellsley College, Simeone had her own challenge with a peculiar roommate. "My first day, my roommate and I could not have seemed more different," she said. "She appeared to be very radical." Simeone explained that the letter she received prior to meeting her roommate was not very flattering either. She basically told Simeone that she hated all the music that Simeone liked. But, the two roommates ended up being good friends. Simeone said the she is friendly with her freshman year roommate to this day. College and Wharton senior Rich Carvajal also has interesting memories of his freshman year roommates. "One of my roommates was too lazy to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom," Carvajal said. "One night, he had a Pringles can and he decided to just pee in that." What none of them realized at the time is that Pringles cans don't hold liquid. "It was all dribbled around on the floor," Carvajal said. He added that the smell lasted for a good week or so. Carvajal suspects that his roommate's ultimate solution to his laziness was to simply urinate out the window onto Hamilton Walk. Many students seem to have horror stories about their roommates. And while these tales often result in controversies or conflict while they are happening, after time passes students often come to see these incidents as humorous. One such incident involved a roommate, some marijuana and some honey. An Engineering sophomore who wishes to remain anonymous said he came home late one night to see his roommates huddled in the corner of the apartment. At the suggestion of one of their friends, they had poured honey over marijuana, he said. So the student who had just returned home and his roommates began a quest to dry all of their potentially ruined marijuana. "We spent all night frying it, microwaving it and just trying to dry it out somehow," he said. After trying everything they could think of, another roommate entered and informed them that the entire hallway wreaked of fried, microwaved and steamed marijuana. The Engineering sophomore said he and his roommates were unable to salvage the marijuana. Cleanliness and hygiene also seems to be common issues that divide roommates. Some students are meticulous about their appearance and hygiene, but their roommates may not be as clean. College freshman Rachel Ehrlich said she is pretty big on hygiene, especially when compared to a roommate that she had at a leadership conference. "She told me the first day that she didn't like personal hygiene," Ehrlich said. In total, she brushed her teeth once during their entire week, Ehrlich said. She described her former roommate's teeth as being "coated." College freshman Molly McClelland's roommate from basketball camp also had a hygiene problem. "She had a cold and she would stick Kleenexes up her nose and just let them fill up with snot," McClelland said. And other roommates have experienced the more typical problems of sharing living space with another student. Wharton freshman Lee Anchin said he gets along fine with his roommate, but they have their occasional awkward situation. Anchin's experience seems to be commonplace. Once he got home for the night and mulled around unrenovated Quad, he decided it was time for bed. When he opened his door, he found his roommate lying in bed and his female friend standing next to him. "By the time I walked in, they were separated," said Anchin. "It looked like she had just jumped up abruptly." Like a good roommate, Anchin waited for the visitor to turn her back, and he asked whether or not he should leave. According to Anchin, his roommate's smile and nod were self-explanatory. "I took off and hung out in the halls for another hour or so," Anchin said. Every once in a while, a student is paired with a roommate who expresses aggressive behavior. Just across the hall, College freshman Josh Rosenthal, explained that he came home once to see his room in shambles. "The lamp was banged up, the [window] screen was removed and I found out later on that the cops had been by," said Rosenthal. "My roommate was being rowdy because?he was loaded." It turns out that it was a concerned Resident Advisor who asked the cops to assist. He was worried that in all of the violence and lamp-breaking, that the rowdy roommate broke his hand. STRAIGHT FROM DR. SIMEONE... WHAT DO I DO IF I HATE MY ROOMMATE? ú Give it time. Try to work the problem out with your roommate. ú Go to your R.A. or G.F. He or she will try to mediate an agreement between the two of you. ú If this doesn't work, go to your Assistant Dean or the equivalent for your building. ú He or she would contact the assignments office if the problem could not be mediated on that level. ú Go to an open room change. They occur once each semester. In the case of an emergency and with a recommendation from your assistant dean, you will be granted an emergency room change.

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