Home, Sweet Home

         Culture is something that characterizes countries, cities, and places in a general way. Every time you describe a place, you try to say aspects like architecture, people, people’s behaviors, music, food, etc., and all these things build the local culture. In many different aspects, the culture of my home country is different from the U.S. culture. Compared to my life at home, living in my dorm room in the US is a big cultural difference. I believe that living in a campus housing system is a unique experience for everyone, but especially for me since I am from another country, and it is a unique experience that influences my life and makes my room a special place.

         In Brazil, people do not have the habit of living in a dormitory hall in the Campus. We are used to having a really strong connection with our homes, and there is where we live with our families, even when in college, until we get married or move out. In the USA it seems that it is a very common thing to move to Campus to live in a dorm room, to experience the college life. Besides the fact that I am living in another country and in a dormitory room on the Campus, I am by myself, without my family. Therefore, living in this campus housing system is such a new and different experience that influences my life and makes my room a special place.

          I’m living in Roselle Hall, more often called North Hall. More specifically in the room 309-A - that’s my new home. Unlike my home in Brazil, my new home has a limited space now, so it has been a hard task to get used to the loss of space.  But this is something that I have to get used to, because I’m going to spend my entire year there. The furniture of my room consists of two beds, two wardrobes, two dressers, two desks, one washbasin and a bathroom. The last one is shared with another room. The bed and the desk are where I spend most of the time, sleeping and studying respectively. I like to study and read in the bed too, but only when it is late night. My bed is located near the window and in front of my desk, my bed linens are common ones that I brought from Brazil, nothing special. I also bought some necessities like laundry basket, detergent, dryer sheets blanket, pillow and a small fridge. Even with my dorm room being my new home, I can’t do everything I want there. The hall has some rules that I must follow, like I can’t have extension cords in my room, a grill or alcoholic beverages, even if I am 21 or older.

         Also there are some things that are really different from my home country, and some of them are small details, but they make a big difference. These differences are sometimes good and sometimes not, but it is something that I have to get used to. The floor for example, is made of carpet, and in my home country it is made of tile. As I have a strong dust allergy, and the carpet holds a lot of dust, I am having some bad times because of this. However, I am already taking some medicine and it is getting better. As my home city is warmer, we don’t need to have hot water for  the shower. Here I have to, and I can’t take a shower without hot water or I will freeze. To wash clothes is really different too. In my country we wash in the washing machine and let it dry in the sun. Here I have to use the drying machine, and it is making my clothes get small every time I use it! The temperature of my room also influences me a lot. My home country is very warm so I am used to staying in home without a shirt or with one without sleeves. Here my air-conditioner is always on, and I try keep it on the hottest temperature, 85˚ F, but even with it I can only use a sweater to stay in my room without freezing, maybe it is broken! I also have one roommate, and two suite mates.

My roommate is an international student too, and coincidentally he is from Brazil, and it makes me feel more comfortable. His name is Adolph and he is a nice guy. He is from the same region that I am, the Northeast. It has been a real hard task to share my personal privacy with someone, even if it is someone that I have lot of things in common with. Some things like talking with my family through the computer, require privacy. I know that the room is shared, but as he talks with his family too, we have to understand each other to make it work well. Other things like not making loud noise while he sleeps or studies I have to think about as well. Also we have to share the responsibilities that concern the room, bathroom cleaning, and organization. We had to decide which bed we wanted and where in the room each bed would fit. My bed is near the window, I chose it because it is away from the bathroom. However, every day I wake up with the sun in my face, so I need to buy curtains. There are a lot of agreements that me and my roommate had to make. We agreed on music hours, study hours, visitors allowance and bathroom cleaning, and it was all signed in paper. I am not a restrictive person and I am used to studying late at night, so he agreed with that.  But sometimes I know I have to respect him, so I just go outside to the common areas to study. Also when I want to listen to loud music I just use my headphones so as not to bother him.

My two suite mates are from the USA. They are such nice guys and I am enjoying their company. I’m learning a lot about the culture of the U.S. with them and improving my English too. One of them studies the same major as me, Civil Engineering, so we talk a lot about it, discuss the subjects and everything related to it. We also study together.  Sometimes we study late into night. He also has a good taste of music very similar to my own, so we share a lot of musical things. He plays the harmonica and I play guitar, so we decided to teach each other how to play. I am teaching him how to play the guitar and he is teaching me how to play the harmonica. One of the main things related to my suite mates that affects my life in this room is sharing the bathroom. Since we share the bathroom, every time I have to use it, I have to lock both doors. Sometimes I want to use it but the door is locked, then I have to wait. That is something that I have to get used to. A good thing about living in a room is that my neighbors are just a short distance away, so I met a lot of people from the USA and from all over the world. There are some events in the hall too, like movies, free-food and video-game tournaments. It makes me feel more comfortable, more involved, and more at home.

One day I went out late night on a Friday, and I came back almost at dawn, then I remembered that I forgot my key inside the room. I couldn’t knock on the door because my roommate was sleeping there, so a friend of mine came and knocked on it for me and ran! So I waited for him to open it, and I said to him that I was sorry because of the hour.  He just said that it was ok. I don’t want that to happen again, so I have to keep my key with me at all times, not only because of the late nights going out, but also because sometimes my roommate goes out too, and if I am without my key, I just can’t go inside.

That room is strongly influencing my life. I am changing my behavior to live better together with my roommate and suite mates as well. I’m also having a lot of new responsibilities that I have never had before, like cleaning my room and bathroom and washing my own clothes and bed linens.

Having to share this small place to do my principal personal activities is a real challenge of daily living and such a new experience for me. It is definitely an important life time experience for me living in this room on the campus housing system. I hope it brings me a new vision of living by myself and about living and sharing home responsibilities with another person.