Hopkins Cribs: Wolman 5East

Posted by Stephanie D.

Congratulations, newbies! It's exciting to be addressing this to people who will actually be walking around on this very campus next year....don't be afraid to stop and say hi, at the open houses and next year on campus!

Now that you've got your big decision ahead of you (hint: come here), you'll be curious as to where you'd be living if you came here - I was certainly curious. While Jessica, Josh and Siobhan will be rooting for buildings A/B and the AMRs, it's my responsibility to show you all how awesome Wolman is. As Rob mentioned, Wolman is basically divided into two buildings, East and West - I live in the East Wing, and I've got a great suite.

Since you'll get to watch me roam around my suite and trip over things, etc, in my Cribs video, I decided to let my friend Katie lead you on a picture-tour of my floor. She actually lives in AMR II, but as a testament to the awesomeness of Wolman, she practically lives on my floor/in my room.

Each suite in Wolman has two bedrooms, either one single and one double, or (more typically) two doubles. I live in a double, with my roommate Lauren, and our room is this cool L-shape that sort of lets us have our "own rooms"; we reference Lauren's side of the room as "Lauren's side" and my side as "Steph's side", but we don't have that weird barrier divider that a lot of rooms have.

College certainly forces you to make the most of your space. My bed serves as my desk/kitchen table/hangout area/sleeping space...so it was important to me to pick out a comforter and sheets, etc, that I really liked. I ended up buying curtains at Urban Outfitters and my mom and I fashioned them into a duvet. On the wall next to my bed, I have about 30 or so Polaroid pictures of my friends and family from home - this was my graduation project, I really wanted to get individual pictures of everyone I cared about from home, and have them sign their name and write me a little message - like a personalized yearbook. (There's an awkward part of my video where I sound like I spend hours looking at these photos and crying, but I swear, I love my friends here too!)

I'm not going to lie -- I'm not the most organized person in the world. But I think it adds a little flavor to my room! (My mother might disagree, but luckily, my roommate is almost as messy/therefore accepting of my messiness). My desk is always cluttered with books, pictures, water bottles, etc. Here's Katie, very obviously pretending to read at book at my desk.

Right outside my bedroom is the kitchen that I share with my suitemates, Shayna and Li. I LOVE having access to a kitchen, even if it is tiny - I can't imagine having survived freshman year without being able to wake up to my coffeemaker and a cupboard stocked with oatmeal, a wide array of unhealthy cereals, tea, eggs, omelet makings, etc. I don't cook as often as I could, because I actually really do like the cafeteria, but it's nice to know that if I'm studying a lot and don't have time to walk to the cafeteria, I can stay in and make a quesadilla or chicken salad. All Wolman kitchens come equipped with a refrigerator, a stovetop with two burners, a sink, cupboards, and shelves. At the beginning of the year, all my suitemates chipped in and we bought a coffeemaker, a microwave, and   way too many plates and utensils (that somehow still all managed to go missing and end up in friends' rooms...) so it's a great comfort, and perfect for lazy rainy days. To the left is Katie once again, showing off one of many "essentials": Wheat Thins!

Another Wolman luxury is the one-bathroom-per-4 people, as opposed to the AMRs, where everyone in a hall shares a bathroom. Somehow my suitemates' schedules and my schedule worked out perfectly; we almost never have to fight over the bathroom, because they pretty much all have either earlier or later classes. The bathroom has a shower, sink, toilet, towel racks, mirror, and a couple shelves, and we decided to install a few extra shelves above the toilet. I'm pretty sure my bathroom at home is farther away from my bedroom than my bathroom is here. Wolman spoils us, what can I say. (Don't worry, Katie wasn't ACTUALLY coming out of the shower - we staged this. Note the necklace).

Another great thing about Wolman is the common room - you can see it in the first picture of this entry (Katie is pretending to cheer on her favorite team). Since there are about 30 people on my floor, there's always someone hanging out or doing homework or watching TV in the common room, at any time of day. My RA sometimes throws little parties in the common room, and we all show up for the free food - and, of course, the atmosphere.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Comments

[:)]

I was wondering how social you would compare Wolman to other freshman dorms since there are sophomores living there as well. Is it an easy place to meet people?

[Stephanie Delman]

Actually, sophomores don't live in Wolman - they live in Charles Commons or McCoy Hall. A few transfer sophomore live in Wolman, but other than that, it's all freshmen.

It's not hard to meet people because your whole floor shares a common room, and remember, EVERYONE wants to meet people. You have to make a little more of an effort to meet people from the AMRs and buildings A/B, but as you can see, my best friend lives in the AMRs - it's really not that difficult.

[Allison Delman]

I loved the written asides on the video! What happened to the blue jay pics though?

[Jackie]

Free food=college. I feel like people will do anything or go to any event if they offer free food.