HOPKINS CRIBS: CHARLES COMMONS 513D

Hello, hello and welcome back to another year of Hopkins CRIBS! As a sophomore I am in my second university-housing home and I am LOVING IT (you will see why in a minute).

Freshman year I lived in this room in Building A (that is a link to my CRIBS entry from last year). Building A was an amazing experience and really shaped my freshman year. Many of my best friends to this day are people that I met living there. I know that everyone always says that the AMRs are the best and most social, but Building A last year (and apparently this year as well according to the new residents) was extremely social. We all had so much fun living there and I would recommend it to any prospective freshmen.

The social nature of sophomore dorms is much different. Since sophomores choose their own roommates, people do not spend as much time out in the hallway with the rest of their floor like they do freshman year. There are still common rooms and the study lounges where people can gather but it is much different than freshman year where countless hours are spent out in the hallway and most students keep their doors open. I think this is partially because the novelty of college living has worn off but also by sophomore year, many students already have an established groups of friends and don't feel as much of a need to socialize as a whole dorm. Also, upperclass dorms are more apartment style than your typical college dorm so it does not feel as open as the freshmen dorms. Ok, but seriously, enough of my ramblings about social life in dorms, let's get to the good stuff!

Welcome to my room in THE PALACE (A.K.A: CHARLES COMMONS)

Preface: Charles Commons was constructed entirely over my freshman year and the summer so it is brand spanking new and I am the first person EVER to live in my room (amazing except that I can't blame all the tack holes in the walls on the previous resident. oh well). 

So, as you walk in from the front door, the first thing you see is the living room:

The TV stand (minus the TV), the couch, the black arm chair and foot rest, and end tables came with the room. We provided the lamps, fan, and little purple chair that you can't really even see in this picture anyways.

The wall decorations are the pictures from a calendar I bought at the bookstore. I ripped all the months out and used them as posters.

Now, look to your left and you will see our kitchen(ette):

The kitchen came with the full fridge and two burners and all the cabinets (obvi). We brought the toaster oven and divided up who was bringing silverware, bowls, plates, pots and pans, tea kettle, etc. You can't cook a huge elaborate dinner but we have had many a dinner party in our suite and the kitchen is certainly sufficient. If you are looking for a serious cooking experience, the common kitchen downstairs is beautiful.

Look to your right and find our table and chairs which also came with the room:

Our contributions to this were the place mats from Target and the salt and pepper shakers. It's really nice to bring our food upstairs from the dining room occasionally and just sit here and eat. Also, when we host dinners we do it buffet style and put all the food on this table and everyone sits in the living room. My roommate Frances and I just hosted a dinner (with yummy fajitas) for about six new members of Alpha Phi and a lot of older sisters stopped by as well. It's great to live in a place where it's possible to have a dinner like that in your own room.

Walk to your right and you will go down the hall toward my room:

Note: the living room/dining area is sort of the center of the suite and the left and right sides of the suite are exactly identical. Both have a bathroom and two bedrooms.

On your right in the hallway you will find our HUGEEEE storage closet. Being from New York City where closet space is a rare find, I am OBSESSED with this closet. It holds everything. Ever.

In the closet, we keep suitcases up top, coats on the hanger part, and a ton of boxes in the bottom from various things we have bought during the year.

If you keep walking down the hall, right after the closet will be the bathroom that I share with Bridget, one of my other roommates.
 

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And finally if you look to your left, you will see my beauuuuuuuutiful room in all its 104 square feet glory.

This is my super comfy bed! I bought my linens through the school during the summer before my freshman year which was the easiest option and the linens are good quality. Next is my desk which has a pull-out ledge so there is even more desk space when you use that.

Like last year, I bought my own lamp because I have a serious dislike for fluorescent lighting which is what comes with the room. The lamp was a great find at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $20. NOTE: It is NOT A HALOGEN. Don't bring a halogen lamp because the housing people will get very mad at you.

Next is BY FAR my favorite part of my room. My closet! It is a huge huge closet that holds everything you have and is great for storing messes in when you don't feel like cleaning. Just close the door and no one will know how dirty your room is.

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Ok so I have a few more pictures to post but it's TIME FOR GREY'S!!! OMG DID MEREDITH DIE, DOES MCDREAMY SAVE HER?!?!?!? back in an hour!

Ok, I promise I will go back to Cribs, but SERIOUSLY??!?!?!??!!!!!??!?!? "Tune in next week for the DEVESTATING CONCLUSION!?!?!...that's REALLY subtle, ABC. good one.

Ok back to the entry: Last but not least, there is my wall. If you look at last years pictures in the link up top, you can see that I had a tonnnnn of pictures on my wall last year, it was a bit insane. This year I've toned it down a little. 
Andddd, the Derek Jeter calendar. It's amazing. He's on every month.

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Bonus points in this entry if you can say in the comments how many days until Opening Day. (p.s. pitchers and catchers report on Friday for spring training!!!! so exciting!)

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Charles Commons 513!

Comments

[Admissions_Daniel]

Great CRIBS post ... just one suggestion. Replace the Jeter calendar with a NY Mets calendar -- I suggest David Wright or Jose Reyes. World Series Champs 2007 - jump on the NY Mets bandwagon now!!!

[Elya]

I was just wondering... does everyone in Charles Commons have their own room?

[Julia]

Yes, the only option in Charles Commons is to have a single. Everyone has suitemates but no one has a roommate