Hopkins Cribs: Off-Campus (The Frat Cave!)

So here is where I live. As a Junior, you have the option (and a very good one) to live off campus. I do. I live about three blocks away in a house with about 12 other people, and my room is on the top floor, so I'm not disturbed if things are going on downstairs.

As a freshman, I lived in Building A in a suite with two people. I lived with a roommate in one room, and shared a bathroom with a guy across the foyer who had a single room. Building A and B are great because they have climate control, ie. air conditioning. Air conditioning's impact may be the unappreciated in the United States. The American South did not take off, development wise, until the 1950s, when air conditioning was brought in. Also, think about it like this, the size of the government increased dramatically once the buildings adopted air conditioning because now people can stand the summers in Washington DC. Air conditioning....respect it.

My sophomore year I lived in McCoy with my roommate again, and shared a suite with three other people. This suite had a kitchen and a bathroom just for the four of us. I really liked McCoy, and it might not be as good as Charles Commons these days, or perhaps the Bradford, but it's close to campus which is also an underrated feature. As a freshman, I think the building that I would least want to live in would be AMR 1, but it is the closest the campus, and that makes life far more conducive to going to class.

So now I live off campus. It's nice because you don't have RA's and THE MAN looking over your shoulder. You can do whatever you want, and it requires a greater sense of responsibility because you need to pay the electric bill, fix things when they break, etc. This includes the occassional barbeque, but be careful if you have roommates who may have an affinity for pyro -- you are responsible now for everything. Although the school housing is more expensive, the convenience might be worth it.

So here is my room. I brought all the furniture from home. I don't have a closet ... correction, I have a closet, but you should call it a shoe rack. I have a desk that I don't use: all the real work is done between the ears. My bed is hard as a rock, but it keeps me from being too pampered. I have a coffee table and a wing back chair, and that is my set-up for doing work. My laundry system is "under developed" ie a large pile in the corner that is always growing. But the main attraction in my room are my book cases. I have three filled to the brim with books on most subjects you would want to read about and many more that you wouldn't. I don't really like to read  any more than the next guy, I just like having them around as intellectual security. "Phil, you can't be dumb, look how many books you have." etc

So, if I dont have a closet, where do my clothes go? In that brown box. It's a wardrobe box that I  brought from home. It works, but my suitemate (we share a bathroom, which is in my room) hates it and had an intervention about it with me. Sorry man, the box stays.

I also like ties.

On my walls are maps of most places in the world. I need a large one of China and the Philippines and also a few more flags. The tapestries hanging up are ok, but flags are better. I have maps of South Asia, Carribean, Central Asia, Africa, The World, Central America, The Middle East and Beijing.

Yeah, that's about everything in my room.

Phil's Phun Phact: 2006 saw a record high for Poppy seed production in Afghanistan, leading to Heroin prices falling all over the world. Heroin comes from two places in the world: the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia) and the Golden Triangle (Laos, Thailand, and Burma). The Public Health implications are enormous as HIV is now more associated by intravenous drug use instead of sex. Heroin could become the "new crack" and rates of HIV/AIDS could skyrocket.

Comments

[Michelle Brown]

Phil, I just wanted to comment of the misnomer that is "Phil's Phun Fact" this week. Learning about a new sociological/epidemiological trend that could further exacerbate the AIDS problem is NOT Phun in any way.

That is all.