I just returned from my weekend trip to St. Charles, Missouri, during which I visited friends, partied illegally and ate way too much at my old university. And now that I'm back, I have to say I have a new appreciation for my situation in Regina.
Not saying that Lindenwood isn't a terrific school. They built a new, gigantic building on campus last year, so there are now two cafeterias and something like seven gymnasiums for student use. The classes are super easy. The weather is really nice. The campus is gorgeous. Really, it's a great place.
It's just that I couldn't imagine living in a dorm again.
Now, I fully support living in a dorm during your first year of university. It's the best way to make new friends and to get established at school. Or at least it's a great way to find people to eat meals with, especially if your only source of food is a cafeteria.
It's just that after a year living in an apartment, I can't imagine living around so many people and so much, well, hair.
At Lindenwood, the best on-campus living situation is sharing a room with one other person, and a bathroom with a pair of suite-mates. That means four young women sharing two sinks, one bath tub/shower and one toilet.
On paper, this doesn't sound too awful. But on paper, girls can co-exist happily and everyone wants to clean the shower and scrub the toilet and take out the trash.
This is not real life, folks.
Staying with my friend Alex, I was treated to a bathroom shared by four girls, two of whom are from South America and are blessed with long, dark hair that falls out at a shocking rate. So. Much. Hair. Everywhere. It was actually impossible to set my toothbrush down on the counter without it picking up half a dozen strands, or getting caked in make-up, because there was make-up on every single surface.
Another nice note was that each girl had shampoo, conditioner and body wash in the shower, leaving very little room for anything else, including me. I knocked over each bottle at least once, and Alex said she enjoyed listening to me swear and curse throughout my showers while I toppled each Herbal Essence bottle in sight.
The garbage can was over-flowing and it seemed that both parties believed that it was the other's turn to take it out. So they were involved in a tough waiting game and I was caught in the middle and severely grossed out.
Plus all the yelling and late-night drunken stumbling/crying involved with piling 50 girls in a hallway together. It's horrifying.
I feel so much safer at home, here in Regina, in my apartment, where my roommate and I regularly vacuum, and we both seem to understand the garbage is just better taken out. This is so much nicer.
Tonaya apologizes for not submitting a column last week. Her mid-mid-life crisis hit an all-time high and she was unable to do much more than attend class and try not to scream at inanimate objects. She promises to work harder now that she is 20 and an adult. She also would like readers to know that she isn't offended they didn't send her birthday gifts, because her sisters didn't either. Contact Tonaya at tonaya.marr@gmail.com, or follow her on twitter @tellemarr.
