17 incidents I shared with my roommate
Shenanigans from our first semester at MIT
College is a lot of work, and as clumsy students know, classes aren’t where the struggle ends. As a British freshman living away from home for the first time, I was lucky enough to find a great roommate to struggle through the first semester with. Here is a list I’ve compiled of 17 memorable experiences we shared this term.
I fell off my top bunk and rebounded off my wardrobe door, thereby cracking it, and rolled over into my roomie’s bedpost.
We went paintballing with a frat during Rush. 10/10 would recommend! However, if you are not wearing knee-pads, do not pretend you are Lara Croft and skid on your knees, unless you prefer your body without skin.
Roomie lost Egyptian Ratscrew (a card slapping game) and sulked for an hour.
I asked roomie to pass me an eraser in a very British way, and she explained to me that asking for a “rubber” in the US was asking for a condom.
Roomie invited me to Ultimate Frisbee “because it’s a chill practice today,” but practice was actually serious, so I just awkwardly sat on the sidelines since I wasn’t part of the team.
I offered to make roomie a birthday cake, and everything went wrong — the second layer broke in half, the icing was runny and time was running out. However, we salvaged it in the end! Pro-tip: when your cake breaks, just stick it back together with icing and pretend the visible cake crumbles are part of the “cookies and cream” effect.
Roomie and I tried going to the gym but were intimidated by the crowd of people there, so we walked back out because we are both bad influences on each other.
We went to the mountains of New Hampshire for a Random Hall hiking trip over Veteran’s Day weekend, and I got whacked in the eye with a branch (I’m fine, thanks for the concern).
I introduced roomie to Primark (a popular British clothing store; there’s one at Downtown Crossing). She described it as “a cheaper, less hipster Forever 21.”
We adopted a cat — our baby, Mercury.
Our cat slapped roomie when roomie threatened her with a spray bottle.
We left our cat behind when a fire alarm went off because she wouldn’t get in her new carrier (she’s fine, it was a drill!).
We went to the vet for a $1 check-up and ended up with a bill for $120 antibiotics.
I ate carrot cake that the cat had licked, and roomie only told me after.
Roomie invited me to The Tech (she’s staff) for dinner, and we ended up addicted to Overcooked. We have now racked up many hours on The Tech’s PS4 (please help).
We ran against each other for secretary of Random Hall. (No one else ran. She won. I’m not bitter.)
We went swimming so I could teach roomie to pass the swim test, but I ended up smashing my face into the pool tiles because I forgot we were in the training pool, rather than the deep one. Try explaining to someone that the floor gave you a black eye.
All in all, we had a very eventful first semester and great bonding experiences. Shout-out to Ivana, my wonderful roommate! (She made me say that…)