In every dorm I’ve been, the trash cans in the hallway always emit heat. I know people throw their food away in them, but still, I don’t understand this phenomenon.

Window fans that supposedly circulate air aren’t going to work unless they’re three foot high and two feet wide in a dorm.

At my school there was an incident with a “Peeping Tom” looking in at girl’s showering. He was arrested a few days later, but I will never shower without looking behing me again. I swear, it’s like living on a street corner in the city.

One good thing about the dorm is that I recycle a lot more. I even keep a bag in my room for bottles so I can later put them in the recycle bin. A lot of girls actually do this, but the only guys I’ve seen recycle are gay. Go environment!

Today I was thinking about the prevalence of the internet for every, single one of my classes. I have homework that is submitted online (try typing in math equations and answers on a computer – damn you antiderivatives), papers for class that must be printed out, online quizzes, and the use of e-mail constantly.

When did all of this happen? This technological linkage? Well, my math professor made an interesting point. The university decided to do online math homework so they wouldn’t have to hire extra TA’s to do all the paperwork. Wow. Only another way this school is separating the student for learning. Interactive modules my ass.

And another thing: ink cartridges are overpriced. Sometimes I print my papers out in dark blue. Don’t say you haven’t tried this….

Yesterday was the first day it rained since I moved on campus on August 26th. But, it only rained for about half an hour and did absolutely nothing to the humidity. When I took a shower, I started sweating as soon as I got out.

Living in no air conditioning is horrible. Not because I can’t stand heat, but because I can’t stand the heat and humidity together. The real feel temperature for the past two weeks has been up in the nineties. It’s sucks that entering my room is like a private sauna. I am constantly sweating! Walking outside is bad enough, but trying to do homework in my room isn’t worth it. I’m so hot that I can’t concentrate.

I keep reminding myself that dorm life is comparable to summer camp (minus the mosquitoes) and I just need to get through it. Sometimes I try to pretend that I’m really roughing it and I’ll appreciate the finer things in life just a little bit better. I vividly remember the extremely cold days in January, but I can’t help long for them, even though they were brutal.

I want rain! And cooler weather! Screw sweating it out. I only want to see jungle in this type of weather.

Last night I attended one of the many beer-infested parties that will be hosted almost every night of the week throughout the semester. I knew one of the people that lived in the house, so it was more of a small gathering than an out of control drunkfest, and they even had hotdogs before anyone touched the keg. How cute. :p

 Within a few minutes a beer pong table was set up and someone got the idea to play 28-cup, which equals 56 cups of beer at the most halfway full. I pleasantly sat to the side and watched because there was no way in hell I was going to drink that much beer or even have the stomach capacity to. For those of you who don’t know, 28-cup is played with 4 players on each team, and you’re matched up with someone on the opposite side. So for the most part it’s like 4 games going on at once.

Three of my friends played on one team and played 4 rounds! So they each drank approximately 28 half-cups of beer, give or take a few, with the addition of what they drank before the game started. Let’s just say that by then end of the night two of my friends on that team got in two separate fights, I witnessed them both, broke up one, and nursed a black eye.

Dealing with extremely drunk people has become a complete routine. I do drink, but I really hate beer (and the disguting full stomach you get) so I only consume enough to get a little tipsy and then stop. I’m always lugging people back to their room, checking on them, suggesting water, rubbing their backs….it never stops.

When will anyone ever learn to control their drinking? When they’re 30? 40?  I don’t see the incentive to get completely smashed and blackout. I can’t tell you how many times people end up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning at my school. People need to relax, have only few beers, and just chill out. Stop challenging everyone you see to a beer bong! You need your brain to stay intact to make it through the rest of school. You don’t need to get wasted to have a good time; you end up looking like a fool anyway.

 You are in college, not high school, and you need to grow up.

People are so immature sometimes. Seriously.

Venturing into a dorm bathroom is often like an excursion into the wilderness. I’ve lived in three different dorms so far. I’d just like to share this list of things that commonly irk me:

1. A clump of more than ten hairs sitting on the shower drain.

2. A puddle of water in front of the showers with sometimes more hair in them

3. Unflushed toilets.

4. Toilets that have been thrown up on. (Cleaning ladies don’t work on the weekends).

5. Paper towels you can see, but cannot have because the dispenser is broken, and the cleaning lady doesn’t catch on that its broken, and you can’t tell her because she sneaks in early and only speaks Spanish. I want those towels!

6. No toilet paper in 3 out of 4 stalls because too many girls share one bathroom.

7. Sinks with coffee grounds in them. This usually sits for two days. Just pour it out in the shower or run the sink water idiots!

8. Damp, permeating, moldy smell that will never go away.

9. Pipes with peeling paint above your head in the shower. They told us that the lead paint is safe.

10. Barely visible light in the shower. Shaving legs is now a mind game.

11. Boys on Saturday/Sunday morning peeing in a urinal because they don’t realize its a girl’s bathroom. You look at them, they look at you, there’s an awkward stare, and you quickly return to your room for a minute and then venture out again. (Yes, I had a dorm bathroom with a urinal in it. Why don’t they just take it out????)

12. Reversed hot/cold dials in the shower that twist opposite ways.

13. Two showers. One is handicapped. The nozzel reaches to your shoulder. But the other shower has been clogged for two weeks and after five minutes will reach your ankles. Which do you choose?

14. Clogged showers that keep clogging because people don’t clean up their hair.

15. Throwing tuna fish cans away in the bathroom because you don’t want that smell in your room.

16. Bathroom windows that anyone can see into.

17. The bathroom was probably renovated before I was born.

18. Walking down the hall and around a corner to reach it.

19. Maintence men. They should send some females instead. ‘Nuff said.

20. Watching girls leave a stall and exit the bathroom without washing their hands.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Since I have been at school, I have heard many “horror stories” of professors and T.A.s who have near intelligible accents. I’ll try not to be ignorant as much as possible, but sometimes it’s too hard to be nice! 

Here is a story that pretty much sums up all experiences: A friend of mine took a sociology class a little while ago. She attended the first few classes and then realized that she could not understand a word, and stopped going, for it was a complete waste of time. (She swore to me that she is a person who always attends class. I didn’t ask her method of studying, but I suppose it was straight from the textbook.) Nearing the end of the semester she told me that one day the professor became livid at the students, demanding to know why they would not answer his questions or make comments. A girl stood up and blatantly said: “We CANNOT understand you. We cannot understand one word coming out of your mouth!” The class then clapped (I’m not making this up). However, the professor only became angrier and kept yelling, and nothing was resolved. My friend told me she got an A, luckily, because the class was easy.

Now, I’m not saying that the actions of my friend’s classmate were exactly appropriate, but it damn expressed everybody’s opinion. I’m in college to learn, not to translate. I don’t doubt in anyway the credentials of any professor at my school: he/she probably has published loads material, won awards, and all that other nonsense, but does scholarly work translate into teaching? Sometimes I feel that anyone with a bachelor’s could “teach” a class. How does a university choose a professor? Not by their teaching ability, by far, sadly.

I’m sure the professor in my friend’s class was a decent guy, has a nice family and good morals, but if no one can understand you, how is anyway going to learn the material? Textbooks can only take a student so far.

And on another note, you pay way too much to go to XYZ school to have a class that is almost worthless. Why even bother trying? No one else in the class can help you because you’re in the same boat.

On the other hand, I have had some foreign professors that were wonderful and easy to understand through their accents. Some of them even acknowledged the fact that their English wasn’t perfect, and would gratefully repeat or try to explain the material in a different way. For the most part that worked and everybody was happy.

Who’s to blame in this situation? I can’t blame the professors. They’re qualified in the material they’re teaching and I certainly can’t speak a foreign language without an accent. I blame the university. I secretly think that my school just snatches anyone up that can bring in just a little bit more prestige and sticks them in a classroom to teach.