Dorm Life
I do not know whether you have experienced the dorm life or not but it was my first time that I will stay with strangers that long. I have never stayed at the hostels before. I experienced so many different things during the college life. So, this post will be different than you expected but let's get started! If you wanna get information about the dorms, I strongly recommend the other post that I have written about dorms. Once I had a conversation with English people and they were surprisingly closed to share the same room with another stranger. I totally get it because as you can imagine we have so many cultural differences with many other countries and one of them is personal space. Some people may need a me-time more than others. I am also one of them. So, in this case, I recommend you not try more than 2 people rooms, so not share a room with more than one person. It would be tough. I shared my room with two beautiful girls and they helped me a lot and we spent almost 3 years together. If you are looking for a voice and chat before the bad time or if you do not wanna experience homesickness I really recommend you to share a room. Btw, differently, from may dorms we share literally a room not the flat with different rooms. So, to prevent any misunderstanding please check out the other post I have written about the dorms.
In case if you have any trouble with your roommate please do not hesitate to contact with dorm office because the head of the dormitory is so nice and understanding. She would understand and help you with any problem. You are not alone. There will be a mentor always with you. Since it will be the only place that is a home in Turkey we wanna make sure that you are happy. So, we mentioned about problems may appear but let's get into it. Easily Distraction During Sleep For example, I can literally sleep anywhere and everywhere so if you are like me, you may not have a problem with a roommate who has a class before yours so that she/he has to get up early and even though she may try to not make noise, she ends up with doing some. So, make sure which type of person you are in this case because it really effects your morning if you are easily be woken up with any noise and believe it or not, this little thing not just affect your mood in the morning but also affect your behavior towards your roommate(s). This may make your life harder for you. It does not happen in the morning but at night as well or maybe both. Even though many people love to sleep long, there are people who have to get up or sleep late because of many homework we have during the semester. In this case, naturally, you expect some understanding from your roommate since you may have an exam early in the morning. In this case, talking might be helpful but your roommate might not be that much understanding since s/he is under a lot of stress. So, things may become so messy. (I know there are so many if and cases but I have to be honest with you because even though they might be impossible to happen to you, there is a possibility and I experienced each and every single of them. So, words to be told that is what I know.) I just want you to think about it because every person is different. For example, we have solved this problem with an eyepatch or one of them has to leave the room and go to study room in case they need more time to study. Dorm life really helps you to start emphasizing the person you live with.
Smell of the Room Some people may be affected by smell more than the others. You would understand more if you watch "Das Parfum". Honestly, this film is nothing related to the topic we are talking about but the smell. However, I like watching movies and you may find it different. Let's get back to the topic, so if you like eating your meal at home, alone and while you are watching a movie, you want some me-time right. However, in this case, you should always have to think about your roommates that may have exams that they are studying in a room and do not want to distract by the smell of the food that you are eating. There are few solutions to that if you wanna give it a try. First, you can simply text your roommates that you are going to eat in the room and you are informing them because they might be uncomfortable with the smell of the food. In addition to that, you can also invite them if you look for someone to hang out. Second, in case you forget to tell them and you surprised that one of your roommate(s) is working on his/her exam, in this case, you can kindly offer some meal that you have because in this situation that is what you can do to save your me-time because no one can be annoyed by someone who shared food with them. As another, in this case, you can still have me-time if you really need that. Just check our whether the kitchen is free or not because there is a comfortable sofa there most of the time.
Making Noises I am really a clumsy person who make noises without any consciousness, it was really bad for my roommates because I move super fast because I wanna shorten my time that I was making noises but I did not know that actually, it is more distracting than moving slowly. Sometimes my friends inform me this kind of behaviors so I have learned what I have been doing wrong so that I changed it. In case, your roommate informs you about the thing s/he is uncomfortable with. That is really a great news because of belief or not but it means that s/he is trying to solve problems and it gives you a chance in case you could not talk about the things you don't like about her/him. So, use that chance wisely. If you directly tell your roommate(s) that you have problems with her/him as well then things may get a little offended. Instead, you can kindly tell her that: "Thank you so much for informing me because I did not know that you are uncomfortable with it. Btw, I also have a little problem with something. Do you mind if I share as well?" Sometimes it seems like it is really a hard sentence to make. Honestly, I couldn't be brave that much when I am young but during the exchange year, we are wiser than the first years of the college. So, you can do that, just take a deep breath and say it! Btw, I always mentioned that you may be the one who causes a problem all the time but these things might happen to you as well. In visa-verca situation, I strongly recommend you to talk about the situation while you are having a conversation with your roommate, I believe things get much smoothly while you are having a problem but I might be wrong. Let me explain. Now, I will be mentioning about two different scenarios.
First of all, imagine that you have a problem with your roommate(s) because s/he makes noises before getting ready for school and you wake up because of this noises. In the first scenarios, you can simply ask her to quiet while s/he is preparing for school when s/he comes to the room. (Btw, people wanna feel comfortable when they just get into the room if in the sentence that s/he heard, s/he might be unhappy while s/he is in the room.) And the scenario, that I believe is the best is that when s/he gets a room you can have a little talk about what you have done today or so on. Then depending on her/his mood, you can ask a kind question about the morning noise. If you have a little talk about the day then you can know whether your roommate has a bad day or not because something things could be offended because the mood the person has and I believe it is a good strategy to know your roommate even you do not care. After a little chat, you can kindly ask her to make fewer noises in the morning and believe it or not but giving some advice about how s/he can do that might be helpful because if s/he knows how to make fewer noises that s/he would do so. My suggestion about this particular problem would be prepared clothes that s/he is going to wear and the bag s/he is going to prepare would be helpful tips for your roommate because in this case s/he might not end up with the clothes that s/he doesn't wanna wear.
Alarm I like to wake up early but I can't wake up without 3-4 alarms in a row. That made crazy my roommate(s) but I am not a person who changes herself for others. I know, it is a bad feature but I found a solution for this problem as well! First of all, you need to be realistic. If you sleep at 1 am or 2 am. Then, there is no way that you can wake up at 6 or 7 am. It is not the case, you even though you have to wake up that early I recommend you to sleep at least 12 am so that you can wake easier and your functions will be much better. Second, if you wanna wake up for sure, then I recommend you to put the phone away from yourself so you have to wake up physically to turn off the alarm. 🚨 This is one of the best solutions I have about waking up. You as well can have someone like me in the room, in this case, you may use earplugs or simply give these tips your roommate so that s/he can give it a try.
Messy Room I am not that much a messy person but during the semester every student has so many things are going on in their life and it might be frustrated so that you don't wanna do any tidy up section in the room. However, as every knowledgeable person says "Messy room, the messy brain". I do not know whether they really say it so but I am pretty sure there are many Youtube videos about it. Check that out. Tidying up seems like a lot of work but I believe messy room makes room unpleasant place to live, so give it a 5 min to tidy up. Let's come to the visa-verca part. If your roommate doesn't care about the mess in the room and you hate going to room just because of that, then it is the time to take action. First one would be the nonverbal signals. For example, you can mention in the conversation you have with your roommate(s) that today you are so happy because you tidy up your time and it makes you super light and more energetic so that you are so happy. I think it makes your roommate, at least to think about tidying up the room, if your roommate is talkative then s/he might explain what s/he thinks about it so that you are in where you want to be. If you wanna inform her/him to tidy up her/his part, this is a perfect time. In case, you do not talk much with your roommate(s) then you can simply say that out of nowhere that you are so happy that you tidy up your part. Or you can simply explain how it affects you and give your roommate an option to be empathizing because some people may not be aware of the case that actually this lifestyle harms them.
There are so many other cases, you may have a problem with but there is one clear solution to every single problem. Instead of complaining about your roommate to your friends, let's take action and talk!
Enjoy your stay in the dorms. No worries it is not that but this post was all about bad things. So, stay tuned for good things as well.
