Roomie Struggles Abroad

So apparently, when you Study Abroad, you can have the same roomie struggles that you have

at Holy Cross! WHO KNEW?

I was stuck with and also blessed with the fabulous Abby Rasweiler my freshman year and she

loved me so much she begged me to be her roommate sophomore year too, which I happily

accepted as she loved to tidy up the room (including my side), and her mom always stocked the

room with homemade treats from home. But, it is time my luck has run out as I am now in my

junior year in the beauteous green land of Galway, Ireland, but stuck with some truly interesting

gals.

This one actually happened to me! And don’t worry, I’m positive they aren’t reading this because

we are not friends on any form of social media and I am not even positive they know my name. I

was #blessed with three interesting Irish roomies this year. Luckily, I have my two HC gals Clare

and Maggie in my apartment as well so I’m not in it alone, but these girls are something else.

First off,they hide in their rooms, only coming out occasionally to toss their frozen shepherd’s

pie in the oven. And do not get me wrong we have tried to socialize with them! When we first

arrived, I imagined us all being bffs, making cookies and watching the Lizzie Mcguire movie on

our tv in the common room. But I was terribly wrong. The first night we ate dinner with one of the

girls, I will call Beatrice. Now Beatrice did dress in all black and looked a little frightening to say

the least, but I am not one to judge a book by it’s cover. So we all made our dinners and she sat

at the table with us. I started asking her questions about Galway, about NUIG (our school) and

about her family, and in response I simply got a grunt and nothing else. I am sorry, but if you are

going to sit at the dinner table while we eat could you at least respond? Quite rude if you ask

me. After that night, Beatrice chose to make her dinners and carry them to her bedroom to eat.

While it may seem like she is scared of us, I assure you, we are more scared of her than she

could ever be of us.

Bringing me to my next point, their choice in food. Now I’m not healthy by any means, but I

have not seen these girls purchase anything but potato waffles, frozen pasta dishes, frozen

lasagna, and frozen pizzas. Sorry but we are officially in college didn’t your mothers teach you

about fruits, veggies, and protein? We have an entire kitchen to use but they chose to buy

frozen dishes to throw in the microwave every. single. night. And honestly, if you are in a rush

and have a busy schedule, this would make sense to me, but they are literally home all day in

their rooms! I am so curious as to what they are doing in there but I would never dare enter.

Actually, it would be impossible to enter because rather than getting a doorstop and leaving

their door open like a normal friendly person, they lock them shut the entire day. Trust issues.

Third of all, they do not clean up after themselves whatsoever! In the 3 months we have been

here, not one if them has managed to take out the trash ONCE. I have never seen them sweep,

mop, or tidy up AND they barely clean the dishes. I honestly think they believe a cleaning lady is

coming in and taking out our trash, doing the dishes, and sweeping the floors, but no it’s just

your three roommates cleaning up after you, don’t mind us!

Fourth of all they turn off the heat. Every morning, I would wake up to a freezing apartment and

eat breakfast in a parka, only to realize that once again, the power switch that controls the heat

is off. I would turn it back on everyday, only to notice it would be turned off but an hour later.

Beyond annoyed by the lack of heat in our apartment, Clare, Maggie and I began passively

aggressively complaining by shouting that, someone once again turned off the heat, hoping our

roomies would hear and stop the madness. However, this has yet to happen and to this day the

heat is always off. Now this one I have actually personally attempted to address but it did not go

over too well. The only method I see fitting is to actually talk to them, but because they do not

leave their rooms, I found this quite difficult. Eventually, I left a note on the heater saying please

leave the heat on it’s chilly!!! and added a smiley face so they knew I wasn’t a bitch. However,

later that day I was in my room napping when I heard two of them come home to see the note.

The result was bickering and angrily shouting and the heat being turned off once again. Irish

Roomies: 1 Americans: 0.

If you have any suggestions and or know the name of our third roommate please let me know!!!

SOS

• HC at Holy Cross