In the days of yore, Street editors would fuck with freshmen every week. Now, we only do it occasionally. Room Cohabitants: College freshmen Laura Paine of Princeton, New Jersey and Eszter Boda of Hungary (you know, the country).
What are your names?
Laura: I'm Laura Paine.
Estzer: I'm Eszter Boda.
Tell us about yourselves. Share an anecdote ... What are your majors?
L: I'm undecided. I'm from Princeton, New Jersey.
E: I'm planning to major in IR.
You guys get along?
E:Yeah.
L: We're actually really good roommates.
Why are you good roomates?
L: We just get a long well. We give each other space and we're really similar people. We have fun, talk and hang out.
Where do you hang out?
L: A lot of people hang out in here cause we have a really big room, so we have a lot of the hall in here. 25 people sometimes.
That's characteristic of freshman year. You'll start disliking people. 25 come in now, and in a month, it'll be down to 20.
E: Oh, no, the 25 was a special event.
So you're saying you hate your hall?
L: We don't hate our hall, but, we do have like ...
There's some resentment towards you guys. We talked to people.
L: What'd they say?
E: Seriously?
No.
E: You are so mean! I thought that was serious. After all this time ...
So you guys have the party room in the hall?
L: No, not at all. It's just big.
E: We don't party here at all. Never.
Why don't you party?
E: We study hard.
L: We study all the time.
I'm detecting a little sarcasm. Does the drinking go on here? We won't tell your RA.
E: Is this undercover? And you're putting it on tape!
We won't send it to your parents.
L: Never!
I had a roommate, and I found it very annoying, cause you'd wake up facing your rooommate, and he'd have spit all over his face.
L: We're bad about waking up. We just don't ever listen to our alarms, so we wake up five minutes before class. But we have class at the same time so it works out.
Do either of you snore?
E: No.
Would you tell us if you did?
E: Do you?
L: I don't.
Do you share everything?
L: No, we don't share. What do we share?
E: We share everything. No, I'm joking.
L: We share food. Clothes. We don't, like, sleep in each other's bed.
Why not?
L: We like our personal space.
The second bed here is just a suggestion.
E: No.
L: A lot of people sleep on the floor, cause there's so much room.
Random houseguests, or what?
L: Well, like, people in the hall. Our friend Colleen, her roommate had her boyfriend in from out of town.
E: And people just hang out here a lot.
On the floor? Should I take off my shoes?
L: Well, I had friends from home here. And we had some debate people here that I didn't even know.
E: Yeah, we helped out a friend.
So you let people on a debate team sleep on your floor?
E: I wasn't here, but yeah.
L: Our friend from across the hall, he was having debate team people here, so he asked if he could have three people from William and Mary sleep here.
And what were they like?
L: They were nice. I actually didn't talk to them much at all.
They were just sleeping on your floor, and you didn't talk to them?
L: I was out, and I came in at like one a.m. and they were just waiting outside the door. So I let them in, brushed my teeth and went to bed.
That's very awkward.
L: It was. It was fine. They were girls, it was fine. They were very polite.
E: We're really open people, so it's okay.
What exactly do you mean, you're open people?
E: We're very, just, open people.
L: Nice. And friendly.
Who are you friendly to?
E: Everyone. Like, not everybody would let you interview them.
So have you guys had any tension? We're looking for something juicy here. Any gossip about your hallmates?
E: I don't think there are any roommates who have had a visible problem at all.
Has there been much hallcest?
L: Hallcest? Yeah.
E: Very much so.
Have you guys hooked up with anyone on the hall?
(Conversation ensues)
E: Don't publish that.
Don't worry. It's just for us.
L: Yeah, there's a lot of hallcest. Yeah, that ... our hall. Yeah.
So have any guys slept over here?
L: No, actually not. Mostly girls sleep here.
Has there been much tension in the hall after all the hallcest?
L: No, but we do make fun of the one guy who's hooked up with two girls on the hall.
Isn't he proud of that? Why are you making fun of him? Did he hook up with the ugly girls in the hall?
L: There are no ugly girls in this hall. What are you talking about?
Are there ugly people in the hall?
E and L in unison: No.
So it's all attractive people in your hall? I guess that explains the hallcest.
L: There you go.
E: Please don't make us look like stupid freshmen.
No, we won't. It's OK to explore. What do you think of Penn Housing?
E: Well, we lucked out.
L: We don't like the cockroaches.
You have cockroaches? What do you do about that?
E: We yell to our next-door neighbors.
L: Hey! I killed it myself, all right?
Did you feel any guilt for the murder?
L: No, not at all.
E: I would have.
We have mice in our house.
E: I had a pet spider at home, Harold Jr. My Dad had one named Harold.
Was it a pet spider? Or did it just wander around the house?
E: Is there really a difference? I didn't keep him in a cage.
If you had to describe your room as a vegetable, what would it be?
E: I'm glad we're together for this one.
L: I was going to tell you to answer that.
I think it's quite obvious.
E: It definitely wouldn't be a banana, cause we agreed not to have bannanas in here.
L: Or pickles.
E: Or pickles, right.
Why did you agree not to have those in here?
E: She doesn't like pickles and I don't like bananas, so we kind of made a deal.
What do you mean, you don't like them?
L: It's the smell. I just hate them.
Could this be a Freudian thing?
L: Pickles? Maybe.
You had to think about it for a second there. "Oh, I get it!"
E: I don't know. A carrot? Celery? A cherry, maybe.
L: Is a cherry a vegetable?
E: No.
L: I would say, um ...
E: Something double. A fruit that's double.
We're talking fruit here, but I asked about vegetables.
E: I hate this question. Um, celery, because it takes more calories to chew than ...
You know, that's not true.
E: I ... don't care.
