Courtney Sparks, Staff Columnist

Living with five girls: fun for masochists

By: Courtney Sparks, Staff Columnist

Posted: 11/18/05

For those of you who have more than one roommate, perhaps you can relate to my dilemma. I live in a small European apartment with five other girls. None of us knew each other before we came, so our first real meeting was in Florence when we were told that we would be sharing an apartment.

Our first impressions of each other may not have been the best. One of my roommates, Ali, likes to tell the story of the first time we met. Apparently, though I don't remember this very well, she was squatting down, and I asked her if she was going to take a dump on the floor. What, when, how or why, I don't know, but this was my roommate's first impression of me. As I'm sure you can understand, it led her to a few trepidations about living with me.

Our first problem arose when, upon entering our humble abode, we realized that instead of having three rooms with two people in each, we had a room for two people, a room for three people and a room for one person. We spent our first hour together determining who would get which room. It ended with a coin toss and six tired and frustrated girls.

We spent the next few weeks trying to figure out how to live in our new conditions. Despite the fact that two bathrooms for six girls will never be enough, we had to get used to living in a new culture. Our washing machine was in the kitchen, and since we had no drier and no porch, we had to find a place in our apartment for the drying rack.

If you think doing laundry in the residence halls is bad, think again! I would gladly go to Humphrey's on a Sunday night and do my laundry any day, rather than attempt to do it here. The fact that the drying rack is so small and it takes anywhere from one to three days for your clothes to dry, definitely leads to a few arguments, and quite a bit of wet laundry.

The electricity in Italy is very expensive and a bit difficult to understand. Since we have to pay for utilities, we all agreed, in the beginning, to use as little as possible. That worked for maybe the first month, and then poof. Gone. I'll come home to a house full of lights when no one's home, computers always on, hair constantly being styled, etc.

Our second real problem came when we realized that we were running out of toilet paper. It seems like a simple problem, everyone goes out and gets a pack of toilet paper and all will be well. It works in theory; however, in application only a few people purchased toilet paper. We were down to three squares before we could force anyone else to get any.

Perhaps the worst part of the apartment, and living with five other girls, is the hot water heater. Those of you who have ever lived with a girl know that after she takes a shower, there will not be any hot water leftover for anyone else. Now, throw in six girls and two hot water heaters with 20 minutes of hot water between the two of them. I can't wait to stay in a hostel so I can finally take a warm shower!

I've had a wonderful time living and experiencing a different culture with my roommates, but I think it will be nice when I can come home and not have to ask, "Why are there pots and pans in the bathroom?" or, "Whose thong is in the kitchen?" or my all-time favorite, "Whose going to walk with me in the dark to the scary closet with the fuse box?"

Courtney Sparks is as staff columnist for The Traveler. She is studying abroad in Italy.