A discussion of coed living

[kellinator]

My first year at Vandy (where they try to make sure everyone lives on campus all four years, gotta get those housing fee$), I lived on an all-girls hall. Chicks running up and down the hall shrieking at four in the morning. This one girl who would get in screaming fights with her boyfriend on the phone and then wail and scream loudly enough to wake the whole hall at 8 AM on Sunday morning. The president of the dorm getting busted for noise violations during finals. The bathrooms were so disgusting I'm not even going to go into it. And this was the calmest of the freshman dorms. gamgee has this great story about the only offense that got written up on his hall his entire freshman year -- the guy who got so drunk he couldn't tell the difference between "bathroom" and "RA's room" and pissed all over his RA's stuff while said RA screamed at him. But I digress.

For my sophomore through senior years, I lived in the foreign language dorm on the German hall. (We weren't total immersion, we were way too lazy like that, but I can curse like a mutterficker in German!! Actually, I was the hall schmutzigmund, who thought "Wie sagt man 'I'm gonna kick your ass' auf Deutsch?" was perfectly acceptable dinner conversation.) McTyeire was the only dorm on campus that was coed by room because it just wasn't practical to have separate male/female halls for each language. We had the lowest rate of property damage on campus (and the highest cumulative GPA). Some of that was self-selecting, I'm sure -- you had to have at least a little dedication to your language to live there -- but I think the coedness (is that a word?) made a big difference. The girls weren't running around shrieking, and the guys weren't busting beer cans on their heads.

We did have separate bathrooms though. Some things are just too much ;)

But that leads me to one last McTyeire story -- the semester a Fullbright scholar from Lithuania, in her 50's, lived with us. She was constantly rude and belittling, informing us we Americans had no culture, calling one resident an "ungrateful child" because she didn't go home for spring break, and the highlight, pissing all over the toilet seat and never cleaning it up. I wrote a humorous poem about it once; I should try to find it.

Comments

[indiepunkrock.livejournal.com]

It makes sense. I don't know why, but it really does.
Right now My roommate is female, but in two weeks we've got two guys moving in. They practically live here anyway, and I can already see a difference. Emily! keep our dishes clean, we straighten up the living room and we're just better off in general. I wonder why that is?

[vestalvixen.livejournal.com]

What is it about all-girl dorms being nasty as fuck? The one I lived in always had a good wig's worth of hair in the drain, and let's not talk about the used feminine products issue.

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[kellinator.livejournal.com]

I didn't get too graphic above, but... blood on the seats. UGH.

I'm far more of a guy's girl, myself. It's only in the past few years that I've really been able to have close and trusting friendships with females. Had too many of them backstab me/steal my boyfriends/make me look bad in the past.

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[vestalvixen.livejournal.com]

Used tampons in the middle of the floor. I'm sorry for backstabbing/stealing your boyfriend/making you look bad.

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

Now I'm kind of glad I lived at home through college...

But I'd love to see that poem!

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[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Oooops... I did sound like a bit of a git there, didn't I? Don't worry, you can keep him! ;)

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[vestalvixen.livejournal.com]

Nah, I'm generally just as good at fucking up my friendships with girls, as they are with... I remember when I could write a sentence that made sense.

[atomicnumber51.livejournal.com]

I totally aggree on your assessment.

I lived on an all-girls hall in Barnard my freshman year, and if that was supposed to be the quiet freshman dorm....

As far as fond McTyeire memories... One of the coolest things about living on a coed hall was Brian Chow and I having that little central nook pair of rooms. (And I think that's also where I developed my love of bay windows)

the french hall never had quite that level of seat-pissing drama, though we did have a handfull of manifestos taped to the backs of stall doors.

There's a lot of self selection with McTyeire, just because it was never known as a really hopping place (except for the 5 rocking hall parties durring the year!) Which is really funny considering the sheer amounts of sex that went on. It was the ultimate booty call dorm... Bathrooms of both sexes on each hall, which was way more convenient than going down to the basement of Tolman, etc. Plus, since it was kinda tucked away behind Stevenson and Jacobs, the walk of shame in the morning was less obvious.

What I never understood was... Why did McTyeire not have condom machines? I mean, of all the places that needed them...

My god I was lucky

[pinkeffigy.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything like that. EEP! My god how could you stand it? At YHC we kept it both dorms I was in clean and had the occasional inspection to generally ensure that. In both the bathrooms we per dorm room group. LIke two rooms (4 people) per bathroom. WE took turns cleaning.

At UGA I stayed in Brumby, the least expensive dorm. On the 9th floor. It was also one of the cleanest. And it was all female. Except when adric or someone else snuck in for the weekend. But "O house" (ogelthorpe) was coed, next door, from what I hear filthy, and had biiiigggg rats. The rats also lived in the shrubs outside our dorm. They had no perceivable fear of humans.

Re: My god I was lucky

[pinkeffigy.livejournal.com]

I realized after writing I got my dorm names confused. O House was near that dining hall, and Not the one next to my dorm. I can't remember the name of that one, and I have probably just erased it from my own memory (I fear rats greatly).. Sorry for the inaccuracy.