Friends, fine food and four rooms
From buzz saw horror to Kimchee delight, off-campus bliss
requires two ingredients
It was during the summer after my senior year of high school, on
a particularly hot and humid day, that I found myself on the UCLA
campus. On this specific occasion, I was in the Housing Office
arguing my case for why I should be assigned on-campus housing
despite my two-week-late application.
The situation was going nowhere fast as I realized that the
Housing Office employee, like her cold, robotic brethren down at
Murphy Hall, would probably much sooner see my head blown off with
a 12-gauge rather than answer any questions I had or aid me in any
way.
Left with no choice, I was relegated to live in an off-campus
apartment my first year. Now that I’m in my second year of this
unique experience, I can see that a successful off-campus living
situation, despite all its quirks, responsibilities, tribulations
and annoyances, basically boils down to two factors – a peaceful
relationship with your housemates and a source of decent food.
Obviously, the most important thing about living in an apartment
is your roommates, the individuals you’ll be existing with for at
least the next nine months. Therefore, selection of your roommates,
other than the selection of the actual party pad itself, should be
paramount on your list of priorities.
Ideally, the perfect roommate situation would involve three
other individuals who are quiet, do not smoke, do not disagree with
you on a constant basis, are well-mannered, well-groomed and
generally affable. However, since I’m not really a big believer in
miracles, I would probably settle for someone with decent
hygiene.
Personal health traits aside (although I do stress their
importance), one should also keep in mind that individual character
conflicts tend to occur over the course of nine months. The
difference between nine months of peaceful cohabitation, as opposed
to nine months of living hell, depends on how these trying
situations are handled.
Sure, there are times when you wake up and the last thing you
want to see or hear is your roommate. Or there might be other times
when the very manner in which your esteemed housemate eats or
breathes annoys you to no end. The one answer, the only logical
solution to these complaints, is simply to have patience and endure
them. I speak as one who has had experience with roommates who
snore like buzz saws, eat with that weird gum-flapping noise, and
who leave the bathroom smelling like the toxic pit of hell. Believe
me, there isn’t much else you can do but put up with it.
The importance of good food for off-campus lifestyles is
self-evident. For example, packaged Ramen noodles are great the
first couple dozen times you’ve had them. But after that, if you
are not already dead from their carcinogenic properties, you’ll
probably be praying for some nonfrozen and noncanned food to
nourish that over-stressed,
didn’t-sleep-because-of-the-last-midterm body of yours.
The meal plan varies from apartment to apartment, based on what
you and your colleagues decide to do. I’ve seen everything from
B.Y.O.D.F. (Bring Your Own Damn Food) to the "let’s cooperate and
share" deal. There are pros and cons to each, again depending on
individual tastes.
Personally, since I live with three Koreans, the one thing that
has remained constant in my home (in terms of food) is the big jar
of Kimchee in the refrigerator. I used to hate spicy food, but have
subsequently acquired a bizarre fondness for it as a result of my
exposure to this Korean delicacy. As my roommate, Joe, so
eloquently put it, "Kimchee contains cabbage and all those other
vegetables." To hear him talk, one might assume that Kimchee is to
Koreans what the spice of life was in Frank Herbert’s "Dune."
Nonetheless, the bottom line is that it represents one major source
of decent food.
So, one can view the roommate dining situation as an opportunity
for new cultural culinary experiences and as the foundation for
good food in the apartment. Bonus!
Since the pressures and problems of living off-campus can be
varied and multi-layered, I’ve found that two ingredients that
continue to work to ensure a relatively easy and happy experience
are an amiable relationship with my housemates, and a constant
source of nutritional and tasty food.
Whether these are the factors that would determine the success
of other off-campus experiences, I do not presume to know.
Nonetheless, I wish all who would journey into such an adventure
much luck, as they’ll probably need it.
Chieng is a second-year biology student. His column appears on
alternate Fridays.
Chieh Li Chieng