Thursday, 4/17/97 All in a day’s work Roommates juggle hectic
schedules and cultivate friendships while living in close
quarters
By Carol McKay Daily Bruin Contributor When the alarm clocks in
403A and 403B Canyon Point begin ringing, the excitement begins.
Four girls scramble to put on their clothes and race out the door
to their respective activities. "Thrown together in the situation,
we’ve become really good friends," says Jenn Shin, a second-year
physiological science student with a business specialization. Jenn,
and her roommate Joyce Lai, along with Christine Acevedo and Grace
Borrero share two rooms and one bathroom. Surprisingly, despite
being almost randomly grouped together within the close quarters,
the four get along remarkably well. "We’re really close," says
Jenn. "I am sad we’re not all living together next year." "I think
I’m going to cry," jokes Christine, a biology student who plans to
minor in classics. The four will not be living together because two
of them had made plans for the following year before realizing just
how much they would enjoy this year. "We never fight," explains
Christine. "The only long, serious discussion we’ve ever had was
about not spending enough time together." With the hectic schedules
they balance, their absences from one another is inevitable.
Despite living together, the only time they really see each other
is at night, says Joyce. "We share a big part of each other’s
lives, but at the same time we have our own lives." 8:50 a.m. Jenn
curls her hair while Christine shaves. The bathroom, equipped with
two sinks, generous counter space, and both an enclosed toilet and
shower, is large enough to fit all four girls, although getting the
four of them in one room together is an amazing feat. 8:57 a.m.
Joyce runs out the door, shouting good-byes. Late for her 9:00
aerobics class at Wooden Center, Joyce has a big day ahead of her.
Like the other girls, physical fitness is a significant part of her
life. Christine, after having gone through an auditioning process,
currently assists aerobics classes at Wooden, and she is there
daily either taking classes herself or teaching others. "Basically
by the end of my High-Low class, you’re sweating like a pig. But
you’re burning fat, and that’s what it’s all about," says Christine
of her most challenging workout. 9:30 a.m. Christine looks around
Sunset Dining Commons. "I’m still hungry," she says, after a quick
breakfast. Going back for cereal, Christine explains how uncommon
this scene is for her. "I hardly ever have time this quarter to eat
breakfast. I’m usually late for class. I never even have time to
put on make-up." Noon. Joyce ends her two-hour psychology lab in
Franz Hall and heads over to the third floor of Kerckhoff for a
nap. "When I sleep on campus, it’s a pretty light sleep, but it’s
restful. I’m conscious that I’m not in my room. If I don’t take a
nap, I won’t be able to function," Joyce says. This quarter though,
her schedule makes it difficult for her to find time for these
breaks. "It’s impossible to nap with afternoon classes." Joyce has
learned that her rest is very important. After dealing with a bout
of anemia this fall due to stress, she says she is more careful.
"Jenn would always lecture me, ‘Did you take your medicine, Joyce?’
(My roommates are) like my family away from home," she says. "I
totally trust them." 12:30 p.m. During the only break in her day,
Jenn meets with some friends at the Bomb Shelter for lunch. Using a
meal coupon makes eating on campus cheaper between Jenn’s classes,
which on Tuesdays, go for seven hours with only a half hour to
rest. "I stack my classes so some days can be almost empty," Jenn
says. Two days a week she has only one class, which Jenn hopes will
"let me do things that I never had time for before." Joyce also has
plans for Spring Quarter, including a rock climbing trip this
Sunday. "It’s totally safe – I won’t be putting my life at risk,"
she says of the trip to Stoney Point Park. "I always wanted to do
it, but I never had time. It’s spring now, so I’m just doing it!"
2:02 p.m. Grace and Christine sit in the back row, against the wall
of Life Science 2147, waiting for their Asian American studies
class to begin. For Christine, this lecture is the first one she’s
attended, having just recently added the class to be with Grace.
Both Grace, an English student, and Christine, a biology student,
are working towards an Asian American specialization to add to
their respective degrees, and so far they’ve taken all of those
required classes together. Having been sick in bed all morning,
this is the first class Grace has attended all day. "I have a weak
immune system," she explains. "I’ve been blowing my nose for the
last 24 hours." Already on her second box of Kleenex, Grace says
she doesn’t feel much better than she did this morning. Sickness is
something that the girls don’t like to deal with living together.
"I’m paranoid about getting sick," says Christine. "With them, when
they get sick, they’re over it in a few days. With me, it lasts for
months. "So I spray Lysol everywhere, and I’m always telling them
to keep things sanitary," she adds. 2:45 p.m. Christine looks at
the clock on the wall and mouths "Let’s go" to Grace. The two pack
up their belongings, Grace tossing her pen into a backpack stuffed
with many more writing instruments, keeping her Kleenex box close
at hand. 2:55 p.m. Christine and Grace meet their friend Donna
Gold, a second-year design student, and the three of them leave
campus and walk up Strathmore Drive towards the Atrium Apartments.
They are nervous about getting a place to rent, having heard
stories of endless waiting lists of students interested in just
seeing the place. "After we get there and like it, I hope they
don’t say to us, ‘Do you want your name to be put on the wait
list?’" Christine says, with a smile. They walk uphill,
anticipating the apartments. According to Donna, the apartment’s
"water pressure" will be the deciding issue. 3:07 p.m. Donna and
Christine are haggling with Al at Atrium Apartments, who tells them
that earlier that morning he rented out an apartment which they had
made an appointment to view that afternoon. Grace blows her nose.
After several phone calls, Al finds a tenant willing to show her
room to Grace, Christine and Donna. "We just want a peek,"
Christine says. 3:40 p.m. Donna tears the check out of her wallet,
and the three grin despite their skepticism after signing the
necessary forms. "We’ve never done this before, and we don’t want
to be too trusting and then disappointed," Donna says. Because they
are willing to begin renting the place in June, the girls are lucky
enough to get an apartment at the complex they wanted. While they
are there, three unlucky groups of students are turned away. The
three are pleased, complaining only about the plumbing. "The shower
head in the room we looked at was different than the one in the
manager’s room," Christine observes. "But I know how to fix it."
4:30 p.m. Christine sits down at her computer and begins to type a
two-page life science paper which is due the next day. As a biology
student, Christine is burdened with difficult science classes in
preparation for her career as a veterinarian, although she is
constantly pulled in other directions. "I love animals and I always
just thought I would take over my dad’s practice. But I’d love to
be a classics major. I don’t know what I could do with a classics
degree." A slave to practicality, Christine plans to simply minor
in classics. 7:30 p.m. Jenn stares at the tall glass of milk in
front of her. She, Grace and Joyce are eating dinner together at
Sunset, and they are ready to go, except for one thing: "the evil
milk." "I have to drink it," says Jenn. "The evil milk is now
entering my body." A Coke chaser makes swallowing it easier, they
joke. Grace leaves the others to go check her email at the Sunset
Computer Lab and Jenn and Joyce chat with friends outside of the
building. 7:50 p.m. Realizing she is locked out of her room, Jenn
returns to Sunset to check out a 15-minute key, but then meets
Joyce, who is about to go to Wooden for her rock climbing general
meeting. "I want to get in as (many activities) as possible before
I go to China. Like, in case I die," says Joyce. For the summer and
fall, she will study at a university overseas, focusing on classes
in the Mandarin language. "I’m playing with the idea of
international relations, but this trip is more for me culturally,"
she says. 8:15 p.m. Alone in the dorm, Jenn sits down to rest
before beginning the long night of studying ahead. The phone rings
several times and she becomes animated as she socializes with one
of her future roommates. "At first, Joyce didn’t like me," Jenn
says. "I was a little crazy. Joyce wanted to focus on studying. For
me, last year was all social. My main focus was to have a really
good time." Joyce explains her incorrect perceptions of college as
the source of their initial problems. "I expected college to be
different. At first, I set rules that later on (we stretched). I
loosened up. Jenn has taught me a lot," Joyce says. The two have
been through a lot together. After getting past their conflicts,
they bonded and became close friends, even raising pets together in
their room. Last year, a friend found a sick bird outside of
Sunset. The two girls took it in, attempting to nurse it back to
health, but made their fatal mistake in feeding the animal. "It
died because we fed it dorm food," says Jenn, with a sniff. After
it died, the roommates buried it outside of Hedrick. "I keep on
buying plants but they keep on dying too," she says. 10:30 p.m.
Jenn resumes studying at the Sunset study lounge for tomorrow’s
chemistry midterm. "This is a bad week. It’s when everyone realizes
how screwed they are," she says. "In light of my midterm Friday and
in light of my ailing grades right now, I need to study. "What was
I thinking the first two weeks?" Jenn scolds herself. Unable to
condition herself, she asks friends over the telephone to help with
the discipline. "I say this every quarter," she says. "Please
remind me." 4:25 a.m. After paying for her procrastination with a
long night of studying, Jenn finally goes to sleep, less than an
hour after her roommate Joyce. Roommates Joyce Lai (l.) and Jenn
Shin relax in their Sunset Village suite. Asian American studies is
the only class that roommates Christine Acevedo (l.) and Grace
Borrero attend together. After attending class, (l.-r.) Grace,
Christine and future roommate Donna Gold head up Strathmore Drive
and into Westwood to look for an apartment for the upcoming fall.
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin Christine Acevedo assists in the
instruction of several aerobics classes at the Wooden Center during
evenings. Joyce finally decides to close the book after a long,
tiring night of studying.