Roommates from Hell

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

My roomate freshman year was horrible - God-awful. I thought things would go ok at first. We had the same major, talked on the phone a few times to coordinate what we were each bringing. First few days went ok. We went to meals together, etc. It was all downhill from there. Her mom was a school bus driver back hom in west virginia, and the roomie would get up at 4:30-5AM to call her mom on the phone and talk every day. Seriously? I had an 8am Chemistry class that I didnt want to go to in the first palce, let alone when I didn't get enough sleep. Then after talking to her mom, she would turn on the radio to the Bob and Tom show. Now that I'm an adult, I can find humor in B&T, but back then... they were just old guys that laughed really loud and woke me up even more. THEN she had a damn coffee machine (espresso? cuppachino? I don't know, but it was loud), and she put it on top of my fridge which served as my bedside table and it was loud as hell. All of this at 5AM. I kinda figured she was a little on the odd side when she would walk around the room naked or in her skivvies (she was not even close to being a small girl), and talk about how good she was at bellydancing, how it was a great core woorkout, etc. Then she'd talk about the infection her belly button piercing got and the skin around it rotted off and the ring fell out when she was lifeguarding. Then she'd tell me about her horrible yeast infections... and the next day try to persuade me to let her loan me one of her bathing suits so we could go swimming together at the rec. Seriously, you think I'm going to wear someone elses bathing suit after being told about horrible yeast infectiosn and rotting bellybutton skin? HA!

I was a pretty social person, I liked to go out with the other friends I had, and tuesday night was the weeknight to go out (because no one had early morning class on wednesdays, it was reserved for Chapel service time). Even on other weeknights, I would go visiting to other rooms in my hall, go grab a pizza late, etc. She had the balls to ask me if I could be in our room by 9pm every night because I woke her up when I came home late (I would come in, see she was asleep, and quietly go to bed myself). Um, no. I refused to even consider it especially since she woke me up at 5am every morning with no attempt to be quiet. One time she asked if she and one of her friends could come with me and my friends to a frat house on a weekend night. I told her sure of course, but it was really important for us not to leave without telling the other (safety first!). Naturally, she and her friend left without telling anyone after being there for about an hour.

Then I decided to go through sorority rush. Anytime I was within earshot of her, I heard all about how dumb, bratty, snotty, bitchy, etc she thought sorority girls were. Wonderful. Our RA heard her one time and reminded the roomie that RA was an Alpha Xi herself, and that it wasn't nice to stereotype. Didn't sway roomie's opinion in the slightest.

Well naturally, being greek meant some late nights during our new member period (no, not hazing, but we'd have NM education nights until 9 or 10pm some nights, we'd also have movie night at the house, etc.) I would come back from class in the afternoon, or after an event at night, kick off my shoes, change out of my clothes and put on my robe, grab my shower caddy and head to the bathroom to shower. At least 5 times she would leave or go to sleep and shut and lock the door. She knew I was in the shower, and my room key was attached to my wallet which would be sitting on the dresser right next to the door, but she would still shut and lock the door. It was my dumb fault for not learning my lesson after the first time and taking my key with me everywhere, but I didn't see the need if I was going to be nearby. But she even did it one afternoon when I was in the room across the hall (door was open, she could easily see me in there laying on the floor while our neighbor/my pledge sister was sketching me for her art class), left and shut and locked the door and I didn't have my key. My RA felt bad always charging me $1 for letting me back into my room, so she stopped. She knew my roomate was doing it maliciously. The worst episode was she went to bed at 8pm the night before our 7am biology final, and I wanted to continue studying. So I told her I was going to the lounge to study and that I wasn't taking my key. I came back to our room around 11... and the door was shut and locked. I went to the on-duty RA (not mine) and he wasn't opening his door. My RA was gone, the hall was dead due to finals. I pounded on the door, called our room - nothing. I ended up pulling an all nighter and falling asleep at about 3 on the floor in front of my door. When I heard her alarm go off at 5AM, I started pounding on the door. She didn't have a choice but to let me in then. I told her one of us needed to find a new roomate for the second quarter. She played dumb and I failed my final.

The next quarter, she moved out. Thank goodness! I had the room to myself for the remainder of the year. She ended up meeting some guy online and marrying him and moving to my hometown. I about shit my pants the first time I saw her at MY mall.

My story pales in comparison to my friend/sister Krista's though. Krista was a tiny, mildly annoying but very sweet girl. She and her roomate butted heads from the beginning. The roomate got mad when Krista had to get up for 8am classes and would wake her up (even though Krista would creep quietly around their room using a flashlight). At like 4AM one morning, the roomate pulled Krista from her top bunk and beat the living hell out of her. Krista had a fractured hand, 2 black eyes, and stitches in 2 places in her face. The roomate had been slamming Krista's head against the wall. Someone finally heard Krista screaming and came running. What did our college do? Simply moved the roomate out of their room and into a room down the hall from me. They wanted to keep it hush hush. She was never arrested, not expelled, nothing. She ended up dropping out later in the year, but Krista was terrified after that. Krista's parents encouraged her to press charges against the school and the roomate, but Krista refused, she just wanted it to be over with. She lived alone the rest of freshman year and almost didn't live on the Theta floor of the sorority dorm our sophomore year. The only reason she did was because we were all sisters and not strangers.

I lived with sisters the remainder of college, and never had any major issues. (One girl had trouble cleaning up after herself, but she got the hint when we would take her mess or dirty dishes out of the common area and put them on her bed).

What the FUCK?

I would totally have pressed charges and that bitch would do at least a little jail time if it were me. Then again, knowing me, unless she were significantly larger than I, I would have grabbed the nearest object and smacked her over the head with it. I'd be afraid to have a roommate too if I were Krista.

As for cleaning, that's my solution with dirty dishes, too. I've had one roommate that I loved because she was perfect in every way except cleaning up after herself in the kitchen. After playing chicken with her dishes until they smelled so bad I had to take them outside to wash them and got sick, I picked some that wouldn't attract roaches and left them in her room. She got the point. I'm not nasty nice and I leave dishes in the sink for a day or two when I'm super busy, but if they're covered in food I wipe that into the trash first.

Aside from my one roomie fiasco, having roommates has been good for me. I always had my own room and bathroom growing up and it was good for me to get over myself and learn to compromise (I was very inflexible about my personal space until having roommates), and I definitely learned that from sharing living spaces.

[MaggieXi]

My roomate freshman year, Traci (as featured in my recruitment story: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=87635) was seemingly normal for a long time. We roomed togther the majority of freshman year, lived in our respective (yet competitive) sorority houses Sophmore year and then moved into together in an apartment with one other person, one of my sorority sisters - Shelly, our junior year. Sure Tracey and I would have squabbles, like her alarm going off and her sleeping through it, or my lack of ability to take out the trash (it was a far hike to the dumpster!), but all and all we got along swimingly and were close.

The first half of Junior year was fine. We were both dating guys in the same fraternity. However, in the winter of junior year - Traci went abroad for a few weeks (4-1-4 system, not quarters or semesters). Traci came back and accused her boyfriend (we'll call him "Jay") of cheating on her with one of my sorority sisters (we'll call her "Laura"). Laura and I were pretty close too and were serving on AXiD's executive board at the time. Jay and Laura vehemently denied the rumor - they were just friends, had the same major and had many classes together, and had the same work study for the few weeks Traci was away and thats why they were spending time together.

Spring term began and Traci lost.her.mind. She was so consumed with finding out if Jay was cheating on her with Laura she stopped going to classes, if she did go - she was failing the class, and she was a horror to live with. Traci used to accuse Shelly and I of "protecting" Laura because we were all AXiDs, and saying that we knew the truth and were trying to make a fool out of her, etc.

During this same time, I started to notice things disappearing - like I would swear I had $15 in my wallet, but when I would go back - I would only have $5 or I wouldn't be able to find my credit card for a few days and then it would appear magically.

What I didn't know at the time was that Traci's parents had cut her off financially except for tuitition, paying rent and bills. They gave her no spending money in hopes that she would pull her grades up.

By the end of the semester, Traci had failed out of school because of her obsession with Jay and the cheating and Shelly & I told her sometime before school ended that since she wasn't coming back to school in the fall, that we had arranged for someone else to move in. Telling her before school ended was a bad idea.

Shelly & I had went to an end of year sorority event and when we came back to the apartment, Traci's items had been moved out, but the place had been vandalized and trashed. Items were stolen out of both of our closets and she had written nasty things and her sorority letters (we don't know why) in permanant marker all over the apartment, furniture and carpeting. We ended up calling the police, but there wasn't much they could do since she was probably long gone. I know that the police called her parents, but because she was over 18 there wasn't much they could do with that either.

When word got out about what had happened to our apartment, Traci's sorority sisters actually came over and tried to help clean up some of the mess. They felt very badly that Traci had used their letters and written all over out things.

Our senior year, in the spring, Traci apparently showed up at her sorority house's bid day. They had her leave. Shelly & I did not see her, but when we heard, we took cover! She apparently also tried to get into the apartment, but the locks had been changed and my neighbor guys (in Jay's fraternity) chased her away. I never heard or saw her again. Although, she did try and become my facebook friend a few months ago and she was denied.

and in case you were wondering, it came out that Jay had been cheating on Traci with Laura. I swear I didn't know all of junior year! They were a couple my senior year.

[KSUViolet06]

I've shared my roomie from hell experience in this thread:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...light=Jamaican

[Sister Havana]

My freshman roommate was awful. I had requested a non-smoking roommate (this was back in the early '90s, when smoking was allowed in the dorms) and she put down on her application that she was a non-smoker because she didn't want her parents to know she smoked. She was actually a chain-smoker, and a very rude one too. One time I was sick in bed with strep throat, and she came into the room and immediately lit up a cigarette. I asked her very politely if she wouldn't mind smoking somewhere else or at least blowing the smoke out the window since I was sick, and she just laughed and blew smoke in my face.

She was also engaged to 3 different guys in 3 different states (rings and all) and dating at least 10 guys on campus - that's just the ones I saw her with. We only had one phone line with no call waiting, so when she knew I was expecting a call from someone, she'd get on the phone 5 minutes before I was supposed to get my call and tie up the line for hours. She had one of her guys stay over almost every weekend and threw a fit when she found out my sister was going to stay there for Siblings Weekend, since she had plans to have him stay over. (My sister and I ended up dragging my mattress into my friend Allyson's room next door and staying there that weekend - she was totally cool, had a double-single and hated my roommate as much as I did.)

About halfway through the semester, she decided that since she'd brought the answering machine, only her name should be on the outgoing message and she wiped out any messages left for me, whether I'd heard them or not. She also would tell people I wasn't there when I was sitting right in the room! I ended up telling people that if they called and I wasn't there, to call Allyson's number so they would know I'd get the message.

I could go on and on...luckily she moved out after first semester (I think we'd have killed each other otherwise) and in with one of her pledge sisters down the hall. Shortly after she moved in there, she started pulling the same stuff on her new roommate that she'd done to me. (I was a little relieved to know that it wasn't just me - she was just a total jerk)

[UNLVBunny]

I have definitely had my share of bad roommates. However, my last roommate was my least favorite of them all. She was an international student who had no interest in making friends outside her international student group. There were so many little things that really got on my nerves (I learned I have more pet peeves than I thought). In reality though it wasn't the cultural barrier or the little things that made living with her a nightmare it was her complete lack of respect for other people.

Now I understand that people have boyfriends that they want to hang out with and what not. Well, he was never in his own room. They were always in mine. His roommate had got sick of them being in his room that they decided to always be in mine instead. Which was fine, annoying at times but whatever. What I didn't appreciate was that they would borrow my chair, when I wasn't there and anything I had on it at the time they would throw on the floor. They also had this thing with turning the heat in our room up to 87 degrees...even in the summer months. I would turn it off or just down to a normal temperature and wake up in the middle of the night sweating because they had turned it back on. I don't know about other people but I really can't sleep well when it is hot. It was a constant battle.

On top of that, we were on completely opposite schedules, she had morning classes and I had afternoon/night. When she would get up in the morning she would turn on all the lights in the room. Even though her side of the room was near the door and bathroom where she could have just turned on the light near the door (and closet) and the one to the bathroom and been just fine. Now I can sleep through noise just fine, bright florescent lights at 6 in the morning I cannot. Especially when she would leave them on when she left. So fine, I got an eye mask and that kind of helped, but what really baffeled me was how she felt she could turn the lights on and off any time she pleased. She would come back to the room and decide to take a nap with her boyfriend of course and make me sit in the dark from 3-7 (it was winter and it got dark early)...There was a week or so where I had a cold and wanted to go to bed at 9 one night when she wasn't there, when she got back she turned the lights back on a proceeded to be oh so loud. By the time I left I wanted to strangle her and had a not so strange aversion to the language she spoke too. Actually by the time that I left I wasn't staying in my dorm room too often because I was just that fed up and would jump on any opportunity to hang out with friends just to not be in my room.

I honestly think that colleges should allow more options for roommate issues. I get that they are coming from the perspective that you aren't always going to get along with everyone and this is supposed to teach you how to tolerate others or something like that but still. My school was all, oh you guys can just talk it out...that's it. My roommate could be consistently having sex while I was in the room and they would still say that it just something we have to work through via communication. When we signed up for dorms we were asked two questions, do you smoke and could you live with someone who does? That's it.

*end rant*

Sorry I got a little carried away. I do like knowing that it wasn't just me who had some awful roommate experiences, but I feel bad for those who have yet to experience them, because almost everyone I know has had at least one bad roommate story.

[PinkPalmTree]

I had one last year! I had three room mates over the course of my freshman year.

My first room mate was during summer semester. We got along very well. Neither of us knew anyone too well, so we did EVERYTHING together. Eat breakfast, lunch, dinner together in the meal plan. Go to the gym together. Window shop at the mall together. By the end of our time together, I was getting a little sick of here, lol. She also was one of those girls who talked about their boyfriend NON STOP, but overall, we got along very well.

My second room mate was great. She was a double legacy to her chapter, and ended up joining, which was nice, since she was never really in the room. She was really nice and was quiet, and was also a nursing major, so she was very studious. She also went out a lot, but never woke me up when coming in. She ended up moving into her sorority house after that semester.

My third room mate was actually good friends with my second room mate, and they were in the same sorority. but they couldn't be more different. I'll call her Katie. Katie was from a very "exclusive" area and was very "new money". Drove a fancy car, wore nothing but designer clothes (Even to class), and treated all her stuff like crap. She backed her car into a pole and thought nothing of it. She would leave her designer purses and tops on the ground and literally step on them. She also would talk about how she had "lowered herself socially" to date her ex-boyfriend, and how she could not believe he dumped her. She also was very into partying, and would come home drunk practically every night. She would slam all the doors, eat food loudly, and turn on all the lights. Sometimes, she would be on drugs. Katie would openly tell me about her sex life and drug use.... I'm extremely conservative, so this FREAKED ME OUT! She also was extremely messy and leave food and drinks out every where.. which lead to ants and cockroaches in our room. I am terrified of cockroaches, so I would have to wander the halls at night time until I could find a guy to come and kill them for me. she would also leave the bathroom an absolute mess, leaving her hair in the shower drain and never cleaning when it was her turn. She also would always have beer in our fridge (which could leave to us getting kicked out of the dorm) and even had marijuana sitting out on the counter a few times. I talked to my RA about the problem, but my only option was to switch into a triple in the oldest, nastiest dorm on campus, which was extremely far away from all my classes, so I opted to suck it up. Needless to say... I looked forward to move out day I still see her around campus from time to time, and we are pleasant to each other. My suite mates, who we shared the bathroom with, were my angels! They became my absolute best friends, and were always there to listen to me complain about my room mate. We still hang out almost every day, and we are trying to get a town home together next year... if one does not live in her sorority house.

However,

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Sister Havana

My freshman roommate was awful. I had requested a non-smoking roommate (this was back in the early '90s, when smoking was allowed in the dorms) and she put down on her application that she was a non-smoker because she didn't want her parents to know she smoked.

This was SO common, along with "oh, my son will certainly want to be in the 24 hour quiet dorm so he can study" and "I know my daughter doesn't want a floor with MALE VISITATION on it."

Freshmen to be, do yourselves and everyone a favor. If you don't want to fess up to your parents, call the school after you send your app in and tell them you made a mistake and really DON'T want to be in the ____-free dorm.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by 33girl

This was SO common, along with "oh, my son will certainly want to be in the 24 hour quiet dorm so he can study" and "I know my daughter doesn't want a floor with MALE VISITATION on it."

Freshmen to be, do yourselves and everyone a favor. If you don't want to fess up to your parents, call the school after you send your app in and tell them you made a mistake and really DON'T want to be in the ____-free dorm.

Hi-jack:

I don't know how most schools do this, but I am pretty sure at my alma mater there are no more EXCLUSIVELY male or female dorms.

I'm pretty sure all our dorms are co-ed. Most have guys/girls mixed together on the same floor. There ARE a few where the FLOORS are single-sex though. Ex: Floor 1 = girls, Floor 2 = guys, Floor 3 = girls. Even if your dorm has single-sex floors, there isn't a NO BOYS policy on the girls floor though (I find those types of rules ridiculous). Boys are allowed on it as long as they aren't disrupting quiet hours at night (midnight to like 7a) and it doesn't become a problem with the girl's roomate(s).

I see a lot of schools getting rid of the single-sex building thing, with the except of the more traditional private type schools. Ex: my friend went to a college where every dorm was single sex and there were no males allowed in the building at all. Period.

And about smoking, I'm pretty sure all our dorms are non-smoking now because of the sprinklers. I couldn't even let my curling iron overheat in the dorms because the fire alarms would go off and the whole building would be evacuated. lol.

[33girl]

I think we had a floor or two (out of 7 dorms) with very limited visitation.

We had 2 girls' dorms, one guys' dorm and 4 coeds. The coeds were single sex by floor. Visitation was till 11 on weeknights and all weekend. TV room was smokers' heaven.

Of course this was all 25 years ago. I still don't think I'd want a coed by room floor. I just have an image of one of the girls on my floor standing in the hall talking on the phone, wearing a shirt, underwear, knee socks, and no pants. LOL

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Of course this was all 25 years ago. I still don't think I'd want a coed by room floor. I just have an image of one of the girls on my floor standing in the hall talking on the phone, wearing a shirt, underwear, knee socks, and no pants. LOL

My dorm was always totally co-ed (with co-ed floors so my neighbors across the hall were usually guys). We had our own private bathrooms though so there was no need to be in the hallway in a towel or anything. The only semi-awkward thing was if I was going down to run an errand super early, I always kind of felt the need to make myself presentable because there were subject to be boys in the hallway/at the desk/etc.

Most of my friend's dorms were co-ed by floor, and for the most part it wasn't so bad. It was only awkward if a boy took a shortcut through your hall to get upstairs and you were on your way to from the community shower in a towel. lol.

[nittanygirl]

UNLVbunny -- your roommate sounds just like mine (minus mine was terrified of even looking at boys let alone a girlfriend)
but she didn't the don't be loud and stop leaving all the lights on/turning them ALL on when I'm trying to sleep. ANDDDD the heat thing. She would always shut the window, when I maybe only cracked it to let in fresh air (dorms are gross and musty) for like half an hour. AND she would turn down my tv a lot to nearly mute. when I could hardly hear it from my bed (right next to it) if I left the room to go to the bathroom