Roommates from Hell

[Parfait]

Did you have one? DO you have one? Feel free to share any stories. =)
I couldn't find a topic like this, though there's probably one or two floating around here from awhile ago.

[myopicsunflower]

Love this thread! Thanks for starting it.

My sophomore year, I roomed with a friend and was very excited about it. We coordinated so that we had matching bedspreads, etc.

Unfortunately, my friend neglected to tell me that she had a boyfriend in the Navy whom she'd drive 3 hours to pick up whenever he had weekend shore leave (which seemed like it was every weekend) -- and it never occurred to her that I might be extremely uncomfortable with him staying in the room with us. She never even asked me about it. I found out that this was the arrangement when I was awakened one night by their "fooling around" noises. :P

Another friend let me stay with her when the boyfriend came to town. Bless her for that.

I was pretty annoyed by the whole situation, and my roomie didn't seem to get it when I would try to explain that her arrangement made me really uncomfortable and that my privacy was invaded whenever the boyfriend stayed over.

The final straw came at the end of a long weekend. I had been backpacking with some friends and hadn't showered in three days. I was hot and sweaty and sticky, and all I wanted was a hot shower and to crash out for a while. However, when I entered my dorm room, I saw the boyfriend and some old shirtless guy with a chest tattoo lounging on our sofa, watching TV -- and my roomie was nowhere in sight.

I asked where she was. "Oh, she's downstairs doing our laundry."

I said that I had just come in from backpacking and wanted to shower (we had an attached bath). "Oh, go right ahead! We don't mind."

EXCUSE ME???

I ended up going to my other friend's room to shower, and the next day, I went to Student Life to put in for a room transfer at the semester.

After that, I roomed with sisters. It made all the difference in the world.

[Matsimela]

I've had nothing but hellish roommates lol.

Freshman year, my 1st roommate used to try and fool around with her flavors of the week in the room but thankfully she got the hint and cut it out. After the 1st month she moved out and I had the room to myself for the rest of the semester (SWEEEEEEET).
The 2nd semester, my 1st roomie kept the room about 55 degrees (regardless of how many times i told her that wasnt okay and/or changed it myself) but slept with like 5 blankets/sheets/comforters. Eventually she made friends with a girl across the hall and we swapped roommates. My new roomie turned out to be a psycho who, without discussing it with me 1st, told our RA that i "kept her up at night even though we were supposed to have lights out at 11" and goodness knows what else since they literally threatened to throw me out of our dorm. So since im a nightowl i spent most of my nights in the lounge. Several times i'd come back to our room around 1 or 2am and find her huddled over a hot plate making chicken in the dark. Weirdo.

Junior year, I roomed with one of my Sorors and a 3rd unknown person who ended up getting pregnant and subleasing her room to her male cousin which was kinda uncomfortable but whatever. He was some kind of nympho or something because him and his girlfriend (and occassionally his boyfriend ) would be gettin it in to all hours of the night pretty much every night. Since my bed and his bed were against the same wall i'd constantly feel included in their trysts because limbs would always bang rather forcefully against our shared wall. At the end of their lease i went and looked in his room and the mattress and the boxspring were RUINED lol.

My senior year i lived with two slobs that had our common area looking like a tornado had come through it. The kitchen and pantry were always overflowing with dishes and garbage respectively. And there was always "friends" and "boos" over. And rude ones at that, that would look me up and down when i'd come in the house as if i didnt pay rent there.

I currently live alone and refuse to cohabitate with anyone ever again (except maybe a spouse and children if that ever happens lol)

[Alumiyum]

I've really had pretty good roommates (and I've had 5 total), with the exception of one fiasco in a house with sorority sisters.

The sister who owned the house waited until the week before fall finals to tell me I had to move out so that her friend from home could move in, which left me hyperventilating about where I was going to live when I should have been studying for exams. It was our second roommate, though, that stirred up trouble by blatantly lying to me, roommate 1, and then my mother (who had driven an hour earlier that fall to take care of a girl she'd never met before when she got the flu during recruitment and her own mother couldn't come). So while I'm not exactly bff with roommate one, we get along fine now. Roommate two, though...I was always civil since she's my sister, but I'll never be ok with her again.

After that experience I lived in a one person for a year and then moved in with a DG friend who was great. Now I live with a sorority sister again, and she's great, too, so really with the exception of that one fiasco I've been lucky with roommates.

[Nanners52674]

My first semester I got stuck with a sophomore so we didn't match up with both having that "new freshmen experience" She was horrible, she wouldn't talk to me before we moved in, she brought nothing (I brought a fridge, tv, microwave) and she had no issue using my stuff even taking things out of the fridge to make room for her stuff.

About a month into living together she made us have a meeting with our RA and where she complained about how I would open the drawers too loudly when I got dressed for an 8 am class and that I'd turn on the light when I came in the room at night. In turn she would leave her laptop on with the music playing full volume and leave the room for hours.

Things got horrible as the fall went on, she kept the room at a wonderful 90 degrees (no I'm not kidding) and wouldn't let me open a window or anything. Needless to say we didn't room together ever again. Oh and as a parting present she doused all my food with hairspray or some kind of chemical the last week.

My second roommate was just psycho, her and I had a class at the same time early morning and I got up and went to class one week and didn't wake her (the last time I woke her for a class she flipped out) Well she lost started screaming at everyone who would listen that I didn't wake her for class, I'm plotting against her and I'm a horrible roommate etc... She went to our hall director to complain about me not waking her and was told to grow up that it's college and I'm not her mother. She moved out I ended up with a single and I haven't had a roommate since.

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by Nanners52674

My first semester I got stuck with a sophomore so we didn't match up with both having that "new freshmen experience" She was horrible, she wouldn't talk to me before we moved in, she brought nothing (I brought a fridge, tv, microwave) and she had no issue using my stuff even taking things out of the fridge to make room for her stuff.

About a month into living together she made us have a meeting with our RA and where she complained about how I would open the drawers too loudly when I got dressed for an 8 am class and that I'd turn on the light when I came in the room at night. In turn she would leave her laptop on with the music playing full volume and leave the room for hours.

Things got horrible as the fall went on, she kept the room at a wonderful 90 degrees (no I'm not kidding) and wouldn't let me open a window or anything. Needless to say we didn't room together ever again. Oh and as a parting present she doused all my food with hairspray or some kind of chemical the last week.

My second roommate was just psycho, her and I had a class at the same time early morning and I got up and went to class one week and didn't wake her (the last time I woke her for a class she flipped out) Well she lost started screaming at everyone who would listen that I didn't wake her for class, I'm plotting against her and I'm a horrible roommate etc... She went to our hall director to complain about me not waking her and was told to grow up that it's college and I'm not her mother. She moved out I ended up with a single and I haven't had a roommate since.

Sometimes I wonder why some children were allowed to go to college at all. We're all immature at 18, but really? Your second roommate wasn't ready to leave home yet.

[carnation]

Something that has absolutely stunned me over the years, hearing all the awful roommate stories--the common thread appears to be that the roommate has no idea or doesn't even care about how his/her behavior impacts anyone else. The incredible selfishness of these people is horrifying--and no, it didn't start in recent years, my father even had similar stories!

[victoriana]

Last year I lived in the sweetest dorm on campus, for honors students only. I figured it was going to be awesome. The rooms were set up suite style, with two bedrooms, a living room, and a bathroom.

There was nothing really wrong with my room mates in terms of their living habits, except for one of the other three girls consistently took my shower time in the morning when she knew I had classes really early. She didn't have anything to do, she just wanted to shower early so I asked her to wake up later or earlier because I needed that time. I really didn't like her, she was kind of a standoffish bitch overall.

The girl who I shared my room with was very, very religious. I'm not personally religious, but I'm not offended by people who are unless it intrudes in to my life, and it certainly did. She refused to let my boyfriend be in our bedroom past 10pm, regardless if we were studying, reading, watching videos, or anything. Forget about him sleeping there! She had the walls plastered with bible verses, and played praise music loudly all the time. I felt very judged when I was around her, and she would get kind of pushy about her values sometimes.

My other room mate is a great girl, and I love her, but she is the ultimate drama queen. She had everything in her life that could go wrong, go wrong. She was 19 dating a 16 year old high school boy who she was very on again off again with. She would always want to complain about her problems to me. It actually impacted my study time because she needed to talk and would not let me leave. I would start slowly backing away in hopes that I could find a time to interject and take off, but that was rare. She even did this to my boyfriend when he came over, which he found a little weird. As a result of all these life problems, she dyed her hair crazy colors, got tattoos, and got piercings that we won't talk about. She's still my friend, but she was hard to live with!!

[nittanygirl]

I had awesome summer & fall roommates my freshman year, but then when the fall roommate had to move home for family reasons, I was sent a new girl with NO warning at all.
Don't get me wrong, I get that they will give you another roommate, but some girls in my building had empty rooms since November and she stuck this girl with me!

So she walks in at like 7 am one morning.... speaking VERY loudly to two other people in KOREAN. Didn't even knock on the door, when seconds before I was changing!
I have no problem with cultural situations, having spent time in Europe myself as part of a program, but wow this girl and I did not mesh. I don't even think it was just cultural other than a few things.

One... she stayed up til like 3 EVERY NIGHT and had to have ALL of the lights in the dorm on to do her homework. I meanwhile had a 20-hr a week job & 18 credits I needed sleep for. I could have dealt with that if she didn't also get phone calls at 6 am every morning she wouldn't hear (idk how it was so loud. I'd yell and she wouldnt wake up) that would go on for a least 15 minutes every single morning until she finally got up and answered it. When she got ready in the morning, she would slam all of the doors/drawers.

I have a long distance boyfriend, and male friends that I study with. She wouldnt let them in the room at all. I understand this is a cultural thing and I made arrangements for my boyfriend and I to sleep elsewhere when he came, but if we went out to eat or something, he couldnt even come in to put leftovers in my fridge. He had to stand in the hallway. And my friend I studied with couldn't even drop off my book. without her getting upset. It just made things annoying. But I get this as a cultural difference.

Mostly it was the her abusing my sleeping patterns SO much that bothered me. I ended up in the hospital freshman year from like exhaustion and other things related to lack of rest. When I came home (stuck in bed all week, no classes, I couldn't even make it down the hall to the bathroom without being in pain from a pneumonia like virus) she STILL didn't give me respect with letting me sleep.

And my room, which was always clean, always smelled nice whenever I had my old roommate, STUNK. ALL THE TIME.

Ugh it upsets me so much.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by nittanygirl

One... she stayed up til like 3 EVERY NIGHT and had to have ALL of the lights in the dorm on to do her homework.

Wasn't there a study lounge on the floor?

[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).

[nittanygirl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Wasn't there a study lounge on the floor?

Yes-ish. There was one on the ground floor.
Even with the RA she rarely obliged to go down there.
She liked to video chat to her friends at home while she did homework.
I guess she would rather disturb me than anyone else (probably no one) who was studying on the ground floor.

[cheerfulgreek]

When I was an undergrad, my roommates were okay. I would never have a roommate now, though. Uh uh.

[nittanygirl]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

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.

how can a university let things like this go on

[IrishLake]

My college was like that for a lot of stuff. (Theory was it was a race thing then). It might be different now (new administration) but at the time... the "real" police were never called, just the campus security.