New York, Day 8

Day 8: Roommates

Three more roommates arrived today.

The first one to arrive was Claire, approximately around 10 AM. I say approximately, because she came when I was still sleeping (Elsa was awake), but I heard the clock outside chime ten times. How embarrassing.

Sorry guys, obscure reference. I will love you forever if you actually got it, though.

(I was awake when she came back to the room again around 1.)

Claire was to do an internship in PR. It was pretty clear from the beginning that Claire brought a lot of stuff. She dragged along three full suitcases, each time dragging out more and more clothes.

“I had to leave so much stuff back home,” Claire complained, “I only brought five heels!”

Five pairs of heels?

“I usually have like ten of them,” she adds.

I looked at my measly pile of two sneakers and a pair of sandals.

She also lamented the lack of a full-length mirror, and showed us her makeup mirror, which had different light settings and a revolving two-sided mirror.

Not the same model, but looked something like this.

She and Elsa (who is studying for the bar in July) seemed to hit it off pretty well. Elsa, who was French, was invited to a weekly French student pool party in the afternoon (how positively fancy!) She and Claire talked about what swimsuits and clothes to wear and bonded over shoes.

If someone were to have come in the room, they would have seen an interesting spectacle; on one hand there were two nicely-dressed girls talking about fashion -

Exhibit A

 - and on the other side of the room was a very casually dressed girl who was awkwardly pitching in a "yeah that looks nice" every now and then while marathoning Avatar the Last Airbender.

Exhibit B

I couldn’t help but feel a wee bit self-conscious.

It’s odd being only slightly feminine – if I were a full-on tomboy or didn’t care for fashion and the like at all, I would at least turn my nose and say that being girly “isn’t my thing”. But I actually like being girly… but only sometimes. Other times I could care less. It’s complicated.

BUT ANYWAY

Later, Maya (volunteering @ a hospital) came over and was the first to occupy the second room in the dorm. I was relieved to see that she was dressed comfortably in shirt, jeans and sneakers. I would have gone insane if I was the only casual person in the room. She seemed like a chill person.

The last roommate Isabel came in the evening, and I didn’t interact much with her to establish an opinion. She seems amiable.

So there we have it; after a quiet week with just two, the room is now fully inhabited by five girls.

Bathroom usage is going to be a nightmare now.