Living in a shared room

It seems to me that I have already lived in some many different rooms with so many different people. The first time living without my parents was when I moved to Prague. I was always in with the idea of sharing the room with another person to save the money and use them for better things such as sport or travelling. The difference between shared and normal room is not negligible. Therefore when I moved to Prague, I decided to share the room. It was with my friend from high school and except for a few small negotiations we did not have any problem. Sometimes it was hard to balance out everything since my roommate preferred going to sleep early and wake up early while I loved going to sleep late and wake up late. I remember that it was hard to get used to the fact that it can be annoying if someone just let the alarm ring and sleep while the alarm is ringing. Therefore, I had to learn how to wake up immediately after the first ring. Sometimes it was impossible. I also managed to change my clothes in the hall before I entered the room when I came back from the party. Anyways, it worked out and we both got used to it.

In fact, we enjoyed sharing the room only my first year at the university because other years Janca (my roommate) did not spend much time in Prague in general. Therefore, it seemed to me that I had my own room because she slept there only a few times per week. Sometimes I wished she was there because I felt quite alone in the room but it was not really a problem because I did not spend much time in my room. Later on, I just slept in my room and I was at work or school during the day. If I look back, I have to admit that my apartment in Prague was terrible. Not only that we did not have an oven, freezer and dishwasher, we also did not have a washing machine. The rooms were huge so it was really difficult to make them warm. The heater was totally shitty. I was freezing there the whole winter. We had only a small fridge for 6 people and the shower did not work well so I could not even enjoy the warm water because the temperature of the water was changing from one second to another one. It is crazy that I was able to live there for two years and half! It is a proof that people can get used to everything. Anyway, the point was that I experienced sharing a room and it was fine.

When I went to France, I automatically chose my own room because we were planning to visit each other with David in the first place. In addition, I wanted to have my own privacy finally and I knew nobody before my exchange. Therefore, it was convenient to have my own room and actually all offers I checked were not shared rooms. When I found a nice room for a reasonable price I did not hesitate at all. I was enjoying my own room so much! It reminded me times in Hradec when I had my own room and it was great. In fact, not since beginning. I was complaining a lot about accommodation. To be honest, I promised myself that I was not going to stay in that room not for all the tea in China. It was so small and I had to climb many stairs to get to my room. Again, I got used to it and I appreciated watching the rain because I had an attic room. I felt comfortable there after a while.

The problem is that when you try something better you don’t want to choose the worse option again. Therefore, I was not sure if I could get used to sharing a room with someone else after having my own. This decision took me a lot of time! I was considering all the options and I just decided to share the room with Romca. To be honest, I was quite worried about it because we were not the best friends and at the university we just saw each other few times per week and that was basically all. It is a big difference to immediately start seeing someone every day.

I remember that when I started studying in Prague, I met Romca at some class. Then, we talked a little bit about the class or movies. Later on, we became good friends and we were talking a lot – mainly about school things. Since our university was quite hard, a lot of my friends just gave up studying. Romca was one of my friends that stayed. We helped each other with homework and we talked about exams and everything. Sometimes we went for a coffee or we had something to eat. Unfortunately, we did not spend much time together except for the time at school. I think that it was mainly because Romca has a boyfriend who lives in Zlín and she always went for a weekend home to be with him and her family. Therefore, when we had some parties on Thursday or during the weekend she did not go with us. One thing that made us closer was the Mathematics exam. It is funny to say it but thanks to this exam we spent a lot of time together. We were discussing the topics and we were preparing ourselves together. Sometimes people went crazy and they studied too much that I was not able to listen to them. Romca was almost the only one who stayed sane and who studied normally and then passed everything. It was a great example for me because I did not want to spend time on studying more than it was needed but I cared about passing. I even slept at Romca´s place few times before our exam and we were calculating exercises together and we were studying together. At that time it was one of the worst moments of my studying because we both felt quite desperate and we just wanted to hang out but we had to study. It was hard for me because I was really nervous. But we motivated each other and successfully passed all mathematics exams. Now we just remember these moments.

Since I did not know Romca much except for these moments related to school, I did not know what to expect. I realized that we would spend quite a lot of time together because we chose the same program for studying which meant going to school together, having same class together and being at home at the same time together. I just did not know how I should imagine it.

After France, I would say that it is always better to go abroad alone because you have much more opportunities to meet new people than you would have if you come with a friend. I could not influence this much because many friends decided to go studying to Amsterdam. I know that both sides have advantages and disadvantages but if you choose living abroad, it is likely that people are keen on meeting you. If you are with a friend, other people perceive you as a pair and they kind of lose interest of meeting new. I mean if they see someone who is alone, it is normal that people tend to start talking to the person. Otherwise, the incentive is smaller. Although it is only my opinion. From another perspective, I can perceive it in my case. Since I know people here and I have someone to share my opinions with, I don’t really have incentive to come to strange people and start talking to them. I think that it works also inversely. Anyways, I already experienced real experience on my exchange and now when I came here for master program I might find this option (coming with a friend) as a convenient option because I don’t have to feel alone or I don’t have to look for contact with another people and I can be focused on studying, working, hobbies or whatever. Moreover, I have always time to go for a party because I love being with people. I guess we will find a way anyway to meet new people. On the other side, many problems just don’t appear when you know someone in a new city. We already experienced many shitty things such as bike fall, phone lifting, hard homework or when just things do not go according to the plan. Then, everything is easier when you have someone close and you can just smile about it. I was surprised but having a shared room has many advantages:

Firstly, we don’t have a normal shared room. Our room is pretty cool! I have not seen anything like this. When you enter our “apartment” there is a small hall and on the right side there are two doors – kitchen and bathroom. There is also a table with a mirror. On the left side, there are stairs to the first room. It is Romca´s room. If you continue straight when you enter the apartment, you go to my room. Therefore, the whole room is divided into two floors and two parts. I have a small room near the window downstairs and Romca has upper part of the room in the front part of the room. It sounds complicated but I would say that it is well-arranged.

Thanks to this, we have a little bit privacy because if Romca does not literally look at me from the upper room, we don’t see each other. On the other side, if we just want to talk about anything we can hear each other. We don’t have to solve problems about the light for example because even if I have my lamp turned on, Romca does not see it if she turned her light off. In the beginning, we thought that we would share our kitchen and bathroom with two other people, but we have it only for us. Since we are only two, we don’t have to argue about the shower or kitchen. It is almost the same as it would be if we had a flat. On the other side, there are many rooms like this so we are still with other students and we have also a common room where we can meet. Besides small inconveniences about our dirty room, I feel happy a lot. The location is perfect, I get along with Romca and I started to feel in my room so well.

Studying

One big advantage is that we can help each other with studying. It is exceptional because we have same study program and I guess that it does not usually happen. Although, we have a same schedule so I don’t even have to check my classes because Romca also knows what time we start. When I find out that we have some paper to read it is really easy to just communicate together. Regarding homework, it is great because we don’t have to spend time by going to the university to meet or to the library. We just need to set the right time and we can do it together in my room. Moreover, sometimes it is motivating when I see that the other person studies and it makes me to do it in a same way. Nevertheless, I still prefer studying in the library. I just wanted to say that it is great when you have some work to discuss.

When I was in the Czech Republic I was wondering why people go studying to the library. Then, I tried it and I could see the difference. Probably, it does not work same for everybody but it helps me a lot. During the exam period, I hate days when I am just at home – studying and I don’t have any personal contact with people. After half of the day, I am already annoyed and I feel unpleasant because I don’t want to be stuck at home with school stuff. Moreover, it is quite easy to avoid studying because sometimes I just look at the bed and I do a break and I end up with two hours of sleeping. Of course I also spend a lot of time on Facebook. Sometimes I clean my room, I cook and I do everything else than studying. If I go to the library it is completely different. I see people studying which motivates me and usually the library is crowded so I don’t feel alone anymore. Moreover, I can see that I am not the only one who has to study. Of course, I don’t spend hundred percent by studying but I would say that I do much more work than I would do at home. Nevertheless, I am always lazy to go there.

Fun

I think that one important thing is that you are never alone if you share a room. You can always share your happiness or you can also complain together. We also do shopping together and sometimes we cook together. It is not the rule and of course if I want I can do everything alone but sometimes it is nice when you can cook together. We already did it twice – once with Fajitas and once with leek soup. Moreover, we can always have some pre-drinks in our room and we don’t have to think about the place where we could go. Romca also made me to start being on time because I have normally many problems with it. I am used to start preparing myself 10 minutes before I need to leave but when I see her in the middle of preparation I naturally start doing the same thing because I don’t want her to wait for me. The point is that we plan many things together and it is fun. We finally have time to get to know each other better and we have enough time to talk about other things than just school.

Coffee

I appreciate this a lot! When we moved here we bought a Moca kettle because I don’t like instant coffee much. It was the best idea ever! We bought it in IKEA and we bought special coffee in White Label which tastes amazing! If you make this kettle full, the coffee is quite strong for one person. That´s why we always do it for two people. We change almost every day and it is so nice when someone makes a coffee for you and brings it to your bed.

Of course, that many people prefer having its own room because it can happen really easy that you are annoyed with another person. This happened to me in Prague. When my normal roommates left to the US, they found another people who were supposed to stay in their room. For me, it meant that I had to share with them bathroom and kitchen. It is crazy but it was impossible! I started to hate it after one week! I have never seen such people. They were so untidy and careless that I could not bear it. Besides the fact that the kitchen was disgusting every time when they cooked, they just brought many people into our flat and they made a big mess. They were just smoking weed in our flat without asking. They burnt my pot with no excuse and they did nothing. Once, they just took my towel with no excuse and when I complained in the message they just said: “Sorry” and it was all. So in the end I am happy that I already left.

To sum up, if you live with someone it is the best way to get to know that person. That´s why for me, living with a boyfriend is a big step and it includes many compromises and it can change everything because you find out all the good and bad sides of the other person. I am so happy to share my room with this girl. So far, we did not have any problem and it has only many advantages. We have always a lot of fun together because there are many funny situations that happened to us. Even going to the laundry room can be fun when you are with the right person. I hope that it will stay like this. We have a lot of time ahead so I want to enjoy it at maximum.

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