It's not limited to living room cricket, either. There's the 17-year olds praying to the porcelain Gods 4 metres from your bed, there's the 'dance parties', there's the conversations outside your door at 2am, there's the ludicrously loud television, the over-the-top reactions to playing NHL (this may sound rich from me, if anyone has played me at Pro Evo, but it's context-dependent, y'see). The list goes on. Silence is a rarely enjoyed commodity.
However, nor is it just the incessant noise that bugs me. I forgot how much I hate being confined to the dismal company of my room for a whole evening straight. Nothing gives you cabin fever more than a bedroom in halls. It's bland, depressing, cramped and not at all homely. I long for being able to kick back in my living room in 81 Royal Park Avenue to an episode of MegaStructures. Or sitting around the kitchen table whilst playing a game of Chinese poker. No such luck, I'm isolated in the solitude of B108D, Bates Residence.
I'm sick of being fucking mothered by the whole residence culture, too. I can understand why they have the attitude of treating everyone like a child, as most of the people living in residence are children. This is the first time most of them have ever lived away from home. But for those who are in their third year of living away from home, they mostly know that they need to wash their hands after going to the toilet. They can talk to their flatmates instead of signing a housemate agreement form. And to hark back to the welcome week (the equivilant of freshers' week), they know how to make friends with people. You don't make friends by playing games in a circle or singing chants. Welcome week was the most contrived drivel I have ever had to endure in my life.
What's more, as a privilige of living on the campus of McMaster University I also have to buy in to a meal plan card. This translates to me paying $2000, with no choice in the matter, to eat at various overpriced food establishments around campus. Again, I can kind of see the logic behind this if you live in the halls of residence that lack cooking facilities. But I have a kitchen. There is absolutely no need for me to have to buy this meal card. It's another bullet point on a list of McMaster University's blatant profiteering that helps the university's president enjoy his $1.4 million pension.
Before coming to Hamilton I saw living in halls of residence as one last time to experience this style of living, with people I've never met before with the hope to meet some awesome friends. Sad to say that it didn't quite pan out and there's very few valuable people that I've met purely on the basis of living here. On that note, bring on Norwood Road. Rant over.
P.S. I started writing this blog about 40 minutes ago when the cricket was proving too much for me after listening to it for about half an hour. They're still going. It's beyond me.
