UnderGraduating Student Living

lifewithsuitguy:

King Street runs both east and west of Queen’s campus parallel to the water. It’s a pretty place to live - we’re not too far from downtown or lecture halls, and we’ve got the lake view which is pretty sweet (when there aren’t gale force winds of course).

The area we live in, as I just recently discovered, is known as the grad student ghetto. This area differs from the “university district” west of campus in a few ways, but mainly in the number of hipsters that live here. I’m not quite sure why grad students are so hip - probably because they’re not part of the common undergrad clan anymore. 

If I were to guesstimate the hipster count of our block it would probably be somewhere near 100. Hipsters live in the apartments below us, above us, beside us and across from us. The first day I moved in my mom knocked on the door of the first floor hipsters to ask them about garbage day. This tall, thin, shaggy guy with a holey tank top opens the door and has a conversation with my 4’11” very Asian mom. I was beet red trying to retain some type of cool while I lugged my 1000 pound suitcase up the stairs. Mortifying. Now, don’t get me wrong I adore hipsters and love to gawk at them, but they can really really grind my gears for several reasons:

1. Bikes. If the hipster count is 100, then the bike count is probably upwards of 200 (having just one bike is too mainstream, you gotta change it up so that you don’t conform to using JUST a classic red Schwinn). Bikes are great and they’re environmentally friendly but I think that we probably have at least 8 bikes chained to one part of the stairwell leading up to our house or the poor tree outside of it at any given time. Bikes kill trees! 

2. Music. I’d say that I’m open to listening to most types of music, but the hipsters that live below us listen to some pretty weird stuff. It’s like ethereal yoga music mixed with ancient voodoo chanting. I don’t know what they do downstairs, but it spooks me out a little bit. The hipsters upstairs play their music very very loud. I am not 100% sure if they can be considered hipsters because the other night they were blasting Taylor Swift. -10 hip points for you. 

3. Clothing. We haven’t formally met our hipster neighbors yet but they are often in the shared backyard that my bedroom windows look out to. I will admit, and try to be as minimally creepy about this as possible, that sometimes I watch them. They often spray paint fabric (Why buy coloured clothing when you can make your own colours AND fight against the conformity that says spray paint is for walls? YAY!) and play a lot of beer pong. One time I was studying when one of the hipsters ran outside in a pink and purple, very tight pre-teen girl hoodie and a guitar. Umm, pardon? 

Whenever I come back from a run or a night class the hipsters are gathered at the foot of the stairs that lead to the building. It’s always awkward because I’m sweaty and I don’t have a bike and I’m not listening to The Dead Goats or whatever the most obscure band is at the moment. They’re usually smoking cigarettes and being angsty, writing emotional poetry or discussing The Renaissance or something. 

Anyway I really do hope that the hipsters and I manage to become friends so I can borrow their bikes for my classes that are farther away. I wonder what they think of Suit Guy. Does wearing a suit make him hip? …. is Brad… a hipster? Just turned my own world upside down. 

Kayla 

(via lifewithsuitguy-deactivated2013)

penjolina:

- Learn to cope without having AC. (Will probably never happen).
- Learn to not want to throw up at the thought of communal bathrooms.
- Cry because you still suck at physics and calculus.
- Make friends who can help you in the aforementioned subjects.
- Remember that the only thing people will talk to you about for the next month is where you’re from, which residence you’re in, and what program you’re taking. Try to think of better subjects.
- Cry more because now people expect you to do things instead of just staying in your room all day long.
- Try to figure out where all your classes are and then cringe because you’ll have to walk around.
- Continue talking to people even though you’d rather not.

ismokeifuck:

I’ve got to be honest… I’m pretty happy with the people I’ve met in the mere 2 days I’ve been here at Queen’s. Other than being in an all girls res, my roommate being straight from Hong Kong (and I don’t mean that in a condescending manner) and my best friend’s in another residence, I’ve had a great past two nights.

Frist day was hectic… moved in at 8am and tried to follow the orientation itinerary that was laid out for us, figuring out where buildings were and tried not to be awkward as fuck with my floor mates. we endured a pretty inspirational pep rally and then let the good times roll. We walked around the Queen’s Ghetto, the whole time being chirped for our “Frosh Status” but meeting a ton of people that were just down to have a good time; moving from house to house making our presence known. The night eventually ended with some guys that we met who were just chilling on the library sign drinking some beers… right, “dry” orientation my ass. lol

We hang out with these guys, eating pop tarts and drinking champagne because we’re classy mother fuckers like that. On the way home I get champagne showered which I would suggest anyone do although you’re going to want to take a nice shower afterwards. One of the guys gets into a “fight” if that’s even what you want to call it, basically this guy chirped some fourth year student and then got beaten to the ground without getting a single punch in. So we ice this guy up and send him and his buddies home.

Day two we sleep in, we realize that we only have to go to the mandatory floor meetings and that makes for a much more relaxing day. Getting food, hanging out, face painting, and heading to our first Queen’s University football game; Queen’s vs. York. No need to point out that we won because that’s just a given. we head back to res, grab a bite to eat and get ready for our Carnival/MuchMusic video dance. Shuttle takes us there and we stay for about an hour or so, dancing and climbing through the bouncy castle/obstacle course/race thing. Yeah… that’s just one thing I just don’t really know how else to describe it simply. Anywho, we get back to campus and head down to the lake with the guys we met on the library sign last night and we follow the mass of 100+ students walking to the pier, strip down and jump right on in. The water was actually perfect aside from the waves, in case you were wondering. After our dip us girls headed back to our respective residences and rooms ready for an early sleep… and then my phone vibrates and I get a text asking me to chill. You all need to understand and grasp how much I love and value my sleep, it’s almost as much as I love my food.

The night was supposed to be over but instead I end up going across the street to one of our sports fields, sitting in the middle of a giant “Q” smoking bong and talking for a good hour. Sketchy as fuck, but no one said anything. What I’m trying to say is that that spot - that letter Q - will now bethe spot on that turf where we sit and hang out at 3am on a Tuesday morning. Tradition in the making.

So here we go, one last day of orientation before we get tossed into official Froshing activities and groups and then our academic careers take flight.

Shit. We aren’t in Kansas anymore.

(Source: eyes-open-mind-blank)