Flatmate Troubles
One of the things about studying abroad that I can't get used to is that I feel like whenever something goes right, then other things immediately start going wrong. This week, I had a great first meeting of my English seminar, and my first cooking class, which was a lot of fun. Even the weather was nice. But I had a crazy week of flatmate troubles.
I have three flatmates, and one roommate. We all share the same common room in our apartment, which is both a kitchen and a living room area with a TV. My roommate is another Willamette student, and my flatmate who lives next door is named John. I get along with both of them fine; they are neat, they clean up after themselves, and they are quiet and friendly. But the two girls that live upstairs, Tanya and Emma, I have some problems with.
On Monday night, Tanya and Emma had a bunch of friends over for a "Grey's Anatomy" watching party. They were a little loud, but I managed to fall asleep. However, on Tuesday morning, I found the common room trashed. There was some kind of clear liquid - possibly vodka - all over the floor. The phone had been pulled out of the wall. Every cupboard door was open, and the table was covered in dirty glasses and empty vodka bottles. My roommate and I were having a dinner party on Tuesday night. When the mess hadn't been cleaned up by 5 pm on Tuesday, we had no choice but to clean up our flatmates' mess ourselves.
Then, on Wednesday night, there was a big dance. Tanya, Emma, and their friends spent all afternoon and evening in our common room getting ready. Then, all eight of them NEVER LEFT the common room on Thursday. They just stayed there, eating, watching TV, and not giving anyone else in the flat a chance to hang out in there and relax. The few times I went down to get food, I could smell cigarette smoke in the air, as though someone had been smoking in there.
Then last night, they went out again, and came back at around 4 am. They were so loud downstairs that they woke me up, and i had to come down and ask them to be quiet. This morning, the room was trashed again, and there was even broken glass on the floor.
I'm not really sure how to deal with this situation. I don't know if I should use the tack that I would use with an American roommate, and just try to have a straight forward conversation with them about the things that are bothering me, or whether there is a better way to do it. I also don't know if most Irish students just put up with noisy and sloppy roommates, or whether they try to fix the situation.
I do know one thing. I deserve to live in a quiet, safe environment, and I deserve to be able to use my own common room and to not be woken up at 4:30 am.
I also know that the big problem here is all the drinking. Nine times out of ten, the gatherings in our common room involve excessive amounts of alcohol. The drinking culture here is very insidious, and I don't like it at all. It makes people behave really, really disrespectfully towards other people.
I think I'll probably have to ask someone in the international office on campus about the best way to deal with this. All I know is, as much as I dislike confrontation, I need to have a conversation with these girls about this, because I can't live like this anymore.