Living with nine other people
So as you all must know by now, I live in a rather large collective living (or however one is suppose to translate it). As you also know, I completely love it. The reaction I get when I tell people about my living situation, however, is not "oh how awesome that must be". It's more like "OMG you poor thing are you okay, do you need to be rescued?" (or alternatively "what the actual fuck is wrong with you?").
It's sort of funny to me actually, that people seem to think that the home that means so much to me is somehow a bothersome place to be. But I suppose I can understand why they think the way they do. To counter this though, I thought we'd go through some "myths"/preconseptions that people have, and see if they are true (hint: most of them are not).
It's messy.
Hell to the now. I live there. Heh, no but all jokes aside my family (yes I call them that) are actually quite neat. We're (sort of) adults after all, we want to live in a place where you can actually cook in the kitchen without fearing food poisoning.
It's crowded.
This is what you picture, right? People everywhere.
This is our home. Parts of it at least. Space! (Also: notice the cleanliness.) Mine and Miia's room is as big as my first apartment.
You get no privacy.
Sure you do. Granted it's not a whole lot, but there's not always people and you are free to go in to your room you know. Also there is always the bathroom. Eh...no but seriously, I get all the alone time I need.
People take each others' stuff.
No one steals from anyone else in our home. Sure we borrow, but we always ask. And if someone takes something without asking first they always replace it. Also: would you ask your close friends if you could have some butter for your sandwich?
I doesn't feel "homy".
When you think collective living you think a long hallway with doors along the side and a crappy kitchen and/or common room, right? Well you've seen the pictures, that's not our home at all.
You don't get to pee/shower/whatever in peace.
Well of course you do. And there is never a line for the bathroom either. The only time we share space is when we get ready to go out and such things, but let's face it it's more fun like that.
Some things though, I must admit, are true. Like these:
There's never any toilet paper.
This is true. To quote Supernatural: "Hoard it. Hoard it like it's made of gold." Because, we're never totally out, but we're nearly always almost out. There's a chicken race going on at all times regarding who can wait the longest before the feel like they need to buy some.
Everybody knows everything everyone does.
Yeah pretty much. At least I would venture to guess that there is nothing that has happened since we moved in that not one person or another knows about. We are in each others business a little bit, and we do know very much about what goes on in the lives of the rest of us. Not that this has to be a bad thing.
And last but not least, the perks
There is always someone to talk to/hang out with.
You get a very big support system.
If someone fucks with one of my roomies, they fuck with me too.
And if you're real lucky, you get what I got. A place you long for when you're not there, a second family away from the one you were born into.
