May-July
Let’s face it: as a current freshman, we have had a difficult semester so far, especially because everything is online. When we talked to upperclassmen before committing to be a Hoya, they promised us a wonderful campus life, but here we are … So, I’m going to list five expectations and realities of what we’ve gone through, from the summer to now.
Expectation #1: The Roommate Process
We all made Facebook accounts to find our potential roommate. We were expecting something similar to “The Bachelor,” in which we would have a few candidates in mind who we wanted to room with, but we narrow it down to THE ONE.
Or, we waited until CHARMS opened to have our own Tinder experience to see who we matched with.
Reality #1: Umm … Where Will We Be Living?
While our friends from high school were getting ready to leave their homes, we waited, and then waited some more, and waited a little more …
… only to find out that most of our roommates were going to be …
… our “cool” parents. So much for the freshman dorm experience.
August
Expectation #2: First Day of School
Whoo!!!! We made it! Our first day of college. We were ready to pop off with our glamorous outfits for the new start of our lives.
We were also excited to meet some potential BFFs: the Patrick to our Spongebob.
We might have been running across campus to make it from Car Barn to the ICC for our classes on time after realizing how far away they were.
Reality #2: First Day of ~Zoom~ University
How was the first day of college, you may ask? Well, our looks definitely weren’t 100% fresh. Our top half? Maybe. Our bottom half? Definitely not. If you have worn jeans to a class and not just sweats, I want to congratulate you from the bottom of my heart.
In terms of our best friends — yeah, definitely not. In large lectures, people turn off their cameras, and in seminars, there’s no time for socializing. Guess we’ll have to wait a few more months to find real friends.
And, as for making it to class on time, that’s easy-peasy. Just by walking, at max, 10 steps, I can go from my bed to my desk. It’s almost impossible to be late to a class, but I will admit it can happen once in a while. Time is irrelevant right now.
Expectation #3: CAB Fair
We would have been on Healy Lawn, super excited to see all the clubs Georgetown has to offer. From a capella groups to ~exclusive~ consulting clubs, we would have walked around and experienced it all by signing up for a million clubs, especially the ones that bribed us with free food.
Reality #3: Shindig
Let me just say that Shindig was an interesting experience. With freshmen and club leaders not knowing how the website worked, it was semi-chaotic. And, all I could hear was my computer fan working up because my laptop was HOT. My poor computer was ready to explode at any minute.
Word on the street is CAB Fair will be back on Zoom(!) in a few weeks. Only time will tell.
September
Expectation #4: The Campus Life
We were definitely warned about some aspects of the campus experience. First, the rats. We heard the horror stories of seeing them running around in the middle of the night and creeping into the dorms. We were prepared to at least try to befriend them.
Then, there’s Leo’s. Many upperclassmen have also said that it’s college food, so you can’t expect it to be a Michelin-star meal.
Next up is the @georgetownhotmess account on Instagram: the infamous page dedicated to cringeworthy moments on campus. From bugs coming out of Leo’s food to rats popping out of garbage cans, we saw it all. My high school friends asked me before I committed to Georgetown if I really wanted to go to a college with roaches and rats everywhere, and I fully said, “Yes. And, your college isn’t cool enough to have a hot mess account on Instagram.”
Finally, there are the parties. We would have spent our weekend nights with our friends having the time of our lives. With the perfect shot on the Vil A rooftop, our Instagrams would have officially confirmed that we were a real Georgetown student.
Reality: Virtual “Campus” Life?
One thing is for sure: For those of us at home, we still have not seen any of the famous Georgetown rats. Maybe that’s a good thing because the campus rats get more freedom and less hatred. Hopefully, those rats are partying for us on campus.
And, maybe it is a great thing that we still get one more semester at home with better food, but I for sure am craving Epi quesadillas right about now.
The same goes for the Hot Mess Instagram account. I definitely would rather not eat food with roaches in it or experience horrifying events in the bathroom that some students have noted.
The big sad part is the parties. Being alone in a room on Zoom is just different. The typical online games like Skribbl.io will do for now, I guess. Hopefully, spending at least one night a week drawing random stuff will make all of us Picassos by the end of the year.
October
Expectation #5: Study Groups for Midterms
For the big lecture classes that have midterm tests instead of essays, the ideal would have been studying together with the ~perfect~ study group. Imagine the squad from “Community” but so much better.
Reality #5: Not-So-Fun Studying
Studying together virtually is super difficult. Especially for big classes when everyone has their cameras off, it is not easy to find people you connect with. If we want to find someone to study with, we have to work for it: ask for their numbers, if they want to study together on Zoom, etc., which requires so much more effort than in normal times.
Obviously, college life is drastically different this semester than in the past. We feel more disconnected, and for those of us living in smaller towns or cities, there are not that many fellow Hoyas living by us. That being said, when we all get to be on campus together, it is going to make the college experience so much better. We will get to enjoy on-campus life more than any other class because the first semester of college online was rough, and no one else has gone through it. So, whether it will be in January, March or August, I cannot wait for our class to finally unite together in person. Until then, remember to wear your mask and stay safe, Hoyas.
It is much easier to communicate via FB Messenger than on the CHARMS site itself. Using Facebook saves you from logging on to the Starrez Housing Portal to check messages and lets you see when someone has read your message. Additionally, friending your potential roomie on Facebook allows you to do some ~wholesome investigation~ to make sure that they were just as weird (and good at Photo Booth) in seventh grade as you were. Plus, this allows you two to tag each other in the comment sections of 
Roommates for four years? Why would anyone not use CHARMS? Well, just as there are stories of success with online dating, there are those stories that are horrifying, hilarious and just downright weird.
But don’t be so optimistic. Other times, you think you know your roommate, but then the cops come knocking on your door. Think your roommate was a badass? Think again: “My freshman year roommate was a high-level drug dealer who was involved with the Colombian drug trade and was expelled from Georgetown for unlawful possession of a firearm and a pound of weed.” Looks like someone applied their lessons from International Trade to a real-life situation … just not the right one. 
“He could be found blasting Britney Spears in the shower during the wee hours of the night, throwing pre-games in the room when I was gone for the weekend, and complaining to his mom about me in a language I never told him I spoke fluently.”
He would also host pre-games and neither tell nor even invite me (there were literally Facebook events that I found out about from people in my dorm). Later in the year, I found out he was spreading absurd rumors about me. For example, he told people that I would spend free time by pouring vodka down a certain part of my anatomy. As if he knew what I did in my free time. Because I just loved to hang out with my hostile roommate.
Now comes a new category: drunken urination stories. Everyone knows the saying “You gotta go when you gotta go.” Well, let’s just say that this proverb is especially true after one engages in a certain type of debauchery.
But imagine if that urine belonged to neither you nor your roommate.
As usual, we at 4E save the best for last. One of my favorites, this unnamed hero sticks out from the others. She told me how she herself was a roommate horror story. She not only seemed comfortable with it; she #OwnedIt.
Fast forward a few weeks and she actually ended up moving out, so I thought I had the room to myself. It turns out I was wrong, because my one human roommate was replaced by three happy mice who lived in the nooks and crannies of my room. One time I was eating leftover Mai Thai when two mice darted out from under my vents, squeaked to each other and then ran back under the vents. I, of course, continued eating.
The third mouse made an appearance when I reached into a desk drawer to investigate a torn bag of chips. It darted out across my hand, and then ran under my bed. My scream for help was so loud, violent and bloodcurdling that it sounded like someone was stabbing me repeatedly. A few floor-mates rushed to my rescue as I continued to howl.
And what had I done to them in return for my rescue?! I refused to take the blame for the vomit that sat in our bathroom for five days straight. It got to the point where girls were walking down to bathrooms on the lower floors to brush their teeth. Is it too late now to say sorry?”
We were voted as one of the colleges with the most attractive student body. On a more positive note, I do commend this account for what it does and its name. It has a ring to it that none of the others have. For those of you interested, here’s the account’s page.
Now, with @hoyas_eatin_naners, we’re in the big leagues. Setting the standard high with 59 posts in four months, this account is much more active than the one described above (probably the reason it has more followers). Its ratio, with 242 followers and 110 following, is much better than that of @georgetowndimes. The account’s bio? “Every day, hundreds of Leo’s namers lose their lives. These are their stories.” The reference to SVU alone is enough to make people ~go bananas~. Every situation you can think of, from accounting-exam-stress to dartying, involves a banana. The people who run this account (rumor has it they’re sophomores) are to be commended for the fact that they make a Hoya’s day by either featuring them and/or making them laugh.
On the other hand, most of us had no control over our housing assignment. There were maybe one or two little-known ways to work the system. Other than that, we were on our own. We all prayed for New South and scoffed at Darnall. When assignments were released in August, reactions included joy, disappointment, indifference, and just downright shock. Residents of New South were ecstatic, residents of Darnall felt cheated, and the residents of Harbin and VCW figured they would be okay. Oh, and then there were
Discover your hidden ailment, fall down a flight of stairs, make up a disease: do whatever you gotta do to get medical housing.
