More Res life stuff
So, I got my room assignments today. Yes plural. I am currently assigned to live in BOTH Johnson 206 and Barrows 247. I suspect that Barrows is the correct one because it looks like my roomate for Johnson already has an Oberlin email address. Still, my confidence level in the orginization of the res life office is dropping
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Johnson (heretofore to be called "J-House", which is how it's referred to on campus) is by far the prettiest dorm at Oberlin. Officially, it's the Hebrew Heritage House, *unofficially* it's the most sought-after on-campus residence because the house is beautiful (an old Victorian mansion) and the rooms are nice and range from big to gigantic.
Upsides (from my perspective, at least) are that the community is usually pretty close and laid back - it tends to fill with people that are social in a kind of late-night, drinking wine and sitting around playing guitar kind of way. Since it's smaller and far away from most of campus (more on that in a second), the house also tends to operate a little more like a co-op - rules are more relaxed, people drink and smoke in their rooms, and there's pretty much something happening almost all of the time. I really like the place.
Now the downsides. It is at the ASS end of campus. Like... there's a dorm called South (for reasons that should be obvious), and then J-house is a good half-mile south of *that*, and along with Old Barrows it's by far the longest hike from mid-campus. It's a beautiful walk in the Summer, but in the winter it's f-ing cold. Most people who live in J-house think it's worth it. It also tends to be mostly upperclassmen, which can be a good way to get into a multi-class community but really your mainstays will be people in your own year, and you'll have to find a way to be around the bigger and all-freshman dorms to really get into the first-year madness that can be so sweet.
A lot of people on campus would give a limb to live in J-House, so be happy - but you'll have to work harder to get attached to the larger community than most incoming first years will.
Hope that's helpful - feel free to drop me a comment if you have any other questions.
-Charlie
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