Farewell, Dormers.

            Unfortunately, dear readers, all good things must come to an end. Today, I am signing off and bidding adieu to Calm Before the Dorm. The semester is coming to a close, and it is time to move on from my blog. 

            I have to admit, I was pretty miserable at the start of the semester. Living in a dorm for the third year, just alone with my roommate. We were both feeling down. However, once I started my blog, I got to thinking, “Hey! Living in a dorm again isn’t so terrible.”  I have a wonderful roommate, and we have finally decorated our room to perfection.

            I can only hope that my blog did the same thing for you. Starting a new life is scary, and living in a dorm can seem like a punishment. But you have to make the best of it! And it can be a lot of fun.

            Don’t worry, readers, there is some good news! Although I am saying good-bye to CBD, there are a few more belated posts coming your way.

            So keep reading, keep dorming, and thank you all for tuning in. I appreciate your dedication and contribution to my blog!

I will miss you!

Student Robbed at Moravian College

Moravian College issued a campus-wide e-mail earlier this month, informing students of three robberies that took place in two of the freshman dorms, Wilhelm and JoSmith. Much to my surprise, my friend Ben was one of the victims. He was willing to give me an interview on the matter.

Cas: So your dorm room was robbed last week! That’s awful. What happened?

Ben: My bud had just picked up a new game for his Xbox so a couple friends and I all went to one room and played for hours, probably from 5 pm to midnight. I came back up, looked around, and saw that my Xbox 360, Wii, $60 cologne and Macbook pro were all missing.

C: Has Moravian done anything to help you recover these items or reimburse you?

B: There hasn’t been any reimbursement, but my computer and Xbox’s serial numbers are now in every pawn shop and place that sells/buys electronics

C: Well, that’s good! Are you angry?

B: Not at Moravian, but of course I’m angry! I wanted to go break something at first, but I guess you just have to brush something like this off after a while. There’s nothing I can do.

C: Are you taking any new precautions?

B: My door was locked at the time [of the robbery] but now I’m dead bolting the door and got a lock for my new computer.

C: Good idea! What advice do you have for other potential victims?

B: Definitely deadbolt your doors, report any suspicious people round the dorms, and don't leave your room if there are people you don't know in there.

C: As a freshman just starting out at Moravian, does this affect the way you feel about the school?

B: Absolutely. I’m still happy with the education I’m receiving, but the atmosphere feels completely different for me.

C: I’m sorry to hear that! What are your plans at this point?

B: Just deal with it for now, and reach a decision at the end of the year as to whether or not I want to transfer schools.

I was pretty upset after the interview. Ben is a great kid, and his door was locked! Our school is very old (the sixth oldest in the country, actually) so the doors aren’t very strong and can easily be broken in to. I am lucky that my dorm is a little bit newer and it is almost impossible to break into my room from the outside. Still, I wish the school could do something more for Ben!

But there’s a lesson to be learned in all of this. LOCK YOUR DOORS! Deadbolt them, especially if you don’t know/trust everyone on your floor. And don’t tell people you aren’t familiar with about your valuables.

What would you do? Would you transfer schools? Demand reimbursement? What other tips do you have to prevent your room from being broken in to?

Dealing With Dorm Doubts

Dorm blues get everyone down. The semester is quickly coming to a close, and your once cozy, exciting new abode is starting to feel like it’s closing in on you. At least, that’s how it feels for me.

                Living in a dorm for three years makes it all the more difficult to enjoy dorm life, especially when the only person I know on my floor is my roommate (all my other friends live in on-campus apartments. So not fair.) Still, there are things you can do to keep yourself from going stir-crazy.

·      Visit a friend. Practically all of my friends live in on-campus apartments. I try to go over to a friend’s whenever I start to feel a little suffocated. Even if you don’t know anyone in an apartment, text a friend who lives on a different floor, even in a different room to get a change of scenery.

·      Do your homework in the library. Sometimes working in your room around your roommate, the TV, Facebook… it can all be a little distracting and add to your frustration. Go to the library to focus on your work. You’ll probably get more done and feel less tense than trying to work around dorm room distractions.

·      Eat in the cafeteria. Grab some friends and instead of getting food to go and eating in bed, eat in the cafeteria. I remember eating alone several times freshman year when my roommate wasn’t around. Text your other friends and get dinner with them. You’ll feel better being surrounded by a ton of people instead of sitting by yourself in your room.

·      Spend some time outside. Whether it’s homework, tanning, hanging out, or just relaxing by yourself, nothing is better for the soul than some fresh air. Plus, now’s the time to enjoy the last few beautiful days of fall!

·      Do things without your roommate. It doesn’t matter if the two of you are the best of friends; you are not going to get along if you spend too much time together. If you feel that things are getting tense between the two of you, do an activity with another friend. You’ll feel better about being in your room if things are going smoothly with your living buddy.

·      Exercise. No matter what is frustrating me, I can shake the tension by going for a run. Whether it’s in the gym or in the great outdoors, exercise is good for the body and mind. It’ll help relieve all kinds of stress, roommate and schoolwork related.

·      Have a sleepover! Tossing and turning at night? Stay in a friend’s room for the evening. Freshman year, my friend Julia’s roommate was visiting home and she didn’t want to be alone for the night. So I traveled to her dorm and slept in the spare bed. It was a nice change of scenery and a fun adventure for the night.

How do you escape when you need some time away from dorm life? How else can you cope with living in such a small space?

Costume How-To

                As we all know, life away at college can be pretty expensive. All those nights ordering takeout, shopping online, textbooks… it adds up fast. And if you love Halloween half as much as I do, you don’t want to have to settle for a lame costume just because you’re bank account is running a little low. Marissa and I are horribly broke at the moment, so we had to find away to make incredible costumes without breaking the bank.

We decided to be zombies. Who doesn’t love flesh-eating undead beasts? (Plus, The Walking Dead is blowing up, fast.) Instead of paying $50 and up for a cheap costume, we decided to save some money and make them ourselves.

We each got two white tank tops (in case we messed up) for about $4 each. Then we went to Modell’s and bought black Sofee’s ($8 each). Finally, we went to the Halloween store and got fishnet tights ($4) and a can of spray-on blood ($6).

High on excitement, we rushed back to our dorm room and got right to work. We put a couple rips in our shirts (okay, a lot of rips) and splattered them with fake blood. The result? Two costumes that were better than anything we could find online, for about $20 each.

We opted to be attractive zombies, with smoky eyes and pale lipstick. Since we already have these supplies, it didn’t cost us a thing. But you can buy zombie makeup kits at the Halloween store for a low price.

Guys, you can do this too! Probably with items you already have. Grab some Hanes tees (Walmart, about $7 for a pack of three) and an old pair of jeans. Rip ‘em up and splatter them with blood.

Sure, it requires a little more work than just clicking the “place order” button online. But we are going to have the most original costumes on campus! We had a great time doing it, too. We put on The Nightmare Before Christmas (one of our favorites) and spent the evening snipping and chatting.

There are tons of costumes you can make yourself. You can even use clothes you already own!

·         Grecian/Roman. All you need is a bed sheet, a belt, and some safety pins. Can you say “toga?”

·         Lax Bro. Grab a pinny, some baggy shorts (Soffee’s for girls) and some eye black. Instant jock.

·         A friend! Girls, pick your best guy friend and dress up like him for the night. Borrow his favorite hat and t-shirt. Guys, have a girl friend on a sports team? Last year my friend Jeff went as a cheerleader. It was hilarious.

·         Ke$ha. All you need is some ripped fishnets and a ridiculous amount of glitter.

What have you done to cut down on costume costs? What’s the most creative thing you’ve ever been for Halloween?

I hope you all have a fun (and safe!) Halloween. Trick or treat!

A Dormitory Halloween

Because Halloween is only six days away, and because it is absolutely my favorite holiday, I’ve decided to dedicate an entire post to all things spooky and creepy. Being away at school, it can be difficult to get a feel of the holidays. Freshman year, I felt like I missed out on Halloween completely. Don’t let that happen to you! There are tons of fun ways to celebrate in your dorm room.

·         Pumpkin painting! Since carving can be a little messy, go to the farmer’s market nearest to your school and pick up a few pumpkins, large or small. The only other thing you need is paint! Last year, we didn’t have any paint on hand, so we used different color Sharpies. You can even use nail polish or makeup if you want! Anything you have will work. And pumpkins last a long time, too, so you won’t have to worry about it rotting on you any time soon.

·         Candy. Halloween only comes once a year, so it’s okay to indulge in a couple of sweet treats (at least, that’s what I tell myself!) Buy an assorted bag of candy and a Halloween-themed bucket. You can set it on your windowsill to share with your roomie, or leave it outside your door for your floor mates. I don’t know about you, but I miss trick-or-treating! If a couple of people on your floor put out some candy, you can all feel like kids again.

·         Decorate your room. We have a Halloween sign on our door and a little ghost-shaped light (thank you, mom!)  If your school allows it, string up some black and orange lights. If not, grab some plastic garland with skulls or your favorite Halloween icon. Some floor mates freshman year covered the outside of their door with fake spider webs. It looked so cool! Don’t be afraid to experiment, especially on the outside of your room. Draw spiders and ghosts on your whiteboard. Let the world know how much you love this holiday!

·         Host a scary movie night. What better way to celebrate the day of the dead than with a scary movie marathon? Turn out the lights, whip out some Halloween-themed snacks (candy, caramel apples, cider, popcorn balls) and invite your friends over! Unfortunately, the Netfix selection isn’t too great, but you can find $5 horror movies in a giant bin at Walmart.

Don’t let college keep you from experiencing Halloween! What have you guys done to get a feel for the holidays? How do you celebrate Halloween in your dorm? Please post pics of your Halloween pumpkins! I’d love to see what you guys came up with.

Haunted House at Moravian College

In honor of Halloween, one of our dorms on campus created a haunted house this Halloweekend. The rumor is that three male students “disappeared”  in the pit of the freshman dorm, Hassler. Students today are no longer allowed to live there, and the floor is locked all year. However, they open it up once a year on Halloween to bring the scares.

Hassler is actually only part of the building. Most of our dorms are two connected buildings; Rau-Hassler is the full dorm. There were six open floors total, three per building. Some floors were dimly lit with spider webs and masked students. Others were completely dark, with garbage bags and streamers hanging from the ceilings.

I went with two of my girlfriends, Marissa and Steph. We had invited several guys to tag along, but they flat out refused, claiming it was lame. (I think they were just too scared. But whatever.)

At first, we were the only ones there. The first three floors in Rau weren’t too terrifying. There were a lot of students jumping out from dark doorways and loud noises behind us. We were mostly just annoyed that we couldn’t see anything.

But when we got to the second floor of Hassler, things took a turn for the scarier. A student covered in fake blood opened the door for us, which hadn’t happened on the other floors. We all went to step in… and there was a clown in the middle of the hall. The most terrifying clown I’ve ever seen. He just stood there, staring at us.

Naturally, we kind of freaked out.  The poor kid begged us to go in, but I couldn’t convince my friends to go and I didn’t want to go alone. Thankfully, a large group came by and Marissa and Steph agreed to go, as long as we got to hide behind the others. This floor was by far the scariest; every time I looked behind me I saw that clown. Terrifying!

But other than that one floor, it wasn’t all that great. A few students playing dead and some strobe lights set the mood, but the scary stopped there. Marissa said, “I was so afraid when I saw that clown… I wouldn’t have gone if that other group hadn’t gone before us. But the other parts weren’t that scary. Just claustrophobic.”

We were probably better off spending the $40 and going to a real haunted house. But I’m glad I went. In all my three years at this school, I never had a chance to go tour haunted Rau-Hassler. Too bad it was a disappointment. Ah, well. At least I got it out of my system.

Have you ever been to a haunted house? What did you do this Halloween to give yourself a scare? Moravian students, did you guys go to the haunted dorm? What did you think?

Dorm Cooking Made Easy

I don’t know about you, but some of our school food is really terrible. The other day for dinner Marissa and I got pasta in a bell pepper and basil sauce from our on-campus café. Sounds pretty good, right? WRONG. It was awful. It was flavorless and soggy and just… ick.

Instead of wasting a meal swipe, we brought our dinner back to our room and made a few tweaks. Because we always have pasta sauce at hand, we mixed some sausage marinara with the reject pasta and popped it in the microwave for a few seconds. Then, we added some grated cheese (the kind that comes in a shaker). The result? An awesome pasta dish!

Like I’ve said before, it’s always important to keep a variety of food at hand in your room. Instead of throwing away something that looked a lot better than it tasted, fix it! Add more cheese to your lackluster mac & cheese. Put fresh mayo on your sandwiches. Make your own salad dressing. When you get sick of the food your school offers, instead of ordering out all the time, use these tricks! Your wallet AND your tummy will thank you.

Since we’ve been going to the same school for three years, we know what to expect. We are fully prepared to have to make our own dinners every once in a while. Measuring cups, a pot, a colander, and an assortment of cooking utensils live under my bed.

I strongly suggest taking advantage of your dormitory kitchen. Even making something simple, like buttered pasta or mac & cheese, will give you a nice break from the meals you usually get in the cafeteria. It’s also a great way to spend time with your friends.

Freshman year, we would organize “family dinner night” every once in a while. Everyone would chip in and buy part of the meal. Then we’d all get together in our dorm kitchen, play some music, and cook together.

I remember one time we made rice and some kind of chicken. We only had sushi rice at hand and the chicken was a little burnt. It wasn’t the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten, but we had so much fun goofing off and cooking together.

Those were some of the best nights I’ve ever had at school, even though we had to eat on the floor (we had a kitchen, but no table. Go figure).

I love cooking, and even though our dorm kitchen this year is small, I can still make my own meals from time to time.

What about you? What’s the greatest dorm recipe you’ve ever made? How do you deal with your school’s food?