【中级听力】（文末附视频）A Few Rules to Know to Survive in College Dorms

A Few Rules to Know to Survive in College Dorms

《文 末 附 视 频》

This may not be a word-for-word transcript.

Are you a first-timer moving away from home and right into the jungle that is college dorm life? It might get tough, but have no fear – as long as you pack a survival guide with you, you’ll be just fine! A survival guide, like this one here...

1. Accept that sharing is caring.

To avoid lots of frayed nerves, learn to accept some universal truths: The Earth goes around the Sun, spring always follows winter, and other people in the dorm will use your stuff. They often won’t even ask for your permission. But think of it in this way: the more you give, the more you’re entitled to borrow.

2. Protect your favorite mug.

If there’s one thing you just can’t share with others, it must be your favorite coffee mug, or thermos, or bucket. When polite requests don’t help, protect that holy grail with a legit padlock. Attach it to the handle of your mug and through the bars of your dish rack. Voila, now, only a person with the key (you!) can sip sweet caffeinated nectar from it!

3. Get a laundry buddy.

On-campus laundry normally costs money. Unless you have enough clothes to last until your Thanksgiving trip home, you’ll have to use those paid services. Offer a friend to visit the laundromat together – it’ll save you cash and provide an excellent bonding opportunity. Nothing brings people together better than watching socks spin in a washing machine.

4. Make the most out of your hair dryer.

Sometimes you don’t have time to head down to the laundry room. You have to be at that Art History exam in 20 minutes. But you have no clean socks. Well, you can wash them in the sink, ring them out, and wrap each sock around the end of a hair dryer. There you go – clean dry socks in 3 minutes.

5. No iron? No problem!

Alright, so what about when your clothes are covered in wrinkles? Because you don’t hang them up – they live scattered around your room. If you don’t have an iron, just pour some hot water over a garment and let it hang dry. You can also hang it up nearby as you take a hot shower. Speaking of which…

6. Never forget your shower shoes.

You’re not just sharing a room with other people, you’ll also be sharing a bathroom. Shower shoes – they’re a must. Not unless you want a nasty case of foot fungus. Ew!

7. Keep an eye out for student specials.

No, don’t actually take your eye out, just, you know, watch for them. You’re a broke college student living on Ramen, so you’ll be looking for ways to save money. Probably for that reason, most dorms have weekly events with food and drinks that cost way less than the same kind of fun off campus. But you can find good discounts out there, too. A lot of museums, movie theaters, and the like offer student discounts and deals.

8. Two words: free stuff!

One of the first things you should do as you arrive at your new home is to find out where the free stuff shelf is. A lot of students leave really good treasures behind when they move out of the dorm. You can find anything from dishes to disco balls. Many people also move on without grabbing the books they’re done with. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a needed textbook for this semester. Sometimes you can also find canned food there. Watch those expiration dates!

9. Take part in as many activities as you can.

There’s always something going down on campus, so don’t ignore it by staying in your dorm room like a sleep-deprived hermit crab. The more active you are, the more opportunities you have to meet new people and add a few good things to your resume, not to mention, you know, having fun! After all, when do you think you’ll have another perfect opportunity to discover a passion for double-contrabass flute? Probably, never.

10. Get up-to-date with pop culture.

You don’t want to be that one awkward person who doesn’t get any Billie Eilish lyrics or Game of Thrones references, right? Hey, if you could recommend some shows or music for out-of-the-loop college freshmen to check out, leave them down in the comments. Anyway, popular music and whatever’s on the Tubes these days is an endless conversation and bonding opportunity.

11. Spend some quality time with your roomies.

Those weirdos are basically your family now. To avoid sibling rivalry, make sure you include some time together in your busy schedule. How you spend that time is up to you: a study group, a Monopoly night, watching a movie, laundry day – the sky is the limit to what you can do. You’ll need to live with these people for a while, so you might as well get friendly. 

12. Make your own movie theater.

Going to the movies can cost an arm and a leg, even with those awesome discounts for students. Do that too often, and they’ll nickname you “stumpy”. So, bring the fun to the comfort of your own dorm by DIYing a movie projector. All it takes is a shoebox, a magnifying glass, and your smartphone. Cut out a hole the size of the magnifier in the shoebox and fit the glass in. Insert a cardboard divider and prop your phone up against it. You’ll be able to move this piece to control the distance between the phone and the magnifier in order to focus the image. Now turn off the lights and enjoy the show with your roomies.

13. Make your own meals as much as you can.

If I could describe most college students’ diet in just 2 words, it would probably be fast food. Sure, it might seem cheap and convenient, but eating out for each and every meal will bust both your wallet and your waistline. To avoid putting on the Freshman 15 and to save some money, cook for yourself in the dormitory’s kitchen. It’s there for a reason. Just be careful – you wouldn’t wanna set off the smoke alarms at 4am. True story for another day…

14. Keep your dishes clean without washing them.

More cooking means more dishes to do, right? Not necessarily! Just put some plastic wrap on your plate or bowl first. You can throw it away when you’re done eating, and your dishes will be spick and span. And if you’ve never heard of spick and span – it just means very clean.

15. Use tricks to get your alone time.

There will be times when you’ll get annoyed with people surrounding you 24/7. It’s perfectly normal. Instead of getting mad and confrontational (remember, you still have to live with these people, and some of them might know martial arts!), just take a break from them. Pretending you’re sleeping, studying, or putting in your earphones at the sight of others are those subtle hints you want to be left alone. Most people can read them. You’ll probably be perfectly fine and up for a chat again in a few days.

16. It’s okay to say “no”.

It’s perfectly fine to politely decline when someone is inviting you to the 5th party this week, and you really just wanna chill or study. Study? Yeah. It’s also okay to say “no” when your roommate asks to borrow some money for the third time in a row and they haven’t given you a cent back so far. Don’t be too afraid of coming off as selfish. Besides, learning to say “no” is a great skill for adult life. Otherwise, you might get taken advantage of.

17. Make friends with the dorm staff.

People who just run past the guards or never say hi to the cook actually miss out on a lot of cool perks of dorm life. After all, it’s the guards that can let you come back much later than curfew. A cook can drop an extra piece of steak onto your plate just because you’re the one person who’s ever friendly with them. So, be nice to them and engage in small talk whenever you have a chance.

18. Know where to hide stuff if you have to.

In case your dorm has weird policies against, say, using hair dryers or irons in the room, you need to know where to hide them in case the warden pays you an unexpected visit on their daily rounds. Remember the Shawshank movie and Andy Dufresne’s posters? Uh huh. I’d also recommend finding a place to hide your snacks away from your roomies.

19. Learn to sleep with any noise level.

This one is probably the most essential trick for your survival. You’ll have to learn to sleep in any conditions and any volume of noise during your college years. Because if you fail to do it, you’ll probably get no sleep whatsoever. As hard as it sounds, try to take your mind off the annoying noise and your plots of revenge. Imagine you’re in some calm place that makes you feel happy, like a tropical beach. Meditation apps will help you get those dreamy background sounds of the ocean or simply white noise. 

Finally, exhaust yourself throughout the day by exercising or spending time in the Sun, and you’ll have no trouble falling asleep no matter what. And, well, if none of that works, earplugs will do the trick. 

Bottomline: keep your eyes open and your roomies might also teach you some neat tricks you’ll remember the rest of your life. I can’t tell you what those particular tricks are, but trust me, they’re unforgettable.

Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other cool videos I think you’ll enjoy. Just click to the left or right, and stay on the Bright Side of life!

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