Recently we had a new roommate move into the single room in my suite. This was very unexpected because it was during midterms and we were at Everland amusement park the entire day and returned with a new person here. She was a Korean student and Kimberly and I were happy to meet a new friend, especially someone who was comfortable in Korea in the area. We found that the first night she came back very late and was a bit drunk and loud. It was hard to communicate with our new roommate because she was rarely home. The shock of the initial meeting was passing but many complaints started then.
Our roommate has been out and coming back home around 3-4 am and is not quiet at all. One night she was passed out in the bathroom and we were really worried that she was sick or dying. She refused all help and never addressed the situation the next day. My double roommate and I were concerned for our single-room suitemate but she never is at the dorm or is uncontrollably drunk. We decided to talk to the RA and residence office and nothing changed. The situation was just very awkward between our roommate and us and later we got the big guys to help us convey the situation that we were in. Still, we were only able to set up a talk with our roommate and that did help us clarify some misunderstandings but nothing much has changed with our roommate's mess or silence.
The going out and coming home late has slowed down and the stolen items have been figured out but she still makes a huge mess in the bathroom and never puts her things away. WE only have 19 days left in the dorm and these small problems can be overlooked since the Dorm management does absolutely nothing to help international students.
Thankfully Kimberly speaks some Korean and can communicate with our roommate effectively when she is home to actually talk. What have I actually learned from this experience? Well, #1 is that there is no one looking out for me in Korea. The international dorm RA knows nothing about helping and has had no training, when we asked about our roommate passing out on the toilet worried she had alcohol poisoning our RA just asked if she was breathing and said to leave her there. Also after we resolved the issues with our roommate and RA, there was no follow up no report, no suggestion of dividing us up, or the "covid concerns". To start off we have to take our temperature every day at the dorm, write it down on a sheet that is turned in and if we are found out to have covid from partying we will be kicked out of the dorm. Our new roommate has not once taken her temperature, has most likely partied every night including school nights and no one has said anything to her. So the apparent concern for students' health during covid is only geared toward international students. When we rarely stay out past 12 and do not club or party having a roommate that possibly does this and never takes their temperature is scary. The Dorm management told our roommate about our concerns and didn't convey the correct issues which made it very awkward and didn't offer a solution until after the weekend. How were we supposed to go 3 days with the tension in our room and no solution? WE just figured it out ourselves and won't ever bother the RA or dorm management again since they have no real solutions ever. Even when we complained about our dorm room it was no response for a week and then no solution.
The second thing I learned is that I can't afford to suffer in silence in Korea. Too much time had passed before we addressed the issues. No one here will ask if everything is okay unless you directly point at the problem. There are no use wasting weeks of bad feeling for someone else's sake. This is my trip, my time abroad that does not need to be jeopardized for the sake of someone else's feelings. taking charge of my life is important! Not enough time to just let life slide by.
let life slide by.
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