J-term has been full of new experiences, some good and some bad. Over the weekend Brandt (my dorm) unfortunately experienced something that I was not fond of:
Fire Alarms in the middle of the night, 2 nights in a row!!!!
In Brandt we've had at least 6 false fire alarms this school year. On Friday night around 2:30 the alarm went off with the voice coming over the loud speaker repeatedly saying "An emergency situation has been detected in your building. Exit Immediately" while lights in the hallways flashed on and off. So everyone reluctantly got out of bed (if they were asleep at that time, which I happened to be), put on some extra layers if they were smart because the temperature was below zero outside, and stood outside in the cold for 5-10 minutes while the RA's checked the building. Not too surprising, but no fire was found. Apparently there was a fight up on 4th floor and somehow the alarm got set off. To make matters worse, the people in the fight trailed blood down one of the stairwells on their way out, which really freaked some of my friends out, because no one knew what the blood was from.
Then on Saturday night, a little after midnight, the alarm sounded again. Not only was this very agitating because we had just had one the previous night, but this time we had to stand outside for 15 minutes in the cold weather because most of the Brandt RA's were not available to search and secure the building because they were helping out with Open Mic Night at Marty's. It was not fun.
We never did get official reports of what happened during those two nights, or why the alarms went off. Typically when the alarm gets pulled and no one confesses to it, the whole building gets fined. I just don't understand why people even pull the alarm. It's not funny and now we are so used to the alarms being false, that if some situation does occur where everyone needs to get out quickly, very few people will take it seriously. I know that I definitely took my time both nights to put on layers of clothes because I didn't want to freeze while I was standing outside. It's unfortunate and I can only hope that nothing serious ever does happen in the dorms.
On the bright side, there's only 1 week left of J-term! That means only four more nights to get through without alarms going off!
As always, your questions and comments are welcome. If there's anything you'd like to know, I'd love to be of assistance!
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2 comments:
Hello,
Well, that kind of stinks that you have had false alarms!!! Just curious, I am a senior this year, and will be attending Luther in the fall...about dorm life...how do you like it? besides the false alarms...:D what do you have in your dorm room? Do you like Brandt?
thanks!
new student in fall of '08
Erin
Erin, thanks so much for letting me know that someone is actually reading my blog! :) Dorm life is pretty neat. At first I was a little surprised by how small my 3 person room was. In Brandt a lot of the rooms are triples but there are also doubles and quads. The doubles are roughly the same size as the triples so if you can get one, you have more space but a little bit different closet layout. The quads are really big too, but then you have to deal with 3 other people's living habits.
Now that I've gotten used to the size, my room is what I look forward to relaxing in each night. It is cozy and nice. We have a lofted bed and then bunk beds with our desks underneath the lofted bed. There are ways to get creative with the furniture though.
In our room we have 2 chairs, but one just is a rocker that sits right on the floor, a "mini" fridge, and a small tv on top of the fridge. 3 desks and 3 dressers came with the room.
It also takes a few days to get used to the communal bathroom and showers, but then it just seems normal having a bunch of girls getting ready together in the mornings. The only thing that stinks is getting up at night and having to walk down the hall to go to the bathroom.
I really do like Brandt. There is a good mixture of freshmen here, choir people, band people, athletes and everyone in between. People are usually really respectful about being quiet if people are studying or sleeping. It's a lot of fun because we have floor activities sometimes, like Christmas parties or movie nights. It's neat always having people around if you want to do something or just need someone to talk to.
This is probably the one time where you'll be living with your friends/peers so take advantage of that built in study partner, support system, and of course, late nights talking :)
If you want more specifics, just let me know. Have a great senior year!
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