The Senior Struggle: Brighton on the Weekends

Getting around Europe on the cheap means extensive hostel research. Some may say that research isn’t necessary, and that one can book impetuously because the only thing necessary is a bed, and maybe a locker. And to them I say that research is wholly necessary; the last thing anyone wants is to accidentally book a hostel in the Red Light District of Amsterdam, in which you share a room with roughly five other very foreign men and then have your iPhone charger stolen. These mishaps can be prevented, albeit at the expense of hilarious anecdotes.

Planning ahead, however, can not always prevent the unexpected, thrilling surprises that accompany traveling in a foreign country.

In October of 2011 I arrived in Barcelona for fall break after an unusually successful encounter with Ryan Air. (Study abroad truly is a magical concept.) I chose a hostel located by the harbor. It was an ideal location; we spent most afternoons resting on the beach before heading out for the night.

The rooms were unlike anything I have ever seen. Bunk beds ultimately functioned as dividing walls, and each mattress had its own cubicle. Vacant spaces above the top bunks served as ventilation. Sound traveled unbelievably well–foreign languages lulled me to sleep most nights.

Some nights, that is. Other nights (and by nights I mean the wee hours of the morning) it was the exact opposite. One time in particular, probably around 8 a.m., I heard a loud thud that sounded a little too close to home. I jumped up, apparently the only person out of my six friends to hear it.

Intruder's perspective post-fall. | Photo by Christina Lavigne
Intruder’s perspective post-fall. | Photo by Christina Lavigne

A man struggles to stand up following his 10 foot plunge and looks up at me, holding the standard cotton sheet and pillow in his hands. He mumbles something in what I believe to be French, and begins to climb the stairs for the only vacant bunk in the room. I stop him.

“Excuse me, can I help you? You can’t be here.”

Somehow, I managed to string a coherent sentence together after only being asleep for roughly three hours. More importantly, I managed to string a coherent sentence together after finding an intruder in my room. I acted as though this was a normal occurrence for me. (It isn’t.) Dejected, he limped out of the room with his sheet between his legs like a forlorn puppy denied a hardly comfortable bed.

Curious living scenarios and invaded personal space no longer phase me, thanks largely in part to the experiences at this university. Freshman year I lived in a Warren quad (enough said), sophomore year I was blessed with a terrible housing number and landed in Danielsen, and junior year after returning from London, I lived in the dining room of an apartment in Allston. The only thing that provided even a semblance of privacy was a purple canvas curtain, which my roommate’s cat attacked on the regular. In other words, I’ve seen it all.

Although the luxury of StuVi would have been an all too viable option, I did not choose to return to dorm life for senior year. I chose to live in a spacious apartment in Brighton where I even have a door that locks. It felt truly deserved after my prior dorm experience. However, my distance from campus certainly elicits my calmer state of being. I don’t hear inebriated partygoers struggling to get home, but instead the screams of children on their way to school. (I’m not sure if there is any distinguishable difference between the two.) I don’t have that perfectly Instagram’d view of the Charles, but rather a perfect, almost inappropriate, view of the neighbor’s balcony.

Brighton is certainly removed from the inherent PBR haze of Allston, and even further from the indiscreet Spanish hostel. And yet, the more bucolic environment still can’t prevent any of my visitors from catcalling the neighbors to come over on the weekends. I just can’t seem to shake the absurd no matter how far I travel.

About Kelly Felsberg

Kelly is a senior English major and copy editor for The Quad. She only writes with Sharpie pens.

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