AMRs: Get over your fear of mice

To those of you -- probably about half the freshman class -- who will be spending the rest of the year in one of the Alumni Memorial Residences (AMRs), let me be the first to say, "I know how you feel."

At this time last year, I was in the exact same place -- 252 Gildersleeve to be precise. While I was pleased to be living in a place whose name reminded me vaguely of Harry Potter, I was otherwise dismayed by my housing situation. My new friends who lived in Buildings A and B or Wolman had their own bathrooms, climate control, pre-carpeted floors and in some cases even a kitchenette. I had none of these and my room was a hell of a lot smaller.

I won't lie to you; aesthetically, the AMRs suck. There are ways, however, to make the most of your dorm environment despite its shortcomings. Here are my suggestions for surviving the AMRs:

1. Get over your fear of mice. Yes, mice. These ugly rodents must have missed the mailing about the university's no-pets rule because you'll find them in almost all the dorms and especially the AMRs.

My preliminary advice is to avoid mouse infestation altogether by keeping your room relatively clean. Make sure any food is stored in closed containers, preferably off the ground and thus away from mice. Vacuum the floor to get rid of crumbs. Also, make sure the ceiling tiles are not loose because the mice like to hang out up there.

If precautions don't work, talk to someone in the housing office. They will provide mousetraps to help catch your critter for free, though sophomore Vicki Nelson warns that they will stink up your room. "My advice is to plant food in your neighbor's room and hope it goes over there," she joked.

2. Though the AMR dorm rooms are quite small, there are ways to maximize your space. Don't be afraid to rearrange your furniture to suit your needs. Some people prefer to bunk their beds to maximize floor space. Others do a full loft so that they can fit their desk and chest of drawers easily underneath their bed. I did a half-loft, leaving ample room to store my clothing. Use this time before classes start to experiment with different setups until you find the one that suits you.

3. Once you've found the best furniture arrangement, the next step is to make your room more livable. I suggest that you invest in a carpet. There's not really room for chairs for guests, so they'll appreciate a soft carpet to sit on instead of that dirty linoleum floor. It also makes being barefoot in your room a little less gross.

It's important to infuse your room with personal touches, like posters along the pegboard walls so that it starts to feel more like home. The best decorative device, though, is a fan D Baltimore can get pretty hot and the AMRs aren't air-conditioned.

4. Once you have your room looking nice, the next big hurdle is the communal bathroom. There is one huge benefit about the traditional dorm environment: Unless you live in Hollander or Royce, you're likely to see plenty of eye-candy wearing nothing but towels on the way to the showers. I suggest planning your day around your favorite co-ed's shower schedule.

Unfortunately, the benefits of the communal bathrooms end there. By mastering a few basic rules of bathroom etiquette, however, you can make the experience more pleasant for everybody. First, try to cut down your shower time to no more than fifteen minutes. Most bathrooms have three shower stalls, so if everybody observes this limit, you will rarely have to wait in line.

Second, make a point to swipe an extra roll of toilet paper from the bathroom when you see one. Our bathroom had a nasty habit of running out of this staple on weekends, when the cleaning service is erratic. You and your neighbors will appreciate having that extra roll available when you find your toilet paper has been used up or stolen.

Also, it's important to be clean and germ-free despite the bacterial breeding ground you live in, so make sure you wear flip-flops to protect your feet from whatever might be growing on the shower floor. And don't be fooled D the hand soap provided by the school is not antibacterial. My bathroom had a benevolent soap fairy who donated antibacterial soap from time to time, something we all appreciated. You may also choose to keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in your room.

"Never remove the drains in the showers, or it releases the horrible, horrible bugs that live down there. One crawled into our room, and my roommate and I screamed like little girls until the girl next door came in to squash it for us," adds former Clark resident Brennan Greene. "Also, the bathrooms really won't be gender specific, especially when the drunks come back on late Friday night/Saturday morning."

5. Since you don't have a kitchenette, you obviously won't be doing much cooking. There are ways, though, to do basic foods right in your dorm room. I recommend renting at least one MicroFridge for your room; it's the only way you're allowed to have a microwave, and this gives you hundreds of food possibilities. Also, you are allowed to use the common kitchen in the basement and can borrow basic kitchen implements from the housing office.

6. Another good investment for an AMR dweller is a quality set of earplugs. Those hallways get pretty rowdy, especially after midnight and extra-especially after the frat parties. The communal bathroom and close proximity to your neighbors is conducive to increased socializing, but this can come as a detriment to your sleeping and studying patterns.

If you require absolute silence to study, make friends with the library right now. Also, Sundays are common study days, so you'll find it easier to focus in the AMRs. During the day, when many students are in and out of classes, you will find quieter periods for naps and study sessions.

7. My final bit of advice is about how to have a good time without getting in trouble. For people living in any dorm, it helps to have a hall "alcoholic." That person can set you up with drinks for the year and they'll be the one holding the alcohol, which keeps you out of trouble. Also, if you do plan to store anything illegal (alcohol, drugs, pets, candles, coffeemakers, dead bodies, etc.), make sure they are hidden in your wardrobe or another enclosed area. The RAs are not supposed to open anything unless they have reason to believe that you are hiding something illegal. And, if you're drunk, stay away from the dorms until you're a little steadier D the RAs don't want to bust you unless you are blatantly gone.

For those of you living in AMR 2, you may have already discovered that dry erase markers can be used on the ugly bathroom-ish tile hallway walls. We decorated our hallway that way last year and also used the wall for study sessions. Be warned D always erase your mess before the next cleaning shift or they'll fine you. (AMR 1 residents do not have these lovely dry erase walls in their hallways, but you may wish to bring a marker with you on your travels anyway. You could leave a trail to help you find your way back to your room via the confusing, cavernous hallways of the second-and-a-half floor.)

Other ways to avoid getting fined by housing (or worse?) include not throwing fire extinguishers out of windows, not pulling fire alarms at three in the morning and generally avoiding any Hollander-oriented fiascoes.

At this point, you are probably even less optimistic about living in the AMRs, so allow me to end on a positive note. While I concede that the AMRs aren't much to look at and lack many of the amenities found in other campus dorms, I challenge you to find a former AMR dweller who wishes they lived somewhere else their freshman year. The AMRs are the most social of all the dorms, and you'll grow to love the communal environment. Your neighbors will become some of your best friends, and you will treasure the memories of your crazy adventures. Your ugly little dorm room will start feeling like home in no time!