So with my unique accommodation setting here in Riga (Im in a shared apartment, where there is room for 5 different bedrooms and shared general rooms, kitchen and bathrooms), my company I'm interring for asked me to write an article about the experience I've had so far. And surprisingly enough, it was a super fun and easy article to write! I just wanted to avoid sounding like all those advertisements for staying in a different house than your home where they're just like super impersonal and official. I figured since most people staying in this shared apartment will be here for a while, they would want something from one person to another. So here was my finished product, pictures and all(:
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| My roommates Cameron and Ellie(: |
And honestly, I’ve never really been one for roommates.
This statement is kinda weird when considering I chose to
live the shared flat life here in Riga.
Before I got here I remembering thinking how I was essentially consigning
myself to 6 weeks with 4 complete strangers. My freshman and sophomore years of
college I lived with my grandma and her 3 huskies, and as normal as it may seem
to live with one of your relatives, it was terrible… Even with my own room and
bathroom on a separate floor, it drove me crazy having to worry about
disturbing someone else in the house. I was having to either get ready as quiet
as I could in the morning to not wake her up, or I was having to cut my time short
with my friends on the weekends to get back before she fell asleep (one of said
huskies had a terrible habit of barking her head off if she heard the front
door open, especially at night…) And that was only with one person.
So maybe you can understand why living with 4 people in the same
house made me a little nervous.
If you’re like me though, and scared of this same thing, DON’T
WORRY.
Surprisingly enough, I haven’t had any issues like that with my
apartment mates. Granted, I’m not exactly rocking out on a drum set every
night, so I haven’t tested their patience that far, but you’ll find most of the
students here are just like you: they love languages, they love to travel, and
they love meeting new people. You don’t have to worry about living next to the
unmotivated slob who leaves his garbage laying around the apartment, or having
dinner every night with the crazy-intense one-upper that has (in their opinion)
DEFINITELY been more places than you (they haven’t). As a general rule if
you’re here, you’ll like your roommates and you’re roommates will like you.
It’s a great matchup.
Also, expect some diversity. I’ve had roommates (at 3 weeks in) from
France, Germany, the UK and the US, and we’ve heard Serbo-Croatian, Norwegian,
French, German, Spanish, English and Russian spoken in the apartment, and it’s
awesome! It’s almost more intense than camping.
That being said, here are some short suggestions that have made and
continue to make my experience with shared apartment-mates pretty fun:
- Be open to new people and new ways of thinking. If you’ve come to Riga and are learning Russian this is probably a no-brainer, but don’t shut yourself off. There are some days where I close my door so I have an hour or two alone, and there are other nights where I leave the door open so I can hangout with my apartment neighbors. If you’re more social than that, go for it. Just do you.
- Do your part in keeping the apartment clean. Your room is your room, but 5 people using the same 1-1/2 bathrooms and 1 kitchen can get pretty gross pretty quick… Yeah, and you definitely DON’T want to be THAT slob roommate I was talking about before…
- Everything you do in the city is WAY better with friends, legitimately. Trying out a new restaurant, going to museums, visiting parks, watching the Eurocup final between Portugal and France, going kayaking down the river… Its all going to be more fun with people you know, and your apartment mates are a great resource for that. Maybe take a couple nights off to explore on your own, but plan out things to do together. It makes for some fuuuuun times.
- Share crazy language stories. You’d be surprised at how much people know here about languages, crazy dialects, “lost” languages, etc. And nothing completes a language-learning trip like geeking out over linguistics and such together. (legitimately, it’s super cool)
- Study together/talk in Russian together/speak other languages together! You’ll all be of different language abilities, but just talking about your individual days in Russian can be AWESOME practice. As students come from all over, you might get to practice other languages you know as well. All the more reason to get to know your neighbors in the apartment and do stuff together.
Speaking specifically for Riga, the shared apartment has tons to
offer. General living space for hanging out (with a TV), 3 bedrooms overlooking
the street and 2 quieter bedrooms overlooking the back courtyard, a full
kitchen, two bathrooms (1 full, 1 half), a great location right on Brīvības
st., and lots of options outside the apartment. Different grocery stores,
restaurants (the Turkish place under the apartment is excellent), beautiful
buildings up and down the street, and you’re a 15 minute walk from downtown.
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| The "Squatting Slavs" Stance... #squad |
Combined with roommates you might originally fear but you’ll come to
count as your closest “comrades”, it’s a winning setup. From one “scared of
roommates” person to another, I would definitely recommend the shared flat life.
Mark Kennedy originally
“hails” from the great state of Michigan, where he now attends the University
of Michigan studying French Horn Performance and Russian. He is in Riga for 6
weeks, living in the shared flat, and simultaneously taking Russian courses and
doing a part time internship.
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