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All Essays


Dormitory Life at the University of Illinois

A colorful look at my dorm room, where I lived from 1997-98 during grad school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Black and white photos only.)



The Macintosh LC.



This is the faithful old computer that took all these pictures, with the help of a bargain $50 Quickcam digital camera.


The security camera.



Right now the camera is above the doorway, looking out over the vast expanse of my living quarters. A bed and me are on one side, a desk and fridge on the other. Everything else is stacked above them on shelves and in crates. Oh, and there's a closet just to the right of the desk. A huge window extends the width of the room at the far end, with a northward view sadly never to accept much sunlight.


A haphazard workspace.



Let me explain this mess. I'm sitting at the main console for e-mail composing, video conferencing, homework, and general time-comsumption. Above me is an audience of textbooks, even some from Toledo for reference (mostly math--I can't retain that stuff). The stereo is that black mass on the first shelf. The grapefruit box on the top shelf contains every sheet of notes I took at Toledo. It's hard to reach, for good reason. Encircling the room up by the ceiling are Christmas lights, shielding me from holiday depression which sometimes occurs during a month which doesn't have Christmas. To the left of my desk are crates stocked full of canned goods, corn chips, popcorn, and an apple if I'm lucky. The crates sit on Mike's refridgerator from our freshman year which his dad shipped to me. It was great coming home one day and getting a fridge in the mail.

So that's the right side of the room. Let's now make a clockwise circle and show you everything else in lucid detail.


The exit.



This is what I see when I wake up in the morning (or afternoon). Notice the comfortable hardwood desk chair (hard to see). Outside the doorway, a narrow hallway extends to the right within my suite. Down the hallway is a sink, a bathroom, and two rooms where Reui and Jong live. Outside the doorway to the left you can see the edge of another sink, and just beyond that around the corner is the door to reach the rest of the 8th floor.


Insect-eye view of sleeping quarters.




Ahhh, sleep. The bed as shown here is slid under its backrest to make a couch. There isn't much room to move when you extend the bed into the room. On the left you may notice "The Heater," a 300W lamp my parents gave me. It heats my room until the air conditioner is switched over to heat in the winter. The two big black boxes are speakers. The white squishy thing is a pillow.


What my lunch sees before it's eaten.



Of course, this is the view from inside my microwave. I'm happy because lunch is ready. I bought the microwave for $25 at the Salvation Army, and it serves as a table for the refridgerator, too.


The kitchen.



Looking up at the expansive walk-in kitchen area and pantry (just a corner of my room), with an evening glow shining through the curtains.


Goodbye!



Waving goodbye to my box of college notes for some reason.

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Wish you could visit and see the place. (If you're worried, everything is actually in color, I swear.)



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