Next House Showers Bring No Flowers

Next House Showers Bring No Flowers Its hard to remember a time during my senior year of high school when I wasnt totally jazzed about MIT. I got accepted, and that was pretty much it for me. I was going to MIT. I never really entertained any possibility that there might be some cons to the pros to me, MIT was perfect. This is a bad attitude to have in all regards, because while its great to be excited, you forget that theres no such thing as perfect. My friends at Stanford write me long, tormented emails about their foods likeness to recycled cardboard; a girl I know at Berkeley calls me to complain about how her halls TV only plays in Spanish. I myself found MITs imperfections when I moved into Next House (not to mention that you cant switch out of Next if you move here in your first year but thats a story for another time). We may not have fire alarms going off every month, but anyone living at Next House will tell you horror stories about our terrible, TERRIBLE showers. They have absolutely no pressure, so the water dribbles on you like its from a crack in the ceiling. Not only that, but the Next residents seem to lose all realization that they share the sanitation station with ten or so others the minute they get wet, and think its okay to leave the entire contents of their shower onto the pa rt of the floor without a drain. At Next, you must swim before you shower. Often times the aforementioned residents also think its okay to leave enough hair pooled around the drain to make you think theyd shaved a small cow. Perhaps worst of all, we receive emails about every month telling us theyll be shutting down all the hot water yet again to fix some eternally elusive water problem. Guys on my hall make arrangements to stay at their fraternities these nights; others (probably the people who leave puddles) think its not too much a price to pay to stay stinky for the day, at everyone elses expense. Sometimes we dont even get warning about hot water being shut off. The morning finals began, specifically on the morning of my 8.01 final that I was certain I would fail, I stepped into the shower to be greeted by water of temperatures like that of the San Francisco bay. Not a great way to start off a three-hour exam. But dont listen to me. Zach Ozer (Zozer) 07, chairman of The Tech, can probably tell you about it better than I can. Heres an email he sent out to Next Forum, our mailing list, about a week ago: Does anyone remember how, when the elevator broke at BC, everyone affected got a refund of $25 in TechCash from LarryBens Cookie Fund (http://www-tech.mit.edu/V125/PDF/N16.pdf)? Since Ive been here, I cant even count the number of water shutdowns. But I almost can :) Here are my records… anyone with more complete records, please, by all means fill in the blanks. Total Shutdowns (Hot, cold, or both): May 13, 2005 August 17, 2005 September 23, 2005 October 27, 2005 January 4, 2005 July 25th, 2006 August 23-24, 2006 September 13, 2006 October 17, 2006 December 8th, 2006 January 10, 2007 January 30, 2007 Partial (1+ bathroom afftected) April 11th, 2005 September 9-26, 2005 Nov. 8th, 2005 Dec 6, 2006 Jan 11, 2006 If you read this as I do, were averaging 5 complete shutdowns per year and 2.5 partial shutdowns. If your car broke down for a day 5 times in a year and wasnt performing right 2.5 times per year, youd be able to return it under a lemon law. Can we return Next House? No. But someone from NextExec should raise hell about this. Now, Im not saying that there might be some reason to why that guy I had to stand next to in chorus always smelled like old yogurt. MIT does have excellent showers in its other dorms (some of which have their own bathroom per room) and especially at the Z Center (they have great pressure!). But as someone who likes to enjoy a hot shower every morning, Im almost definitely moving to another dorm next year. So to sum up, dont get tunnel vision; your dream school most certainly isnt going to be flawless. Im here to share the wisdom I gain from college with you, so here it is: dont be shocked when you get there to find everythings not always puppies and rainbows. And pressurized hot showers. Post Tagged #Next House