The Village Review

Let me tell you the story of my year at the new suites on campus. The school year started just as any other year. Everyone was excited, anxious and ready to see or meet friends. The tension started high and slowly disappeared as the days turned to months and the new residents got to know each other better and better. This intermingling of people helped to form new friendships and intensified others. Time came for a much needed break. This break made the residents realize that the fun times together eventually end. After the break, the residents make sure their time together is spent wisely. The group becomes almost inseparable at most times and picking up new members along the way to join in the fun. The residents realize finally that their time together in the Villages has come to an end. No one really wants to leave, but as Robert Frost wrote, “Nothing gold can stay.” Their time together has been very valuable and surely will not be forgotten by most. After writing this, I realize this is year two for me and the story for this year is an exact replica from last year with a few character changes. That has been my story of my residential life at OSU.

After thinking long and hard about the best part and then the worst part about living in the Villages the worst stuck out in my mind from the beginning. The very worst part about living in the Villages, for me at least is the incredibly poorly placed lights in the courtyard. These lights are supposed to provide safety for those passing through the courtyard at night. The lights have provided sufficient security thus far. However, these lights are small pedestal lights that have a 360-degree area of light coverage. This means the lights situated around the perimeter of the courtyard along the walls of the Villages shine directly on the building as well as the pathway through the courtyard. I believe through the slightest bit of planning, the construction company could have placed these lights in between windows of residents on the first floor. This is not the case. In fact, there is a light placed directly in front of my window that faces the courtyard. At night, I can turn the lights off in my room and, even with a black curtain over my window; I can see everything in my room. It is almost as if I never turn the lights out in my room, it seems to always be daylight. This brightness took close to three months to get used to but I still find myself tossing and turning at night because of the light protecting those passing by outside. Which is great, they won’t get attacked and I won’t have to worry about an attacker hiding in my room either. So it is a win win situation, no attackers on the outside and I won’t be attacked by a good nights sleep on the inside. OSU and JPI, you really dropped the ball on this one.

Stillwater has recently received a large amount of rain in a short period of time creating some flooding problems in and around the town of Stillwater. These flooding problems did not affect the new Villages. However, the rain did expose a slight flaw in the building on the outside. No, there were no leaks on the inside, at least that we know of right now. But between Village E and Village F there is a stairwell on either side of the buildings. These stairs are covered and provide some shelter from the elements. During these rainstorms a few cracks between the walkways and the building were uncovered. The water slowly seeped through the cracks down the outside walls and created a nice waterfall effect in the doorways of every floor. I noticed one night as I stepped out of the hallway and under the covered stairwell, a stream of water that trickled down my shirt as I passed through the doorway. This is just another small problem, but one of many in the new suites on the campus of Oklahoma State University.

On the topic of bathrooms a funny story popped in my head about a friend and his adventure one night. My friend, who will remain nameless and it is not I, was in a nice deep sleep and awoke with that sudden urge to go. He got himself to the bathroom only to find that the door confused him. He couldn’t figure out why the bathroom door opened out away from the bathroom and into the small hall leading to the two rooms. This puzzled him in his sleepy haze but finally managed to will the door open. Once open he found it was pitch black in the restroom. He needed light and fast because he was extremely disoriented and ready to take care of business. He reached to the inside wall of the bathroom to the immediate left of the doorjamb, and bupkis. Oh no! What to do? He reaches the last place he would think to look, on the back wall of the bathroom, and sure enough finds the lights. But with the lights come the ventilation fan, because the switches are so close. Not only is he squinting, his head is spinning from all the noise. Finally, he does what he came to do, but now he must attempt to go back to sleep. The story doesn’t end well folks. He couldn’t go back to sleep because he was so frustrated by his own bathroom and all of the problems one simple task had given him. The story takes place all the time in the Village complex. Once again, leave it to JPI to make the most custom and complicated bathrooms around.

If you haven’t noticed, keys have been my thing lately.  My thoughts on the keys OSU has decided to equip all of its new suite style housings with are not kept to myself; others feel similar to myself.  My friend that lives in Village D told his key and me a few weeks ago that the side doors, located on the north side of the building, would remain locked would not work.  I asked him how long this problem had been occurring.  He told me that his key had not worked in these doors since the first of the year.  This is now March 29, a full seven months after moving into the new suites, and his key has yet to work in these doors that allow access to his own floor.

Sometimes, fun cannot be had by all. This was the truth Sunday evening for the first five or so weeks of school for people living in Village E. The nice new courtyard offered many amenities such as a putting green, grills for cooking and picnic tables and benches for enjoying a nice meal outside or relaxing with a nice tube of tobacco heaven. This area is very beautiful and enticing for all to enjoy. I noticed a slight issue with this wonderful little community cove one Sunday night while trying to finish some online Spanish homework.

I was having a difficult time understanding what I was supposed to do in order to pass the class much less understand the words the woman was saying during the online lessons; when I heard what I thought was a small party going on outside the window. It was, as many of you might know, the Hookah club of OSU (a great organization, which I fully support and enjoy attending some of their meetings). The members played guitars, bongos and sang gloriously for about three hours all while enjoying the sweet tobacco used in Hookah. This meeting annoyed me thoroughly the first night; however, it wasn’t until the third or possibly the fourth Sunday evening in a row that I began to be annoyed with the loud music and singing.

After realizing some of my friends were actually out participating in the Hookah sessions, I became a little less enraged. Instead of cranking death metal music every Sunday night with my window open, I began to embrace their fun times and left the confines of the shoebox that is my room. This forced me to use the study room available in all floors of the Villages. Which in turn allowed me to meet many new people and enjoy the company of others.

With all of that said, don’t think you won’t get a heavy dose of Lamb of God or Slipknot if you are making noise outside my window while I’m studying. Stay tuned for more true stories from the Villages.

Welcome to the real stories page. Here, you can read the true stories about the wonderfully weird world in the Villages. Stories of strange occurrences, crazy noises and ghostly creatures. OK there haven’t been any ghostly creatures but the Villages do have some interesting stories built up after their first year on campus. And here is the place to read most of them.