A View From the Plex

I think today I will declare myself officially "moved in" here at the Foster-Walker Complex. I arrived on Saturday, true, but not until this Monday night did I finally finish unpacking, organizing and decorating. My room's looking pretty good, and I've even managed to plug everything in without seeking out a new power strip.

My room here is a lot more cheerful than either of my rooms in PARC (especially the first-floor one, which was perpetually dreary from the necessity of keeping my curtains closed all the time) and also my room last year. It's also a good bit bigger. I didn't think so when I first arrived, but now that I've gotten rid of all the boxes and reevaluated, this room seems to be about the size of a large PARC single. Appropriate for a senior such as myself, I think.

The Plex is stocked with much nicer bedroom furniture than what was given to us in PARC, too. The bedframe is even kind of cute and modern-looking. The desk, bookshelf and dresser have a faux-granite finish on their tops, which makes the place look more slick. The wardrobe/closet is rather handsome looking, too, when compared with the scuffed-up, dinky wardrobes we had in PARC. Plus, my room has its own air-conditioning unit with its own thermostat, so I control my room's temperature.

Everything in here's brighter, too, since the room comes with overhead lighting and a floor lamp. Add in my own extra-bright floor lamp and it's sunny all the time here. Definitely a welcome change. My room also features an exposed brick wall, which adds a good deal of character (and thankfully breaks up the clinical whiteness of the walls).

Not having a suite common room right outside my door made unpacking a bit more inconvenient. I've spent the past couple of days tripping over boxes and items not yet put away. Putting stuff in the hallway here isn't a great option since the halls are legendarily narrow. However, there's more quiet time without the common room there, which is nice when one wants to sleep or read.

The worst thing I've found so far here is the bathrooms. They have a horrible design. Four singles share each bathroom, and each bathroom has a toilet, two sinks and a shower. But I haven't mentioned the worst part. That is: There are no stalls. If someone needs to use the toilet or shower, they have to lock the bathroom door. That means no one else can use the other facilities at the same time. It's really inefficient, and I'm just hoping that there only being four of us will make it easier to deal with.

Another downside to Plex is the lack of kitchenettes on every floor. I hear there's a kitchenette in the basement, but I've yet to locate it. I'm hoping we'll hear more about where all the building's facilities are at tomorrow's floor meeting.

On the other hand, the laundry facilities here are vastly superior to PARC's. There's about 15 washers available (albeit, some seem to be broken) and a number of huge commercial dryers that actually work. When I did laundry on Sunday, there wasn't even a line. There's seats in the laundry room, so some people appear more inclined to wait downstairs for their laundry than PARCers ever were.

It's also nice having two dining halls and a convenience store just downstairs. It'd be nicer if they had smaller tables and more food variety like Allison Hall, but you take what you can get. Besides, with all the grab-and-go food and organic frozen dinners available in the C-store down there, I don't ever have to actually eat in the dining hall if I don't want to.

And hey, it's very nice to have both mailboxes and a mailroom in the building.

When I feel more up to it, I'll take some pictures with my web cam of the new room. Then you can feel outraged on PARC's behalf -- though I imagine we never got such nice stuff because of our propensity for breaking the walls.