If You Play With (gun)Fire, You're Gonna Get (wey)Burned

The usual reading material in my apartment

Don't worry, I realize that this title doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Anyways, I don't think I've written too much about living arrangements yet, so it's time to do that.

My room (it's not quite as small as it looks in this picture)

This quarter I've been living in a 2-BR, 2-BA townhouse in Weyburn Terrace, a graduate housing complex a few blocks from UCLA's campus in Westwood.  I didn't have the highest expectations when I moved in, but the unit itself really isn't too bad.  It's definitely small (something around 800 sq ft according to the website),  but it feels a little bigger because of the townhouse setup (bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, living/dining/kitchen area downstairs).  My unit was furnished with some pretty standard furniture, so that was one less thing to worry about when I moved in.

Part of Weyburn Terrace (my building is in the background)

The complex itself is pretty nice.  Mediterranean style housing (I might have completely made that up).  Some of the amenities include BBQ areas, laundry rooms, courtyards with seating and tables, and study lounges.  All utilities paid for.  Parking is extra and kinda expensive.  It's a little further to class than I anticipated (about 20 minute walk to the business school) although there is a free shuttle nearby (still takes 20 mins but saves a lot of walking).  Most of my classmates take that every day, but I prefer to walk except on days when the weather makes that unpleasant or if I have to get dressed up for something.

Living area, w/ stairs, storage area, and kitchen in background

Living area, taken from the stairs

I think I can add this living arrangement to the list of strange random roommate situations I've had in the past, a list that includes: freshman year Brad Rage; junior year with Lance, the high school boy wonder who drank an obsessive amount of Diet Coke and had other way more disturbing habits; and even senior year with Tim who only lasted a couple months in the apartment before dropping out of school.  I get along with new roommate Jeff (2nd year dental student) just fine, and he seems like a pretty normal, nice, easy-going guy during regular conversation, although we don't really hang out at all unless one of us is watching TV downstairs and the other one is eating dinner down there at the same time.  His forever memorable attribute besides the gun obsession (issues of Guns and Ammo and Handgun magazines are all over the apartment, along with plenty of gun paraphernalia) is the video game obsession (all of his video games seem to be gun-related too, btw).  Now I know plenty of people who love video games, but he really really loves them.  And he really really loves his sound system that's attached to the games, and he also really really loves to play online with other people so he's constantly yelling or singing or cackling into his headset, so volume is the main issue.  It doesn't help that Weyburn has really thin walls, but I was hearing gunshots and explosions for hours every day and night.  I've talked to him about it a few times but he seems to forget by the time the next day comes around and he's playing again at the same full volume.  I've had to knock on the wall or door at 1:30 am a few times to get him to turn it down so I could sleep.  I thought it was pretty bad, but it got worse when Call of Duty came out.  I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that he's played that game for 12+ hours every single day since it came out over a week and a half ago.  It doesn't matter what time I get home from class or what time of day it is.  If I'm in the apartment, if he's not asleep, I know with 100% certainty that I'm going to be hearing explosions while he yells commands to his army and complaints that his character keeps respawning in a bad spot.  How he hasn't flunked out of grad school yet I'm just not sure.

Well that's my rant.  In conclusion, Weyburn is nice and convenient, but I would have really preferred if I had gotten the studio apartment that I had applied for instead.