LIFESTYLE: Home Away from Home

After the Book Store lines have shrunk and the daily PARIS sessions have stopped, reality sets in for students as they stare at the blank walls of their room. For some, a few posters of sleak sports cars adorning the walls and a pea-green carpet on the floor will be all they need to call their rooms "home." But a number of University students are using their rooms to reflect their personality and to harness their creativity. "We walked into the room and decided that what was on the wall couldn't stay," said College sophomore Judd Serlin. With this in mind, Serlin and roommate Justin Segal let their creative juices flow at their Walnut Street apartment. After exhausting 10 different colors of paint and two days of labor, their room boasted life-size pictures of characters from albums of the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd. "Drawing big pictures on the wall like this gives the room a personal touch," said Segal, a college sophomore. "It gives the room character." Students living on campus, however, face strict Residential living regulations forcing them to seek out cleaner means of adding flavor to their humble abodes. For Leigh-Ann Maltz, a College sophomore, placing 46 Absolut Vodka advertisements around the perimeter of the common area is one way to liven up the atmosphere. Add to that 13 Absolut ads written in Russian to the hallway, and the room becomes an haven for advertising junkies. According to Maltz, sitting on a swivel chair in the middle of the room is the best way to experience the surroundings. Your eyes shift from an Absolut Kosher ad, which features a letter from a rabbi, to an Absolut Doubles ad, a mirror accompanying the vodka bottle, to an Absolut Foldout ad, a three-page centerfold complete with vital statistics about the liquor. "I began collecting Absolut ads in high school and then last year I decided to write to the company and asked them to send me more ads," Maltz said. Her roommates, though, are not as overwhelmed with the ambiance. "They're [the ads] not the decor I'd choose, but I like them," said Ann Luerssen, a College sophomore. While students describe their rooms as a home away from home, some decide to take that idea one step farther. "When my parents re-did different rooms in the house, they kept the old furniture for when the kids moved out," said College sophomore Cheryl Tessler. "This is from the family room, this is from the living room and this is from my grandparents' room," she added, pointing to the green couch, the painting of a white lily on a emerald green pad above the couch and the wood table next to the couch. But after a few days, the room still needed that final touch. She returned home earlier this month on a decorative mission. On the way back, she packed a night table adorned with a purple tablecloth, supporting a purple vase with green, white and mauve silk flowers. Her room is rounded out with such knick-knacks as a purple gumball machine, a Monet print complete with purple, mauve and green flowers and a purple bear dangling in the corner. Engineering senior Jose Carvalho considers himself fortunate. As a special events manager for Kings Court, he lives alone in a spacious double-sized apartment, which gives him greater freedom to create his perfect room. "I'm lucky that I got this room," said Carvalho. His luxurious room is adorned with two couches facing a 19-inch Magnavox television, two desks angled nearby, overlooking three bay windows, and two large dressers marking off a fully-equiped wet bar. Even more fortunate for Carvalho was his foresight to stock up on tens of sombreros, tapestries, and pictures of sports cars for the past couple of years. Ive been here for two years and the collection has kept building up, said Carvalho. I didnt buy anything new this year except for the TV. But not all students devote their time solely to the visual aesthetics of their room. "When we first came into our room the odor was intolerable, due to the dog and the former tenant," said College sophomore Jeff Fishman. "I'm not sure which smelled worse." In order to combat the overpowering stench, Fishman and his two roommates generously dispersed odor-eaters throughout the room, sprayed the rug with bottles of carpet freshener and even bought a odor-removing plant. But with all these measures, olfactory conditions in the room are still poor. "Everybody says they still smell the dog, but I don't," said Ricky Kline, a dual degree candidate. "I think they just expect to smell it [the dog]."

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