Is this the worst hall on campus?

When I first got my housing assignment, I asked my parents if I had to sign the contract. No way was I living in Forbes College for my first two years at Princeton. Nothing could be worse than that.

Needless to say, Forbes has a pretty bad reputation on campus. Not only do we live in a different zip code, but we have to actually cross a main street to get from campus to our humble abodes. Forbesians are easy to pick out on campus — we all have giant backpacks and ride bikes because there’s no possible way to walk from Forbes to the E-Quad in under half an hour. The only thing that gets people from other residential colleges to Forbes is our Sunday brunch — and Wilcox seems to be stealing some of that popularity.

Still, there are some very nice rooms in Forbes. The new wing and Main Inn have large rooms, many of which feature private bathrooms. I wouldn’t mind living there. Then there is the addition and the annex, where the rooms are much smaller and there are public bathrooms.

And then, last and very much least, we come to the Forbes island, an addition to the annex that is only connected to the rest of Forbes via the first floor. I live on the second floor of the island, and I can safely say that it is the worst place to live on campus.

After walking up the stairs to the second floor, you enter a dimly lit hallway that is barely 4 feet wide. The walls are made of cinderblock and the bright-red doors actually look brown. You cannot get any drabber than that. The inside of the dorms isn’t much of an improvement. Each room has cinderblock walls and — lucky for me — I live in the only room that doesn’t have carpeting. The rooms are tiny compared to the other rooms in Forbes (there are singles the size of my one-room double), and the furniture makes the rooms feel even smaller.

During the first couple weeks here, we had another problem to deal with: stink bugs. Appropriately named for the terrible odor they emit when killed, these gross brown bugs took over our entire hallway and made themselves at home. Sitting in your room, you could easily count about 10 stinkbugs within a couple of minutes. It’s pretty gross to wake up to a stinkbug sitting on your pillow. And, the worst part: No matter how many you kill, more always seem to appear.

Moreover, on my very first night at Princeton, I had the pleasure of waking up at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning to the sweet sounds of construction the University was performing on the roof.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, because, disgruntled, confused and upset, I went into the hallway and met one of my best friends who had also woken up. We spent an hour playing cards as we waited for breakfast. One by one, our hall mates woke up and joined us in the hallway. As we like to say in my hall, “Only in Forbes can that happen.”

Because, even though we all complain about Forbes, at the same time my hall mates and I love it here. At 11 p.m., I guarantee that a couple of us will be sitting in the hallway cursing the fact that Firestone Library is half an hour away and we forgot to check out an essential book.

In the end, I would say Forbes is the best and the worst place to live on campus. We have tiny rooms and a never-ending stink bug infestation, but my hall mates and I have become fast friends and wouldn’t trade our rooms for anything. I can’t believe I am saying this, but I will miss living in the island next year. Even with all its problems, it has definitely become my home away from home. So if room draw dooms you to live in the Forbes island next year, cheer up! I guarantee you’ll have the time of your life.