BEDA #21: living in a quiet house.

grah. 

hello. usually blogposts are outlets because twitter is too short to offer anything substantial. #twss 

Flatmate from upstairs is back. Did I say this before? I don't talk to him much. haha I was telling my mum about this, that I wanted to move into a "noisier" house, like the house I live in in singapore, and she says, "We're not noisy what." understatement of the century.

In the house I live in at home, if I'm there, there are seven of us. There's my mum yelling at my sister, my sister yelling at my mum, my mum yelling at me, my sister yelling at my dad, my grandfather yelling at everyone else... you get the point. I've lived with the same people my whole life, so I'm accustomed to a moderate murmur of continuous background noise throughout the day. I'm not even mentioning the neighbors; I lived on the 12th floor of an apartment building. Lots of people in singapore live in high-rise flats. To come to london and live on the third floor of a self-contained house is a fairly large change for me. 

I've adapted! I can do this. I'm not complaining. The house I'm living in I've lived in for almost 7 months now. I just want to move (in september) to a house that has more people in it. Not 3 people who barely make any noise and who don't talk to each other. It's just awkward and weird and too private for me. When I lived in an apartment, there was just a very communal feeling; I'd say hi to the kids and the maids in the void deck, and I could hear people's voices from the neighbors to my left or right. Next door lived my grandaunts, and even though I didn't visit them very often, I had the feeling of belonging to something greater than I was; that I was living in a small part of a big house.

I just want to live with people who talk to each other sometimes and make noise. It's so quiet it drives me crazy. Besides the traffic and people's voices from the street below, from my left and right, I can't hear anything. Well, with the exception of the couple getting it on sometimes in the flat to my right. 

When I went to summer school, there was a very open-door policy; you could say hi to the people living to the left and right of you. Even though we stayed in flats of 4, I would still feel comfortable talking to the people in the flat next to me. You're surrounded by people who know your name and who are friendly. But over here, even the people living in the basement flat don't seem very open to becoming friendly; nor the students living one house over. There are people whom I've met at school and who live further down the street, and they ignore me when I pass by them again. It's so weird. 

The only people who are friendly to me are the people in the indian curry shop, and the little girl in the sandwich shop on the main road. I guess with summer school it's a different atmosphere, and people are more open to being friendly, since they know that they only have to spend a short period of time with me. They aren't so preoccupied with life and have more headspace to meet people, I guess. 

I'm just thinking about this a lot more because the starkids talked about living in the same house with people they worked with, or living in the same house with friends, and it sounds like a fun experience. Amanda Palmer lives in a house with like-minded people. 

Some people might suggest that I live in student accommodation next year. But I don't want to because
1) 2nd years don't live in halls. We're supposed to be more grown up now. :P
2) The rooms are small, with a single bed, and I wouldn't be able to have someone stay over. Allowing someone to stay over is a priority for me! I've had 3 people stay over so far, on separate occasions, because people want a free place to sleep in london. :P Mostly. I like being able to offer up my room to people! I have friends who travel a lot and sometimes come to my part of the world~~ it's just convenient.

This is why my sister says I'm picky. haha. Will cross the bridge when I come to it.