Berkshire Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The houses might not be the nicest, the neighborhood can not be considered the safest, and the view ain’t the best. Still, if I got to choose again, I would move here without hesitating. This is an awesome place to live for a foreign student.

My NEIGHBORS

My neighbors are undoubtedly the coolest and the best any foreign student can wish for! Ever since the first week, we all had a great connection. Nina (Germany), Bozhena (Ukraine), Shelby (USA) and Janet (Peru) live in the downstairs apartment and we met already the first day we moved in and bonded over something I would consider to be extremely stereotypical American - sitting on the porch drinking Budweiser. After that we have spent a lot of evenings together while the group has slowly grown and the radius of our house got bigger. Now our group also include Marcel, David, Tobias (All Germans) and Markus (also a Norwegian).

My roomies

During the summer prior to moving here, I got in contact with Mari, also a Norwegian, who turned out to have an open spot in their current group of three who were looking for a place to live. Without further information about these people, the four of us started to look for an apartment. After a while, we found the one apartment we are currently living in. That was when I started to do some research: Who are these people? What do they eat? As the answers to these question a fear started to rise inside. None of these people eat what I considered normal food. Living with a stereotypical vegan and vegetarian wasn’t something I was looking forward to. Luckily none of these people are stereotypes. Turned out it was a blessing as no one is eating my food!

Living with these people has been one of the most rewarding parts of leaving the safety of Norway. We have had so much fun together and shuffling around has been one of the most fun things I have done.

Philip and Mari

Philip is a Swedish vegan. Ooff, vegans are the snarkiest and worst people, constantly shaming everyone else, right? Turned out I was wrong. Philip chose to become a vegan to help the environment. But unless you want him to talk about veganism, he wont. Other than that he is an awesome and fun person, and a great FIFA competitor.

Mari is a Norwegian and she has celiac, not one of those gluten free wanna-be allergic, which is nothing wrong with. She is the creative and fun person. Every apartment should have a Mari. She also comes up with the most entertaining activities.

Living on top of each other like we do can be frustrating at times, being crammed into one tiny apartment, we have still managed to go a year without disliking one another. In fact, every time I leave, I look forward to coming back to my room mates.