My off-campus living at Stanford

I moved to off campus on this June. Originally I am pretty satisfied with my living environment as it is really close to San Antonio shopping mall. Many supermarkets, banks, restaurants, like Target, Wal-Mart, Trade Joe, Ross, Chase, Chilly and Fresh Choice, are all within one mile. I can walk to these places as my after-dinner exercise. However, this is one thing I have to deal with, the neighbor.

I found the structure in American house is really unlike the one in Taiwan. While Taiwanese generally use concrete and steel, American use wood to construct the house. So the sounds in US will be easily to leak to next door. I live on 1st floor and I can easily hear my upstairs neighbor walking. There was an unhappy encounter few weeks earlier when I was discussing homework with my classmate at my place. We didn’t talk very loud but few minutes later the upstairs tenant came to knock my door and warn us to be quiet. It make me embarrassing in front of my classmates as I was the person propose to have discussion at my apartment with more relaxing surrounding.

Now is my turn to feel really unhappy with my upstairs tenant. Walking at midnight has bothered my sleep for a while but there was one night he exercised at 3 or 4am. I don’t know what kind of exercise he did but I clearly heard him drop sometime heavy on the floor. I guess it is dumbbell. Doing exercise at midnight is really a big no-no, especially playing dumbbell at 3am! I couldn’t sleep until 5 am and decided to write him a note. I first apologized for earlier disturbance he though I and my classmates made and then told him how important the night sleep means to me. I heard he is a nurse working three days a week at night. I then told him that normally people sleep at night. I do need to have great sleep as I have to do my lab work and attend classes at day time. I posted the note at his door and I do hope this can solve the issue, at least temporary.

Therefore, I hope I can work hard, graduate soon and start to work. I will then start to earn and save money. Ideally I will have my own house in five years in my plan. I guess I don’t have to worry noise problem between neighbors at that time as the distance between houses should be much larger than the one between apartments.