As you know, my sophomore and junior years, I lived on women's hall in Asia House. Apparently living arrangements like this are a dying breed at Oberlin--there was a women's hall and a men's hall in Dascomb when I lived there, but no longer. I hope women's hall in Asia House sticks around, though. I've said it before, so I won't go into it again, but the community that develops around women's hall is fantastic.
Instead, I'll tell you an anecdote. I still have friends on women's hall, so I still visit a lot. I do work--if it's not that pressing--in Asia House; I hang out in Asia House. If it gets too late, I'll even sleep in Asia House. Early last semester, I was doing just that, when I was awakened by a knock on the door. My friend and I were informed that the drinking fountain was flooding the hall. We called Facilities, and they said they would be over to fix it.
An hour or two later, I awoke once again, and wandered out into the hall, headed for the bathroom. Facilities had come in the intervening time and asked if we had a bucket to put under the leak. We'd supplied a water pitcher. Unfortunately, Facilities hadn't been able to fix the leak right away, and the water pitcher wasn't very big.
Upon entering the hallway, I was greeted by the sight of an overflowing water pitcher.
I didn't really stop to think about what I did next. I just emptied the pitcher, replaced it, and went down to Pyle to get a mop. Twenty-five minutes or so later, I'd mopped up most of the water, returned the mop to Pyle, and was on my way to an orchestra rehearsal. So, basically, you can move off women's hall, sure, but--at least in my case--you can never really leave.
