Whenever I tell people I’m from HopInn, I brace myself for a barrage of questions: “Where is it? Is it like a hotel? Is it really isolated? Is it depressing over there?” I'll get to these questions soon enough, but the truth is we are an amazingly close-knit community for the weird and the awesome.
First and foremost, Hopkins Inn is not located ten miles away from campus; we are right next to McCoy. It is close enough to campus that it only takes seven minutes to get to the Fresh Food Café, yet far enough that its residents do not get cabin fever from staying on campus all the time.
Since there are only 60 of us, we know everyone's name by the second week of school. As a freshman, I especially enjoy the fact that I had an instant group of friends. College can be intimidating, but nothing helps ease one's anxieties like coming home to a dorm that's essentially full of surrogate family members. I remember worrying that I would be one of those faceless people lost in the din and bustle of a traditional dormitory, but at HopInn, that’s next to impossible!
Some say that our dorm is less social than the AMRs because we do not bump into our floormates on our way to the bathroom at three in the morning, and that's true. Our late night bathroom visits are probably less social, but we make up for it by putting forth the extra effort to drop by people’s rooms randomly just to say hello or simply for company when we want to procrastinate. Some of us even go out of our way to organize Orphan Black marathons. It's totally normal to see two HopInnmates in the Art Décor Room discussing the merits of American politics over a heated game of foosball. We have random tea parties, Mid-Autumn Festival moon cake parties, baseball parties... What other dorm can claim that they have parties for all sorts of occasions?
Our RAs, or “JohnCarrie” as we like to call them, really have made us all feel at home. From the undersea world themed decorations that greeted us on move-in day, to the movie nights and pancake nights that followed, HopInn has always been a warm, welcoming place for its lucky residents.
At the same time, it is a simple feat to find some quiet. The moment you step above the basement, a wave of silence descends. In clear contrast to our common rooms with intriguing names, our rooms are quiet enough that you do not have to go to the library every time you want to study. And the rooms! To quote my fellow Innmate Hallie Liu, they are “spacious, not super bland looking.” Carpeted floor, incandescent lighting, multiple windows, fireplaces and bathtubs are just a few luxuries that we enjoy. That does not mean we are missing the dorm room experience, though. At the end of the day, we are just an astonishingly luxurious dorm.
HopInnmates are truly living the best of both worlds. But just to make this clear once again: We are next to McCoy, it is not a hotel, we are not isolated from everything and it is most certainly not depressing. So the next time you meet one of us, come over and discover the beauty of Hopkins Inn, for as we HopInnmates would like to say, the truth will set us free.
