Sound bites

I have the unique opportunity of studying at a deaf school. Gallaudet University is a completely different world; and sometimes it's really easy to lose yourself in it. Going off campus you are suddenly reminded of just how many hearing people there are beyond the cozy gates, how loud it all is, and how chaotic and penetrating sound can be. But at Gallaudet you can hide from the fury, the pace and the rush.

But there is the odd occasion on campus where sound does disturb the tranquility of silence ...

Take, for instance, my suite in the dorms. There are three bedrooms adjoined by a hallway with a shared bathroom. All of my suitemates are deaf, which conveniently allows me to blast Wicked at 7.00a.m. every morning and sing obnoxiously at the top of my lungs.

The drawback is my one suitemate that does not remember how sound can travel underneath doorways from the bathroom to my bedroom.

Routinely, every night while I am studying, my precious suitemate decides that it is time for his cleansing ritual. To most, this means a shower. But for you boys out there who don't like to make a mess and do laundry (you know who you are!), a cleansing ritual can mean a truly Herbal Essence experience.

How can one be expected to study while he hears a grown man groan and giggle to the repetitious beat of "cleansing"?

I'd love to bang on the door and yell "Keep it down!!!", although he would not hear me and I doubt that at that point he would be able to oblige ...