No Smoking Area

«Smoking is not permitted anywhere in this flat» 

This doesn’t seem to mean that much to some of my flat mates, as two of them are currently filling the kitchen with the stench of smoke; the little white sticks perched between their fingers. And it’s not the first time.

They say they didn’t apply for a smoking flat because then the whole flat would reek of it and the smell would get stuck on their clothes.

I don’t really mind when we have parties and a condom is pulled over the fire alarm. I guess that’s just how student life is, and there’s nothing really to be done about it. At the very least they open the windows and the smell would be gone in the morning. – Granted, the half full plastic cups sporting cigarette butts swimming in dead alcohol is not a charming welcome the day after, but I am willing to also tolerate this as a part of student life.

In the beginning the smokers in my flat would go outside, standing in the door opening ‘til they had satisfied their cravings, and come back in. It seems the walk to the entrance door has become too much of a hassle.

But it’s not worth it to get into a fight about. There’s another girl in my flat who finds it quite annoying as well, but we have come to the conclusion that we’re just staying here for one year, and for the sake of the relatively good atmosphere we got going in our flat it’s not worth it to be the “goodie two-shoes” of the flat. It’s just going to create a small hostile simmer under the surface between us all, and at the current moment there’s too much drama going on in the accommodation to add more to it.

So we vent silently to each other instead.