Winter vacation is almost here, which means Christian collegians may be headed to a swanky urban hotel to cultivate their passion for God, for the world, and for swanky urban hotels. As a veteran of numerous conferences of the sort, allow me to let you in on perhaps the most awkward situation that can occur at said swanky urban hotel.
Contributing Factor #1: Because the hotel is both swanky AND urban, the cost for using such a facility is not for the weak at heart; therefore, be prepared to share a bed with a friend...OR a complete stranger. (Most likely it will be four to a room with two beds.)
Contributing Factor #2: Most people do not travel in even numbers. In fact, most of the time we travel in ones. So there's a 50/50 chance you WILL share a bed with a complete stranger. (I know there's hope that the numbers will work out so you happen be the one person at the conference that gets his/her own bed, but c'mon, let's be realistic. Do you think the guy making the room assignments is going to pass up his/her very own sleep member bed?)
Contributing Factor #3: At larger conferences (such as the ones happening during winter vacation), attendees travel from various different places and arrive at the swanky urban hotel at various different times. In fact, do not be surprised if you do not meet your mystery roommate until Day 2 of the conference!
Contributing Factor #4: The scheduling of such a conference is usually non-stop action-packed excitement. Translation: the first night is probably no different, so just drop your luggage off at your room and go to the speaker session (I don't care if Men in Black happens to be on television like it always seems to be during these conferences!).
Contributing Factor #5: Distant travel + Packed scheduling + Affinity for late night mingling + College sleep habits = someone in your room is bound to be in bed long before everyone even makes it back to the room.
All these factors come together to form the following situation:
For whatever reason, you don't get back to your hotel room until real late and the person you're supposed to share a bed with....just happens to already be asleep...AND just happens to be someone you've never met before!
So what are you supposed to do? Can you just crawl into bed with some dude you've never met before? I dunno....if I woke up with a stranger next to me, I'd feel a little violated. So, should you at least wake him up for a quick introduction? That could be considered rude. It's quite the quandary. What's the solution?
From what I've heard from people in this predicament...the solution is usually to just sleep on the floor until you've had a proper introduction. Some go on to finally share the bed on Night 2, but others never recover and sleep on the floor for the whole conference (which makes the floor a pretty expensive floor).
So gimme some feedback and answer these 2 questions:
1) What would you do in the same situation? (be specific)
2) Do you think females have the same problem? Or is it just a guy thing?
Don't be shy! Even if I've never met you before, just leave a comment. (Honestly, I'd rather you do that than jump into a with me.
9 comments:
1. I don't have a problem sleeping (in the same bed) with strangers (of the same gender). To clarify, I have shared my bed with both of my brothers until I was 15.
If you're afraid of your unknown bedfellow waking up the next morning and finding you beside him, then you just have to get outta bed earlier. Then, maybe some between worship and the first session, you can intro yourself to him and joke it off.
2. I think both guys and girls are equally prone to the awkwardness.
wow
i'd either sleep on top of the covers or sleep on a chair. if the chair was taken, i'd go to the floor.
sleeping in the same bed w/ a guy is weird for me. i'm hoping to be a bed-virgin and save that experience for a wife if i ever have one.
I agree with Frozone (his first statement anyway).
Regardless of how comfortable you are with it, the other guy might have a problem with it. Also, there's no guarantee you'll be able to wake up earlier than him, especially if he's asleep before you even get in the room.
I myself am not exactly comfortable in sharing a bed with another guy (I've only done it once).
Either way, if you're both at a Christian Conference, you already have some sort of bond, so I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world to wake up to some crazy Singaporean in the same bed.
As the token female I will say that this is definitely a guy thing!! It might be a tiny bit awkward if I'd never met the girl before, but it's tons better than sleeping on the floor.
joses: THREE OF YOU SHARED ONE BED ??!!?!?
miller: its definitely a guy thing. ... unless the girl snores really loudly. but thats not awkward, i just get really angry.
... i still share a bed w/ my sister sometimes at home. one of us is usually too lazy to go to the top bunk.
and yah. you didnt want me to update my blog. you just wanted me to visit yours. !!!
i wouldn't have any problem with sharing a bed with another guy. i did that at BWC last year (Scott).
But what if it wasn't someone you knew? Someone you haven't even met once? That's what makes it awkward.
kind of..
but it'll be a lot better than a total stranger b/c at least i would know that he's my fellow Christian brother.
And I'd rather sleep on a bed than on a floor
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