ok, so this is my neighboor:
– a student (doo, it’s a student house)
– brown hair
– studies media science
– had a number of social gatherings in her room earlier this summer
– likes to stay in her room forever
– watches downloaded sitcoms on her laptop
– very clean, but tends to forget to remvoe her hair after showering
– owns a set of knives and a microwave
– knows how to use a wok

… and then she has been living there since June or so (at least two months now) and I know not much else…

ok all communications we have had were something like the following:

– The first time saw her, I asked for her name, and she answered something like Sve… or Sva…

– When I caught her in the kitchen again we divided up the cupboards in kitchen and in the rest room, and decided upon cleaning kitchen and shower every week. She wanted to clean the first week, and I said she could have an extra board in the rest room as she is a woman. “Yeah,” she answered. She wanted to know what chances there are to move to a single room, and how much it is. I said it’s just 200 NOK more, but that I’m staying here in order not to become completely socially isolated. She acknowledged, but slipped into her room immediately.

– I wrote a note “are those your eggs in the fridge?” She wrote back: “no, let’s throw them out”

– After returning from holidays, he caught me as I was checking my mail. With a smile she said “hey…” I was tired and didn’t return the smile. neither of us said another word.

– 2 or 3 days later there was a note in the kitchen: “Johannes – will you clean the bathroom and kitchen now? It didn’t look very good when I came back from holidays. And of course you can use my knives, but please wash them afterwards.” I wrote another note apologizing and I cleaned bathroom and kitchen.

– the last few days I tried to say “hi”, but she never reacted.

– Today, we were both entering our rooms at the same time. She said “hey…” and smiled.

OK, so what is this about? How socially isolated can one get from oneanother in a total of maybe 30 ft x 40 ft room? I am pretty sure Oslo students run the record in being anonymous and disinterested in oneanother.

Now this is not the first time I encounter it, as I have had similar experiences with previous neighboors, but there is one striking difference: she is a girl! That makes my usual strategy of forced socialization a bit akward; usually I force these characters into socializing simply by hanging around the kitchen long enough for them to be forced into having to socialize with me. Well, with a girl, that would probably look a bit weird, as she might expect that I have completely different intentions. One probably needs to ave a wider and more general strategy to catch all cases of victims of today’s individualizing society. If only I could think of any…