Suite 2004: Not your average roommates
It was an unusual day for freshman Yash Bhartia.
Suite 2004 was a little quiet, and still a bit unfamiliar. For the first time in his life, Bhartia felt the full weight of his distance from home sink in. He had left everything behind — his friends, family and loved ones — to pursue his education at a university more than 7,000 miles away from home in Guwahati, India.
He missed it — the fragrant smell of turmeric in the air, the heat pressed against his skin and the taste of the pav bhaji, a vegetable curry and bread dish, that his mom made often.
So, he got out of bed. He convinced his suitemates Lance and Richard to come with him to Jitlada, a restaurant he had been dying to try since coming to USC. After eating the spiciest chicken curry in Los Angeles and watching his suitemates cry from the heat, Yash was glad he got a small taste of home — and that Lance and Richard did too. That spontaneous adventure was just the beginning for Suite 2004.
Yash Bhartia and his seven suitemates — Paulo Dela Cruz, Alvin Li, Daniel Xu, Lance Azusada, Jack Zhao, Richard Xian and Talman Fortune — have found a home with each other, despite coming from eight different backgrounds.
Chinese, Filipino, Indian, white, gay, straight — those are just some of the unique identities that these eight suitemates carry. Those identities have shaped and strengthened the boys’ friendships with one another.
Though none of them originally applied to live at the International Residential College, the eight freshmen ended up together through randomized housing assignments.
“It was very interesting meeting all of my suitemates,” Azusada said. “I come from Palmdale, where the majority of people I knew were Hispanic or black, so it was amazing coming to USC and living with people from so many different places and backgrounds.”
At first, these differences weren’t apparent.
As a 17-year-old from Guam, Dela Cruz didn’t think much of the people he would later call his suitemates. For all his life, he had grown up with the same people — some Filipino, some Chamorro, the indigenous people who live on the island. Familiarity was a way of life on the island, but after arriving at the University, he realized that things were about to change.
Living with a group of strangers from all different corners of life was a new and strange experience for him. And differences had to be set aside.
“There’s been a lot of lessons learned during my short time here,” Dela Cruz said. “I knew there were things I had to change about myself to figure out my way in college.”
Dela Cruz knew there were things he needed to sort out with his suitemates. He knew himself too well to dismiss his own identity to the people he was living with. It was the little things, from his faded purple hair to the way he dressed, and he understood that he needed to remain true to himself in order to mature. So, after being out to his friends and family, he decided that it was time to come out to his suitemates.
Initially, things were awkward. Coming from India, Bhartia found it difficult to understand his suitemate’s circumstance. He experienced a new form of culture shock. He never had these conversations back home, where homosexuality is generally considered taboo.
“At first, it was really difficult because there were just things that [Yash] wasn’t used to, especially because of his background,” Dela Cruz said. “I really wanted to show him that even though being gay is part of my identity, it does not define me.”
After speaking together privately, the two emerged with a better understanding of one another’s identities. And according to Dela Cruz, “The dynamic is back again.”
On the other hand, Azusada began to realize he identified more with his Filipino background than he previously thought. Azusada grew up in Historic Filipinotown without knowing any Tagalog. After moving to Palmdale during his formative years, he thought he had left behind a large part of his Filipino culture in exchange for “being Americanized.”
“Living in Hi-Fi was pretty interesting,” he said. “[My parents] did not teach me any Tagalog, so it was tough being surrounded by people who were Filipino and knew Tagalog, and feeling less Filipino than them because of the language barrier.”
Since coming to USC, Azusada has joined Dela Cruz in Troy Philippines, the only Filipino culture club on campus. Reconnecting with his culture, he was reminded of the values his family raised him with — Filipino values, to be precise. And for him, it’s the little things that matter.
“I still take my shoes off when I come back into my room,” he said. “I ask my friends to do it as well whenever they visit. In the Philippines, there’s a lot of poverty, so a lot of Filipinos take cleanliness very seriously. I’m one of those people.”
Xian didn’t come from one neighborhood like Azusada — he grew up all around the world, from China to Philadelphia to South Africa. One thing was certain though —he had never actually experienced Indian culture.
Despite crying and sweating for several hours after trying a spicy curry dish at Bhartia’s insistence, he was not apprehensive about wanting to learn more about his suitemate.
During the last weekend of October, he decided to spend Diwali with Bhartia. Diwali, which took place on Oct. 30, is a Hindu tradition that celebrates light and goodness. Though he did not wear any traditional garb, Xian took this opportunity to get to know his roommate better.
“I asked questions about what people do on Diwali, how they dress,” Xian said. “I was interested, and from my experience, it was a lot of fun getting to learn more about Yash and his traditions.”
Learning and understanding each other’s cultures was a common theme when it came to creating relationships in Suite 2004. After getting comfortable with each other, however, the suitemates went beyond learning to experiencing.
Despite being Chinese, Xu made a conscious decision to join the Korean American Student Association with his suitemate Paulo. Like many other students who come to USC, KASA is a melting pot of identities — and it isn’t uncommon to have students of all different backgrounds, Asian or non-Asian. Participating in an annual competition called Dance Off, Xu began to learn more about not only Korean culture, but also those of many of his peers.
He also reconnected with his own heritage.
“Being away from family and not speaking Chinese as well some other people here made me realize that maybe it’s time for change,” Xu said.
Xu has been looking into taking Chinese courses for spring semester. Though these steps are small, he hopes that he’ll be able to come out of college with a stronger connection to his family, and to his Chinese heritage.
The eight attribute many of their learning experiences, about their own cultures and others, to each other.
“My suitemates and IRC have taught me a lot, and also have driven me to be a better student,” Azusada said. “Coming here, I had a lot of stereotypes and expectations about what I thought USC would be like. But everything’s been very different from what I anticipated, and I’m glad that my suitemates have shaped my experience as a student here in some way.”
There seems to never be a dull night in Suite 2004. Since becoming suitemates, the eight have learned a lot about each other, from Bhartia’s obsession with American television to Li’s extreme study habits. It’s not only the way they live, but also the conversations they’ve had together, that truly allowed their relationships to grow beyond IRC.
“We can go hours on end talking to each other about literally anything and everything,” Xian said. “On some nights, we just gather in Daniel and Yash’s room to eat and talk about life for probably about three hours until we realize that we should have done our homework.”
Like any other first-year students and their roommates, the eight have created a dynamic friendship together. For them, it isn’t just about going to parties together (though they still do) or being around each other all the time. Even though their majors and extracurricular activities all differ from one another, they share one thing in common — their excitement to come back home to IRC every night.
“We might be the same, and we might be different in some ways,” Xian said. “But we see each other beyond our beliefs and our cultures. We see each other as suitemates, as friends and as people.”