After my freshman year of college, I was so enamored with Penn State I decided there would be no better place to spend the summer than in State College.

But first I'd have to find a place to live for six weeks.

I heard my friends Kevin and Travis talking about renting a house for the summer -- and they still needed two more roommates. Now the only problem was convincing my parents to allow me to live with two boys they didn't know.

Luckily, my parents didn't object. I told them I would be sharing a room with my friend Stacey and the boys would have a room of their own. My mom was a little concerned with everyone sharing one bathroom, but there wasn't much that could be done about that. So they wrote a check for rent for the summer and I handled the rest.

When I moved in, it was evident the boys had already been living there for a few weeks. There were dishes left in the kitchen sink and toothbrushes and a razor decorated the bathroom sink.

The decorations adorning the living room were also an eyesore. Left behind from the previous (male) tenants, they included Valentine's Day hearts that hung from the ceiling and a cardboard cutout of John Wayne. One of the guys also had thought to add to the décor by placing a big frog covered in green lights under the TV (though, I must admit I was a fan of the frog).

Stacey and our other female roommate were all moved in by the end of the weekend. And the summer began.

After living with guys you realize one thing: They aren't always very neat. Cleaning was something I rarely saw them do. They didn't really cook much but dishes still ended up unwashed in the sink.

Also, they had thought to bring an air conditioner, while my roommate and I had a lousy fan. When their door was left open the apartment was much cooler.

However, they graciously left the door closed most of the summer, arguing that if they left it open the cold air would escape from their room. The rare times I did see inside the boys' room, though, I was glad they kept it shut. Let's just say they used the floor as their closet.

It also shocked me how much time they spent playing video games, mainly Guitar Hero.

Kevin had a goal to beat every song on "expert." So no matter what time of the morning I woke up to go to the bathroom or grab a glass of water from the kitchen, Kevin would be sitting on the couch fully immersed in the game. I'm a sound sleeper, but I would usually go back to sleep with the drumming of his fingers against the buttons swirling around my head.

Despite small things like that, living with boys was never really a problem. There were the few awkward times I would see them coming out of the bathroom in just a towel, but most of the time it was nice not to be surrounded by only girls.

Boys have an easygoing, more humorous attitude about them than girls do -- which is often very refreshing.

They were my friends, and nights spent sitting out on the porch until dawn talking with all our friends or rainy afternoons watching movies became the simplest pleasures of the summer.

And one thing you can almost always count on when living with guys: They will never hog the bathroom.

Katherine Dvorak is a Copy Editor at The Daily Collegian. She is a junior majoring in journalism and English and her e-mail address is kzd111@psu.edu.