<p>In another month, I will begin my freshman year in college. I present here a two-part question. The first part: {My roommate just contacted me via telephone, just to say hello. We spoke very little, and he seems like a nice guy (thus far), but I really know almost nothing about him, except that his name is Neil. I think it may feel a bit awkward to show up at my dorm room with neither of us knowing anything even remotely substantial about the other. Therefore, I am considering contacting him via E-mail in order to tell him a bit more about myself (a.k.a: my major, etc.), and ask him related questions about himself. Is this a good idea, or would it be better to find out more about each other when we meet in person? If it is indeed generally preferable to send an E-mail, then how should I format it (should it be friendly and casual, or a bit more formal)? If you could provide me some form of an outline of the ideal first E-mail to send to your roommate-to-be, I would greatly appreciate it.} This is the second part of my question: {When I do arrive at my dorm room and start to unpack my stuff, what if each of us brings a television, refrigerator, etc.? I know this may make sense for some equipment and appliances, such as desktop computers, laptops, etc., but should we really have two, for example, televisions? And if not, then how do we determine whose television we will both use?} Thank you for your time.
-Kurush</p>
<p>Contact him. I'd be pretty informal. Then you can discuss things like who will bring what</p>
<p>yea, i would email him jus informally sayin your name, which he knows, but just tell him what ur majoring in and where your from or w/e. Ask him is interests, but don't say what u like to do, let him be the first to answer, then u reply back and u begin to make a small connection. Then u start to discuss some other informalities and then discuss who's bringing what. Don't right away start out by sayin what are u bringin and stuff. Start slow, then make ur way up</p>
<p>I'd think it's pretty obvious that you can be fairly informal with a roommate. And like the other posters have said, in your email, in addition to telling him your major and hobbies and stuff, you can coordinate who will bring TV, fridge, etc. Pretty simple.</p>