The Paradox of my Experience with Roommates (as of now)

I am on the car on the way back home. I take a moment and reminisce about my seemingly bad luck with roommates so far.

One day I came back to the dorm and I saw my roommate's side of the room completely empty, bare bed with no sheets. Closet with no clothes hanged. Nothing on the desk nor in the drawers. Everything was swept and washed away. All that was left was a half-drunken Sprite bottle, an opened combo pack of instant spicy ramen noodles, and a bunch of his littered trash.

Now why did he leave all of sudden without notifying me? I don't even know whether he dropped out or just left for somewhere. His phone number is unreachable. There could be many reasons. Initially, I thought what in the world is he thinking? But the more I thought about it, the more I figured that it was also partially my fault.

Although he is an international student from China, which means he can only grasp basic conversational English, I could have made him feel more comfortable by talking to him more. Most of the time I would come back to the dorm and read or surf online with little to no conversations. Other times I'd crash into my girlfriend's place on campus for the night.

"Put yourself in his shoes," someone said. "Imagine you were an international student in, say, Russia. How would you feel if your roommate never gave the effort to talk to you and just left you there in your dorm?"

Sure I've had a few meals with him earlier in the semester, and we talked about some English slang and what our plans were for the weekend. The other time we had a conversation about what kind of video games we played. And that was the most we've talked and other days until now it was as if the room was muted.

But is it right for him to just not tell me and leave all of a sudden? With all that trash scattered everywhere?

From the start based on our greetings and introductions, I knew that this person was not as comfortable based on his weak hand shake grip and his hunched back.

If he turns out to not return for the spring semester I have yet to have a roommate for the full academic year. My roommate from last year decided to transfer to another college in the fall. He was obsessed with mermaids and had the nagging urge to leave on 'Friends' on full volume as he sleeps. Thus, sleepless nights were common for me back then. I got a new roommate the following spring and he turned out to be a huge pothead who gave the littlest attention to hygiene. First day rooming with him and he got me involved with the university police. Apparently he was a notorious student on campus.

I just want to room with a person with common decency, preferably one who I know, and not get randomly put with ones who are just peculiar and odd. Of course I am not expecting much but the roommates I have had in the past are just way too odd for me to handle.