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I love it. Honestly, I feel like it's actually, it's so great to come back from lectures and
you just see the building and you're like, "Yeah man, that's home now." It's great 'cause
it just means there's a continuation of the kind of feel of being in it together and being
around students all the time. You're never more than two, three minutes away from knocking
on someone's door, you can walk across the corridor sometimes and be right there.
But it also means that you've absolutely no privacy like my best friend would come barging
into my room at any hour of the day or night because she lived opposite me, which is obviously
absolutely fine, but it's something you have to get used to. It really does build on the
sense of community spirit, and you kind of establish your home, and often halls are where
you meet most of your friends.
To have 500 young people within a one mile radius is great. You won't get that anywhere
normally. There is a downside which is that everybody tends to do whatever everyone else
is doing. And sometimes you can feel a bit claustrophobic, but definitely that's the
minority of the time. Sometimes it's quite annoying if you want to jump in the shower
which you're sharing and somebody else is already and you kind of got to queue and sit
down and wait for five minutes until they're out.
One of my neighbors played the flute quite loudly at most times of the day. I have had
to go over and tell him, 'could you be quiet please.' There are certain things that can
be frustrating, so not having a cleaning rota that is very effective. My first kitchen,
you could only get two people in there at a time. The halls are beautiful but the insides
aren't.
You have to move out for the second year. So you find a group of people that you want
to live with, which you have to do quite early on. I live with seven of my best friends which
is amazing because it means that the house is never empty. There's always people that
want to do something, whether it's staying in or going out. You never feel like you are
never really alone where as halls and accommodation can be quite isolating.
A lot of the things that you do and need are within college, so if you have to live out,
it can sometimes be a pain having to come in all the time, and go backwards and forwards
between your house, and between your library or tutorials, especially once you've lived
in college as we did in our first year, you really come to appreciate having people cleaning
your room.
I can't remember ever doing my washing or anything like that. It just seems to get done
somehow. However, in private accommodation, there is a sofa, and a television and I do
like comfort, so that's quite nice. Finding a house can be quite stressful. Don't wait
until February, March, April. And you have to work at how things like gas and electricity
work and how you pay for those which I had previously absolutely no idea.
I definitely preferred living in halls, but I think it's absolutely essential for people
to then move out otherwise you will never learn to sort yourself out as I hopefully
have done.