Life on Campus

For those not aware, I'm living in on campus accommodation. I'm in one of four blocks where each floor consists of fifteen bedrooms sharing six bathrooms and a large kitchen. There are fifteen other blocks of accommodation where each floor has five small en-suite bedrooms sharing a kitchen but these rooms were too small for my liking.

So how's life on campus going? Again, I'll break this down:

Shopping
Caerleon has your basics, a post-office, hardware store, pharmacy, small grocery store, bakery, chippy and a bank. There are then no less than three hair salons and a staggering fifteen pubs. The small grocery store is alright for things like bread, eggs and milk but for anything else it's better to go into one of the superstores in Newport. I take advantage of the free inter-campus bus which stops at Newport Station to do this every Monday morning.

Food
I'm not a big breakfast person, so in the mornings I tend to have a few boiled eggs and a cup of tea. When I have an early start at Allt-yr-yn I actually eat a full cooked breakfast there - plus on Monday mornings I eat brunch in Sainsbury’s alongside my shop. Both campus sites have a main refectory serving good food at good prices. This means every day I can have a cooked meal without the hassle of preparing it myself. On Saturday's I walk down to the chippy for lunch. In the evenings I prefer to avoid the noisy mess of the kitchens and eat lots of fruit, salads and meats which I store in the mini-fridge in my room. If you could see the state of the communal kitchen you'd understand why I'm hardly ever in there...

Laundry
Washing and drying clothes is a no brainer and I do this first thing every Saturday or Sunday morning. People would think I'm crazy getting up so early to do this if they were awake to see me... which is the point - later in the day there are hundreds of students wanting to do their laundry all at the same time.

Ironing is another issue altogether. Lord help anyone who comes knocking at my door when I'm in my room ironing because it leaves me fraught. I'd go as far as saying ironing killed my inner child... it's a necessary evil, sadly.

Sleep
I don't sleep well at all...

Friends
I've met some fantastic people here at University. Thanks to how many of the degrees in computing related subjects share the same modules to begin with, I've been in contact of a lot of people. Obviously I don't like everyone and some people are suffering for a lack of maturity, though on the whole I'm getting on very well with people on my specific degree pathway. These people won't know it but they make everything all the more worth while.

I only wish I could have made some friends within my halls. Sadly it comes down to feeling uncomfortable with people who make such poor impressions of themselves. The bathrooms and kitchen get left in a terrible state. People don't seem to care for their own hygiene, yet alone that of others around them. During the evenings/night people are running around drunk, shouting and getting up to all sorts. If enough people cared otherwise, these things wouldn't be an issue. Regrettably when I did complain to the University, no one else had complained so nothing could be done about it. I'll learn to live with it...