Awful dorm room experiences

Not sure who was here reading my blog posts in 2017, but back then I was living in the United Kingdom for my Erasmus experience. It went so well that I decided to move back to England at the beginning of this academic year, 2018/2019. I transferred to Coventry University where I started a Top Up BA degree in Media, which is, more or less, the continuation of what I started in Denmark for my first two years.

When I moved to Coventry I did not know the kind of reputation that the city has so I learned it as I lived in it. It is not exactly the fanciest place to be, but rather sketchy, in the opinion of many. It is not as dangerous as other parts of the world, but it is definitely a place where I felt like I had to watch my back most of the times, and I felt unsafe most of the time during my many travels.

My arrival in the United Kingdom

My experience at the dorms was absolutely awful. The university granted us a free airport pick up service, so I decided to land into London Heathrow because the flight was cheaper than flying into Birmingham International, which is the closest airport to Coventry (about a twenty-minute train ride). The organisation was not the best and we had to wait a few hours before we could actually start our journey towards the West Midlands. When I arrived at my dorm it was past nine o’clock at night on a Saturday and it was cold and dark. I sure did not feel like it was September, it looked more like a December type of day.

No one was at the welcome desk to receive us because our shuttle arrived later than the time they expected us (and it was not even our fault?! ) and they did not leave any information to us. I finally reached out to the campus security officer who had access to the reception and checked me in. I arrived at my flat and I was welcomed by a shouting girl who was making food (more like destroying the kitchen). My flat was on the ground floor and because of it, all the windows had bars to stop people from getting inside, even in my room. Creepy.

I had no food, it was late, and the supermarkets were closed by then but thankfully the University left a welcome box in my room with some pot pasta, but no silverware. You can just imagine how I tried to eat that fake pasta.

With a (not so) full stomach, it was then time for me to rest when I realized that there was no bedding. I thought there was going to be bedding because the website said so, and also because the previous year my University offered it for us. I was freezing the whole time and did not sleep at all.

Next step: switching rooms

I knew all along that I did not want to stay there and feel caged the whole year, so I requested to be moved somewhere higher. I was finally able to move after three days. The new building had only two flats, one on each floor. The view from my window was beautiful, and because there were fewer people I thought it was going to be quieter than the previous one, but I was wrong all along.

My new flatmates were not entirely terrible, I actually did not mind sharing the facilities with them, even though sometimes a few liked to communicate from one end of the hall to the other by screaming at each other and they also liked to cook at one o’clock in the morning. Fun fact that I forgot to mention: the kitchen was attached to the wall on the opposite of which there was my bed. So I could hear all the conversations happening on the other side, I could hear the water flowing from the sinks, just everything! How great, right? When I moved in the first day, I talked to all of them. They all seemed nice, and quiet, which was great! It was a Wednesday, and at about midnight I went to bed because I had classes in the morning. I was so happy about my choice of moving in, when not much later, I heard a girl yelling something and breaking a glass in the kitchen. I got up and, annoyed, I opened my door to say something when I saw a girl literally covered in her own puke sleeping and snoring on the floor. I asked the others what happened and, apparently, she got kicked out of a club because she was too drunk (I do not blame whoever did that) and her friend walked her back to the flat. He tried to give her some water but she was too wasted to even keep the glass in her hands. At around three in the morning, I went back to sleep - and the smile was gone.

But don’t you worry because it gets even worse.

Little to no help

The flat below mine organised parties every single night. I do not even know how they knew so many people already. They were all local freshmen, which means that they were new to the University and maybe even knew to Coventry, but I guess they settled in pretty quickly because every single day, day and night, Monday through Sunday, they would play loud - horrible - music. It was so loud that my bed would vibrate every time I would go to bed. It was so bad that even when they were not being noisy I was afraid that they would start at any moment and so I could still not fall asleep. I was anxious, I was not getting enough sleep, I did not want to see anyone while I was cooking, I could not focus when I was studying, but there was nothing I could do. Basically every night I would have to report the noise to the security officer, who would politely go ask the people to keep the noises down, but that would last only a couple of minutes, and the party would go on. I was told to reach them out when they were being noisy because they were annoyed by us calling the security guard every night, like, uhm, excuse me if I want to sleep?! Anyway, I started doing so but even that would not change things.

I emailed my tutor, I walked over to the Student Advice Center, I went to the offices of my housing provider, I went to the International Students Center, I googled any possible solution, but nothing. I could not break my housing contract, the only thing that I could to do be able to leave the room was to find someone willing to move in and take my spot, so I tried to promote my room, but let’s be honest, who was going to agree to move into a crappy room like that one? They would ask me the reasons why I would leave it, and if I explained to them, they obviously would not sign the contract.

So I moved. I was given notice that a studio was available within the dorms and that maybe that could have helped me. So I accepted it. I did not have to share anything. I had my own kitchen and bathroom, which I thought was perfect. There were two cons: I could hear the noises in the hall because there were much more people walking in and out of doors than the previous place, but also that it was a super expensive room that I would not be able to afford until July 2019. I only moved into that one because I knew that many people were interested in it and that it would not be difficult to find a replacement. And I did. I was in Portugal for the weekend when they told me that someone wanted my room but thankfully that person agreed to wait until I would come back. The cheapest flight back to Great Britain was far away so I took a bus overnight back to Coventry and the first thing that I had to do was pack and find another place to stay. Thankfully my friend agreed to host me until I would find another solution. I only had one day in Coventry because then my classmates and I flew to Hong Kong for a University project. I was exhausted.

I was just back from Portugal and travelled back to Coventry throughout the night; I had to move out of my room into my friends’ house, and then pack accordingly for Hong Kong and leave the next day. On top of that on my arrival in Asia, I was super jet lagged.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, they say!

Conclusion

If you are wondering what happened to me next, I simply moved out of the UK completely and attended my final semester of classes remotely. Yes, I relocated to Portugal. I discovered what it means to see the sun nearly every day, to be able to afford to go out often because costs of living are way more affordable than England, and what it means to sleep again!

To some, this may seem extreme and that it could have not been that bad, but I invite you to imagine how it feels to not being able to sleep every single day for two months. And because no one was really able to help me in any way, I ended up buying a white noise machine that cost me £50! It is one of those machines that usually moms buy when they have a new-born.

If you are interested in reading about Portugal, check out my other blog that features my 2019 travels.

Tips if you are thinking of living in a dorm

• Make sure you tell your University that you prefer a quiet room if that is the case. They normally have flats in what they call "quiet blocks";
• Make sure that you check where your room is located. I would recommend higher floors, and possibly away from the entrance, bathrooms, and kitchens.
• Keep in mind that it is possible to switch rooms within the dorm (you have to pay a fee) but that you cannot move out unless someone moves in. Read your contract very carefully!

Good luck!

- Cristian

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