Life in halls

I think that living in halls is much more fun than living off campus. It might have been cheaper to just find a private room in the city, but living on campus gives me lots of opportunities and I am just one door away from my friends. First of all, the University of Worcester has many Campuses. There is the one in the city center; there is the Serven Campus and there is the one where I live, which is the biggest and the one where pretty much everything takes place: St. John’s Campus.

In here, there are lots of kinds of accommodation, from the traditional halls - which are the cheapest - to the En Suites Extra - which are the most expensive ones. To be a bit more specific, I am talking about the following:

• Traditional Halls;
• Standard Halls;
• Standard Plus Halls;
• En Suite Halls;
• En Suite Extra Halls.

I live in a standard plus, which includes a bed, a desk, a closet, a shelf and a sink. There are three ways to light up the room. The first lamp is at the top of the sink, the other one is in the middle of the room, and the other one is on the wall where the bed is. It is pretty simple but it is pretty much all I wanted and need. What makes a standard plus accommodation different from a traditional?

Standard Plus

There are two bathroom in a hall. Each hall hosts six students. There are also two fridges, a table with some chairs and pretty much a common area. Each hall cannot be entered without a student card, and only who lives there has access to the hall.

Traditional

There is one bathroom for each hall, a hall contains usually four people. The hall is not gated, just the building is. There is only one fridge in the kitchen, which is shared with more people. There are a few chairs but not a table and the common area is pretty much a hall with a few cooking rings, a sink and a fridge. The room itself is pretty such like a standard plus, but the desk is smaller, there are three drawers instead of four, there is no drawer under the bed, there is not a shelf to store stuff and there is no light where the bed is.

Facilities

I would say that the facilities are great. There is a place for everyone. First Point is the main office, along with the Main Reception. There is The Hangar for food, but also the cafeteria and the Student Union Shop. As I said, The Hangar sells food during the day but at night it becomes a bar, and the shop in the student union is pretty much good for emergencies, in case you forgot to buy something at the grocery store, which might be cheaper. In the Digital Arts Center students are allowed to use Macs and borrow equipment, but also attend workshops like Photoshop, Illustrator and so on. Students who live on halls have permission to use the gym, which is quite nice and very equipped. The machines are touchscreen and you can watch TV while you use them! There are also a couple of laundry rooms on campus and each one has something like ten washing machines and sixteen driers.

Sport and societies

There are lots of things that you can do at University of Worcester. I think someone counted all the societies and came up with fourty-one of them. There is literally a club for everyone. Each society covers an interest, like the following:

• Harry Potter;
• Film;
• Film Making;
• History;
• Geography;
• Worcester Worldwide;
• Christians;
• Vegans and Vegetarians;
• Gamers;
• LGBT Community;
• Loco Show (Musical);
• Music.

And speaking about sports, there is literally anything for everyone here as well:

• Frisbee;
• Table Tennis;
• American Football (Men and women);
• Soccer (Men and women);
• Rowing;
• Rugby;
• Dance (all kinds);
• Wheelchair Basketball.

I came to a conclusion that in the end I want to do dance, and there are multiple reasons attached to this choice. First of all, because it is something quite new for me. I have played guitar before, I have done theater but I have never danced before, so there is this, but also because I did see my friends dancing hip hop and I took one lesson of it in New York City during my visit there and I loved it. I had so much fun and I thought that it would have been nice to take classes, even if I may suck at it, at least I meet new people and I have fun. If I can manage my time correctly I will still run, go to the gym, and perhaps take another society just because I want to make the most out of my time here in England before I leave at Christmas time.

- Cristian

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