Making a house a home

This year I’ve moved out of uni accommodation and into a house in Norwich. Living in a house is quite different to being on campus – living with less people means a tidier kitchen, but it’s weird not living within 5 minutes of everyone and everything on campus. One of the nice things about having a house is there’s more opportunity to decorate and personalise it than there was living in halls on campus. However this doesn’t mean you can’t personalise your uni room – check out my post on accommodation to see what my room looked like last year.

This year, I went for some similar decorations to last year in my room- a noticeboard is a really great feature for your room because you can display a lot of things without worrying about damaging the walls by using blu tack. A photo wall is also a fab way to brighten up your room and display some of your favourite memories.

I’m also a firm believer that bunting and fairy lights can make any room look better so we’ve made good use of these throughout our house. Primark is a great shop for good value fairy lights, and they can make a room look really cosy in the evenings. In my room I’ve used fairy lights around my noticeboard and door, and we also have some strung around the staircase bannister and in the fireplace.

At the moment we even have some flowers around the house which make the living room feel very homely. I’d definitely suggest buying some plants for your room, a little cactus or succulent plant won’t take much looking after and you can buy them from the plant sale held during freshers week.

There are plenty of ways to decorate your room/house that won’t cost much, a lot of things can be made rather than bought, and it’s so nice to make your room feel a little bit more like home!

On the radio…again

This week I was invited onto BBC Radio Norfolk to talk about tips for freshers and my experience of university. It was a really cool opportunity – the only radio experience I have is from my short appearance on Livewire – so I was pretty excited but also quite nervous!

Here’s the link to my interview, so if you missed it (or want to listen again!) you can:

 

 

 

10 things you need to know

September is here. That means that the start of the next academic year is almost upon us and if you’re a fresher you’re probably feeling a mix of excitement, nerves, worry and anticipation right now (which is totally normal). So as we enter the countdown of the last couple of weeks before term begins I thought it would be nice to write about some practical things you should know for life at UEA…

1. Fire Alarms – I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re in uni accommodation there will be a fire alarm test in the first few weeks (probably early/mid october, you will be told closer to the time the rough timing) and it will happen at about 5.30am. Just make sure you have shoes and a hoodie close by to grab, but apart from that, its just something you’ll have to experience I’m afraid!

2. Bus Fares – In terms of using the bus, you’ll probably be wanting to get to the city centre. Catch the 25 or 26 bus (both have the same destinations of the city centre and the station but just use slightly different routes) and ask for a young persons return to the city centre which will cost £3. The stop for the city centre is called Red Lion Street and is by Debenhams.

3. Cleaner – If you’re in uni accommodation a cleaner will come into your room to empty your bin every weekday, in my accommodation it would usually happen around 9-10am. The cleaner will knock, but then they pretty much come straight in so listen out for when you can hear them in your flat so you don’t end up having an awkward meeting. They will also lock the door when they leave regardless of whether it was locked or not when they entered, so if you’re leaving your room make sure to take your key with you. I would always leave my bin close to the door so the cleaner wouldn’t have to come all the way into my room and I know some people went as far as leaving their bin outside their door if they didn’t want to be disturbed.

4. Lecture timings – at UEA, morning lectures always start on the hour and end 10 minutes early. For example, a 9am lecture will start at 9am and end at 9.50am. Lectures after 1pm start at ten past the hour and end on the hour – a 1pm lecture will start at 1.10pm and end at 2pm. This is to allow time for staff and students to move around campus to their next lecture/seminar.

5. LCR entry – you can buy LCR tickets online through the SU website. On the door of the LCR you will need to show your campus card and ID and then you show your ticket in the foyer area. If using your phone to dispay the ticket, make sure the brightness is turned all the way up and zoom in on the barcode to make it easier for the SU workers to scan the ticket.

6. Washing – there are 3 launderettes on campus – one in the village, one on the street (centre of campus) and one by the medical centre. To use the launderette, you will need a circuit laundry card from one of the machines in the launderette. You need to load money onto it using the circuit website, activate the money using the machine in the laundrette and then the card can be used in the washing machines/tumble dryers. If I remember correctly, a wash cycle costs £2.40 and 50 mins in the tumble dryer costs £1.60.

7. Room numbering – room numbering is kinda complicated at UEA, but once you’re used to it it’s fine. On your timetable, rooms will be shown in a set format, an example being ARTS 1.05. The acronym denotes the building where the room is (this list of acronyms will be helpful). The number denotes the floor and room number. UEA has a number of different levels so the first part of the number is what level the room can be found on. 0 is ground floor, 1 is first floor, 2 is second floor etc. If its 01 it’s one floor down from ground level, 02 is two floors down and so on. Most blocks will have signs showing what floor you’re currently on, so just go down or up accordingly. The second part of the number is the room number. So for example, for ARTS 1.05, go to the Arts building, to the first floor and to room 05.

8. Post room – letters and packages will be delivered to the post room, which is under the Arts building. To check if you have any letters, show them your campus card at the desk, and let them know your name and accommodation. If you have a parcel, your name will be on a list pinned to the wall. Tell them your name is on the list, show them your campus card and sign to collect your parcel. The picture below is taken from the student handbook, and has details on what postal address you should use.

9. Printer – Before coming to uni, I wasn’t sure whether I should buy a printer for my room. Some people told me it was a really good idea, while others said you didn’t need one. It’s true you don’t need a printer – stuff can be printed using the printers in the library.However, despite coming to uni without a printer, I decided to buy one after a couple of months because I thought it would be practical for me. Doing history meant I wanted to be able to print off bits of reading I accessed online, and printing notes and drafts for essays was also helpful for me. Overall, it probably depends on your subject and working style as to whether you think you need a printer. If in doubt, best to not buy one and wait for a few months to see whether you really need one.

10. Student deals – being a student means you have access to lots of fab deals. In the first few weeks be on the lookout for Dominos pizza promoters on campus, there’s the chance for lots of free slices of pizza. Another good student deal is the free 6 month student trial for Amazon Prime. This gives you access to Prime Video (films and TV shows), one-day delivery from Amazon, Prime Music and Prime Photos. I used the free trial mainly for Prime Video, which is a decent alternative to Netflix, and the one day delivery was also helpful for buying last minute essentials I realised I needed after starting uni.

So there are my 10 things you need to know! I hope you found these helpful – if you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Also if you’re a current UEA student and have any more helpful tips feel free to write them in the comments 🙂