#6 Moving into University
Staying on Campus
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| While running at Kent Ridge Park |
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While running at West Coast Park |
To those who are new to my blog, I am currently a Year 1 undergraduate at the National University of Singapore (NUS). As our campus is located about more than an hours' travel from home, I have decided to stay in a hall. Hall is basically hostels and there are 7 halls in NUS! While the travel time to university is one reason I chose to stay in Hall, there are many other reasons too! I will be sharing my experience of moving into university as well as the reasons that made me chose to stay on campus. So sit back, get comfortable and read on!
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| The view 😍 |
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| My room! |
Why do I want to stay on campus?
1. Convenience
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Here is a picture of my friend and I having ice cream from Mr Bean (at NUH) after our lesson as we walk back to Hall!
2. For the unique hall experience
- Suppers with friends
- Door decorating for friends
- Angel and mortal games
- Going to each other's rooms to hang out or study
- Staying away from home
- Become more independent as I had to do my own laundry, shop for my own groceries, clean my room regularly and etc.
- Finally having a room to myself!
(I share a room with my sibling at home)
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| From my Angel during A&M game |
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| Door deco done by a friend! 😊 |
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| Conducive studying environment ⛅ |
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| I have the best neighbours 💓 |
3. To meet new people and make more friends
- In Hall, we stay with people from different faculties
- Broadens my social circle
- Get to talk to seniors from the same course for tips and advice too!
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| Clementi Forest Hike with a Hall friend! |
4. Opportunities to lead as well as to learn new skills
- Wide range of hall Co-Curriculum Activities (CCAs) that are beginner-friendly
- Can try out new sports, cultural and community involvement activities
- Learn and improve those skills
- Take part in Inter-Hall Games (IHG) and Inter-Block Games (IBG)
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| Track IHG on 17th Jan |
5. Create so many memories with friends in Hall
Moving into the hall for the first time!
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| Bringing so many things |
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| Dinner time! |
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Pantry |
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| The laundrette |
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| Decorating my room |
During the first semester of moving into University, I was definitely quite nervous as there is a lot of changes and I had to start doing a lot of the chores on my own besides just studying and being involved in CCAs.
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| Lunch w OG |
When I first moved in, the unfamiliarity with the hall made it challenging to find my way around it and figure out how to get to different places in the university. Thankfully, I moved in a week before the academic year started (in week 0) and had a week to explore the university, get to know the hall better and familiarize myself with some of the common locations such as the bus stops, buses available and different entry points to Hall. In fact, the seniors who stayed in Hall are very friendly and approachable! I could ask them if I need to get to somewhere in Hall or even in NUS and they would be able to help me.
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| UTown |
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| KE rooster |
When the academic year started, I got more and more used to staying in Hall and would head home on the weekends. I did the laundry, cleaned my room and bought groceries regularly. In addition, my friends and I started joining Hall CCAs. We had to be involved in CCAs so as to accumulate enough points to continue staying in Hall in the next academic year. The points calculation differs between different types of CCAs such as community, cultural and sports CCAs and would be awarded based on our level of commitment and attendance to the CCAs.
For the hall I chose to stay in, the average number of CCAs required was 4 if we intend to stay in the next academic year (may change). At that point in time, it was daunting. 4?! That is so many CCAs! As compared to having only 1/2 CCAs in Secondary School and in Junior College, 4 CCAs was a lot of commitment and I was afraid of not being able to cope with the CCAs and my studies. Nonetheless, I joined a few CCAs (about 5) as there were so many options and I was interested to join to learn and improve my skills. It was then that I realised not all CCAs had fixed training/ activity days and in fact, some allowed us to do tasks and have meetings at our own time. Therefore, it was overall quite manageable for me in the first semester of joining a couple of Hall CCAs.
Experience of staying on campus
Here I will be covering Hall suppers, dining hall meals, doing my own chores, going for CCAs, using Hall facilities and making/ hanging out with Hall friends.
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| KOI bbt tea! |
In Hall, we have regular block suppers prepared by fellow hallmates and also a whole week of exam welfare supper provided by the student leaders (JCRC) in Hall! There are foods such as KOI bubble milk tea, nine fresh, Dunkin donuts, pasta, ice cream, fried snacks and etc. 🍝🍩🍦🍴
Food in Hall is served only in the mornings and in the evenings for breakfast and dinner respectively from Monday to Friday and only breakfast is served on Saturday while only dinner is served on Sunday. As a pretty picky eater, it is not surprising that the meals provided at the dining hall were not always appealing to me. I personally dislike how they would serve "too much" carbohydrates, "too little" protein, the dishes are too oily, unhealthy, too salty or too sweet. It is just a personal preference though... as many of my friends enjoy most of the meals provided by the dining hall.
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| Economic rice |
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| Breakfast of champions |
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| Curry Chicken Katsudon |
Staying in Hall also required me to become more independent and responsible, by doing my own chores such as washing dishes (Tupperware and utensils if I takeaway food from the dining hall), wipe the floors and windows regularly, change my bedsheets, doing my own laundry and grocery runs to stock up on my snack or fruit stash.
Some of you may know that I am also in NUS CCAs such as Cross Country, Aquathlon (swimming and running), as well as NUS Community Service Club (CSC). Hence, going for my training sessions held in various places in the university was so much more convenient as the travel time is only about 10-20 mins!
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| Cross country training at the track |
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| Swimming at USC |
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| Cycling in my room |
I would also often use the hall facilities such as the gym, or in the case of semester 1, since I brought my bike trainer to Hall, I did indoor cycling workouts on Zwift in my room (yes, I manage to bring my road bike to Hall and kept it in my room). Other hall facilities include but not limited to study room (I went there once to study with a friend), lounges, Communal Hall for ball games, basketball court and CCA rooms.
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| Using Zwift |
Conclusion
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| Sunday Folks 😍 |
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| Friends 💖 |
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| Basque Burnt Cheesecake |
To all those who are reading this and considering if you would want to stay in Hall, I think the most important thing to consider or think about is what you ultimately want to achieve out of Hall life and what kind of university experience you would like to have. If you are still undecided, you can list out the reasons you would want to stay in Hall, just like what I did above! This may help you to make a more informed and careful decision that your future self will thank you for.
To end off, I hope all of you continue to stay safe during this Covid-19 pandemic, have an awesome university life (if you are going to start/ in university) and remember to keep stepping out of your comfort zones to learn and experience new things. Thank you for reading this blog!
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