Words by Rhiannon James

Picture this: sunny blue skies, students lounging on picnic blankets on pristine lawns in front of a stately manor house with an entrance hall filled almost entirely by a glittering chandelier looking down from above. You duck as the overbearing-yet-motherly receptionist tries to smother you with a hug and a ÔÇÿgood morning dearÔÇÖ as you pass through into a grand dining hall filled with more students eating and laughing. You grab a freshly baked pastry as you waltz through, skip up a marble staircase and enter your brightly coloured dorms with large bedrooms full of cushions, fairy lights and desks that are meticulously organised with coloured files, pastel highlighters and freshly bought textbooks. Sounds pretty good right? Maybe a slightly fictional and completely Disney-fied version of events that only happens in Hollywood movies, but real life canÔÇÖt be that much worse, can it?┬á

When you thought about moving into uni halls for the first time – be honest – what were your initial thoughts? Anything similar come to mind? Whether youÔÇÖre looking at moving to Cardiff for university or have already been through first year and want to compare your own experiences to others, weÔÇÖve asked around for the good and ugly truths about living in uni halls.  

Anecdote 1 by Hansa Tote

Three strangers and me

It was September 2020 and my parents had just left Taly South in floods of tears leaving me standing in a room so small I could stretch my arms out and touch each side of the walls; a far cry from the luxury of home, but there I was. I was at uni, and I was so excited. 

House 14 is tiny with only four people in each flat and six flats in the whole house. It was three strangers and me; two boys who knew each other from home and a Welsh girl and we all got on like a house on fire. We were an awesome foursome. We did everything together. Despite the many lockdowns and spells of isolation, we had fun: shot roulette in the kitchen, going for sit-down nights at Live Lounge (how weird is that), and walks through Bute followed by Sunday lunch. I made some of my favourite and funniest memories in that flat, some that I think about on a daily basis. For example, a staple of the Welsh girlÔÇÖs diet mayo pasta, or the time one of the boyÔÇÖs friends had come over and vomited into the Henry Hoover (something that simultaneously traumatised me and brought me innumerous giggles over the years).┬á

Those three strangers became my family from September to June. We were there for everyoneÔÇÖs everything and despite no longer being as close with them nowadays, I will always cherish my time with them. If I had not been put in that specific flat in those specific halls, I would have had a completely different experience, a completely different family. That is what I think is so great about halls, you leave your biological family and are instantly welcomed into a new one.┬á

Anecdote 2 by Chloe Thomas-Evans

From the countryside to the city

As someone who was raised in a rural area, I have always romanticised city life. I was thrilled to learn that I had been accepted by Cardiff University and was about to move to the city. However, as the days ebbed closer and closer to my induction date, I felt both nervous and excited at the cultural shift I would have to undertake. 

Like many others, I was very used to the confines of my small town and accustomed to certain ways of life. I knew that, by taking such a big step, I was likely to challenge what I was already accustomed to; this is where most of my nervousness stemmed from. I wanted to integrate myself into the city life as much as possible, but I also dreaded the lack of comfort and familiarity that a sense of change would bring. Questions such as ÔÇÿwhat if I donÔÇÖt adapt?ÔÇÖ and ÔÇÿwhat if I lose my way entirely?ÔÇÖ swarmed my mind in the days before I moved to Cardiff. Yet, these thoughts were long forgotten by the time I moved in.

In the first couple of days, I was quick to learn that my worries were surprisingly common. I wasnÔÇÖt the only person struggling with home sickness or learning to cohabit, in fact almost everybody around me was. Whether people were from the city or countryside or from Britain or abroad, we were all united under these shared experiences. This helped us to form friendships as we began to see our many similarities despite our many differences.

When it came to the differences, people still appeared to be accommodating. For example, there always seemed to be respect for a personÔÇÖs private time and space. It was almost as if there was a mutual understanding that everyoneÔÇÖs experience was different and therefore, everyoneÔÇÖs ways of adapting were also different. If we wanted a sense of community, we could find it through one another or through the many societies that were available to us. If we preferred to be alone, that was also respected. That meant for me, communal living was a positive experience.

Anecdote 3 by Rhiannon James

The best and worst of student halls

When I moved into Senghennydd Court (aka Senghetto), it was the first time IÔÇÖd lived away from home, and I had no idea what to expect. IÔÇÖd heard about the horrors of slumming it in uni halls, but to start with, everything seemed about as good as it could get. Sure, I had to spend a good half hour chasing silverfish around my room and the kitchen was so small that you could barely fit two people in it, but overall I definitely think it couldÔÇÖve been worse. My flatmates were nice and (mostly) clean and quiet. Of course we had the one kid who you never saw until they set the fire alarm off every so often by forgetting to plug the smoke alarm in their room up with a sock when they wanted to smoke a spliff, but hey, life could be worse, right? The shared bathroom situation wasnÔÇÖt too horrendous either, as I was used to sharing with three younger siblings anyway back home. Overall, the location of my accommodation was probably the best thing about it (you get used to the noise of the train track next door I promise), because it was a ten-minute walk from lectures in the main uni buildings and about five minutes into the city centre. I definitely didnÔÇÖt envy my friends in Taly or Uni Halls having to walk 30-40 minutes every day to lectures! However, the security around Senghennydd was probably the worst bit about living there, and by the time IÔÇÖd reached the end of my first year my flat had been robbed, IÔÇÖd had to report a sexual assault and weÔÇÖd had a random shirtless 30-year-old man knocking on our door at 2am. If IÔÇÖm being honest, I was desperate to get out of there. However, although it was a bit rough and ready and could do with some serious renovation and security upgrades, it did its job and I definitely think I wouldÔÇÖve missed out on a lot of uni life if I had stayed at home or got my own place.┬á

So hey, maybe the parents were right – maybe it was worth slumming it for the first year after all? Just promise me something, when youÔÇÖve been through the whole uni halls experience, make sure to get yourself a bit of an upgrade for next year, ok? Just somewhere where itÔÇÖs not so common to walk outside your flat to the sight of small-dog-sized-rats making a meal out of your bins.┬á