My flat in the student village

Well, I am getting settled into my flat now.  I have five other flatmates who are all incredibly nice.  Four of them are first year Welsh students.  Their names are Tom, James, Adam, and Jack.  My other roommate is actually an undergraduate student from Iowa State!!  Cynthia is a materials engineering major.  All of them have been incredibly helpful, letting me use their internet to communicate with home, while I get my computer set up. 

The flat consists of six bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom.  Each bedroom has a twin bed, a nightstand, a desk, two shelves, a wardrobe, and a small set of drawers.  

                                           

Just enough for what I need while I’m here.  The kitchen has three small refrigerators and a freezer, although I don’t do much cooking at home, so I doubt I’ll be doing much here.  But, I will need a place to keep my cereal and milk, so this should work fine.  The bathroom, although quite different, is nice because it is split into three separate rooms.  The toilet is in one, there is a shower and sink in the next, and another sink in the third.  This works well with five other roommates, so that more than one person can be getting ready at once.  I think it’s worth noting that not all of the flats are exactly the same (for example, my friend said he had a sink in his room when he stayed in the Student Village) but they are all similar.

My room has two outlets, and luckily with my adaptor, my blow dryer and computer charger work.   Both are dual voltage, so I don’t have to worry about a converter; I just had to turn a little knob on my blow dryer to switch it over. 

Here is a picture of what the outlets look like, since I am always afraid I have the wrong adapters.

As I mentioned before I had to buy bedding.  I would suggest bringing it with you if you can fit it.  It wasn’t too expensive to buy, but it isn’t the highest quality either; however, it will be fine for the next 6 weeks.  I also purchased hangers, laundry detergent, a bowl and silverware (I’m a little bit of a germaphobe and wanted my own), and a cheep plastic bag to carry it home in (only about 45p) since they do not give free bags with purchases here in an effort to prevent people just throwing them away after one use. 

The student village has a little convenience store called the Spar, which is nice to have so close.  I grabbed a box of cereal and milk, some cookies (or biscuits as they say here), and a couple of yogurts there so that I had some food at my flat. 

The hill I live at the top of in the student village, aka my exercise.

I live at the top of a rather large and steep hill in the student village (as seen above), which will be nice because it will ensure I get my exercise everyday since the bus stop is at the bottom.  The bus system is very easy and the drivers are quite friendly, always willing to help me figure out if I’m on the correct bus and which ticket I need.  So far I have just been taking the bus to and from the Student Village, campus (or the uni as they call it here), and the city center. 

The third day I got an extra workout since I decided to do laundy, which entailed three trips up and down the hill.   It also entailed another pleasant interaction with some friendly Welsh student workers at the Spar because I wasn’t paying attention and did not see the hours for the laundry room on the door.  So, when I went to get my things out of the dryer the door was locked and all the lights were off.  Luckily the girls working had the key and were nice enough to let me back in, which was nice because I was almost stuck without a towel for the morning.  I’m sure I won’t make that mistake again!

Fun phrases:

"Fab" as in, That dress is fab!

"Cuppa" meaning a cup of tea, and FYI, white means with milk.

"Cheers" a great word that can be used for many purposes including thanks and ok.