My start of uni life was... interesting
I know I waffle on... sorry.

I was informed that I lived "too close" to the Uni to be priority for halls. I lived 50 miles away from the uni and didn't really feel like driving that far for possibly as little as 2 hours of lectures a day.

The accommodation manager said I would be able to stay with a host family. Now I had never heard of this before, but basically it's people who want easy money and have a shitty room in their house free. So I was given directions and was informed it was in Blackbird Leyes, for those not familiar with Oxford this isn't really the place you want to live unless you have a fondness for burberry and making your car look like you have reversed it through a filler factory before sticking last years christmas lights on underneath.

So I arrive in my (totally standard) Nissan Micra loaded to the hilt with all my worldly possessions. I knock on the door and meet my new "Family" for what could potentially be 10 weeks. They were called Shaz and Dave. This was not a good start. They also had a dog called Buster who was not neutered and therefore tried to get rather too friendly. I was never asked if I had problems with dogs, or even if I was allergic to them! Luckily I don't or it would have been even worse.

So I am led to my room. It is covered in Disney wallpaper, there are Disney framed pictures on the walls, Disney lampshades, Disney cushions and more stuffed toys that I have possibly ever owned in my life. I died a little inside. My "desk" was also a triangular piece of wood that Dave had nailed to the wall the previous night.
I had brought food supplies and was looking forward to some hot soup, however cooking it in anything in that kitchen would have meant that I would have been eating more unknown than known...

I cried myself to sleep and woke up at about 6am. Braved the disgusting shower (hair, mould, dirt you name it) and I decided to get the bus to Oxford and have a walk round then head up to the Uni to try and meet some people. I also started calling the accommodation guys and leaving sobbing messages on their answerphones (I am not ashamed to play the damsel in distress and I wanted out of there ASAP!).

At about 9:01 the manager calls me back and informs me that they are looking for somewhere for me. I sniffle my thanks. 9:28 and he offers me a place in a Catholic girls only dorm where I would be sharing with someone. This sounded like heaven. I am not religious in any way shape or form, but god sounded way better than Walt fecking Disney.

10:05 they have found me a room in another hall I can move in today. Excellent! (I did actually jump for joy a little in the middle of Oxford). So by the time I finished up at the Union and got back to Shaz and Dave's informed them I was leaving (try not to grin like a maniac) and get to the new halls (which I eventually found) it was 7pm and no one was expecting me. I was pretty drained so I did just start crying, so the nice hall warden spent 30 mins phoning people and sorting it out.

I got the key to my lovely new room and even the dried sick and mouldy cheese that had been left by the last resident (lasted 3 days before getting major alcohol poisoning and leaving sharpish so no time for the cleaners to get in) couldn't tarnish my joy.

And yeah it was Brookes not the "Proper" Oxford :p
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 18 Jan 2008, 10:08, 1 reply)

I'd imagine
that sharing with someone in a Catholic girls only dorm would be heaven for quite a lot of people on here...
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 18 Jan 2008, 12:12, closed)