Hall of Residence

Hall has always held a special place in my heart. I believe every undergrad, especially in NTU, should experience it at least for a year, and the school has made this easier for us by guaranteeing all freshies a double room. Of course hall life isn't just about staying on campus; it's the friendship we have with fellow residents that makes it more fulfilling.

Unfortunately, I can't really say the same for myself, lol. My own hall life peaked in year 2, then became really minimal in year 3, and even more so in year 4. I've asked to join the dance team again now that I've become a legal resident. At least get to know some of the new birds and mingle with the older ones for awhile before I graduate.

Besides the people, some of us, like me perhaps, really need the accommodation because home is just too far away and the convenience and privacy of a hall room is something that's desired. I decided to apply for a single room because well, last chance to try it out! And I must say, I'm definitely loving single room thus far :)

Year 1: roomed with Amelia! We had so much fun doing nonsense together, shopping, eating chips, bathing (she didn't dare to bathe on her own!), waking up late, hosting friends to drink and supper, having her not-yet-boyfriend-at-that-time over, .... and of course having Elizabeth and Yangyang stay in the same hall made going for classes fun too :) Good times, year 1.

Year 2: I squatted with Eileen and Deborah, think I caused a lot of inconvenience to them cos the room was so small and well it was hard for them to reject me :/ I tried to make up for it by cleaning the room whenever there was a lot of hair and stuff. Least I could do for them! Then of course we had meals together, and that was when I started my yearly reading room routine with Eileen... Soon I got allocated a room after the first sem's exams, with Fiona, and I was sooo thankful to be rooming with a local roomie! :P And a very nice girl too!

Year 3: Had the luxury of staying in one of the biggest rooms in hall, at the ampitheatre area! I didn't get this room initially although I applied for one of the rooms on this stretch. Emailed Mr Yip and he kindly put me here because I wanted to continue staying in blk 60 and specifically at the semicircle, no special reasons but he still agreed :) Roomed with Fiona again and we got along quite well :) Our friends came over occasionally and our room's perfect for hosting friends because it's so big!! We shared a fridge, split payment for the fridge, and had lotsa good food too! Must thank her for putting up with all my nonsense all the time :P Of course, Wen Ming came over quite often too especially when I was unable to leave school because of dance and academic commitments.

I don't have photos of my rooms in year 1 and 2, so here's what I have from year 3 onwards. I attempted to use the panorama mode on my phone, pardon me if it looks quite uneven lol. Pictures for year 3 show the empty room just before we shifted out completely.

Sorry this is quite badly taken lol. 

My half of the room!

Year 4: I did not do enough (dance and 1 subcomm alone wasn't enough obviously, plus I didn't turn up for most hall events) to get myself a space on the rec list, as expected, so I just settled for waiting for waitlist allocation.. with just 12 points. I tried looking around for people who may want to rent out their rooms too, because I really wanted to continue my exam preparation routine in hall. I can't study at home for nuts! And on exam days it's important to get as much sleep as possible the night before, so the best way to do so was to get enough sleep in hall and cut down on that three hours of travelling time.

Thankfully, one of my dance juniors, Zhen Yan, said she was going to withdraw but can hold on to the room if I wanted it! AND it's a single room! Of course I said yes!! But the thing is, I'm a familiar face to the hall office and it wouldn't be nice if they found out that I was renting it illegally :/ So I applied to be a legal squatter, and  instead of paying the squatter fees for Zhen Yan's room, I'm paying the full fees and she's paying the squatter fees because, well, she hasn't shifted out completely...  Here's the room which I stayed in for two weeks:

Just after I cleaned the floor and put my bedsheet! 

Yes, I stayed there for only two weeks, all the while still monitoring the waitlist online. As of 22 Nov, there were still 20 girls with 13 points on the waitlist. I thought, well, my turn should come quite soon. But I didn't expect it to be THAT soon!

My offer of hall accommodation email came just this week on Monday, which made me sooooooooo overjoyed I had to share it immediately with Wen Ming, Amelia, Elizabeth and even Huihui who was in the reading room with me at that time! I was so happy I couldn't focus and went down to the hall office to ask which room it was and when was the latest day I could return my squatter key.

Well they allocated a room that was just NEXT DOOR. Can you believe it? And I was thinking, how's it possible that I got my room so soon? Were they clearing the 12 pointers already? Was I like the first few 12 pointers to be offered a room? I thought, perhaps, I could have been placed on priority list by the JCRC (at least my batch put all the residents who have contributed but not enough to secure a place on rec list on that list), or be offered so soon because I was squatting, or maybe cos' the hall office knows me?? I don't know how but they just did and I decided to just thank God and thank them for it :) Plus, being allocated a room next door (to Zhen Yan's room) meant shifting in would be so much easier!

The thing about this room is... I knew that from the time I shifted into Zhen Yan's room, it was vacant already. And this continued for as long as I stayed. I wondered why it was vacant for so long and they did not allocate it. So anyway, okay, I got my key and opened the door.

Check out that floor. HOW DUSTY IS THAT?! And election flyers?? This room had been vacant for a whole sem!!!!!!! When I asked Mr Yip, he said that it's difficult to clear the single rooms, but didn't elaborate more and I didn't push for an answer because, well, I should be grateful instead of asking so many questions. So I just take it that it has been kept for me, and they couldn't put me here until the waitlist has cleared and they were able to do so legally. Oh what strong denial and justification, hahaha. Amazing how the mind does this to reduce uncertainty and ambiguity to protect our ego. 

I did MEGA cleaning of this room that whole afternoon because I wanted to dedicate the whole of the next day to studying for my forensic psych paper, so might as well do it immediately. Plus I needed to familiarise myself with the orientation of the room, the table and the bed so that I could sleep better the next night (ya right. I couldn't fall asleep actually). Opened the windows wide, kept the door open, and blasted the fan to allow some fresh air in - the stale smell was a little too much to bear. Here's how it looks like after cleaning and shifting in!   

Tada!! Not bad right :) Finally had a whole room to myself with only my stuff inside!

The parcel you see is the wrong item received from HH, which I was gonna mail back. 

My bed and my Ah Bear. With my laundry basket at the corner. 

Oyster now has her own corner! :)

Hello there my friend :)

So yes.. I'm loving how things turned out so far, and extremely grateful for all the favour that God has showered upon me through my years here. It always pays to remember and acknowledge the source of all my blessings and give honour to Him :) 

I think I'll definitely miss NTU and Hall 12 when I have to graduate. My time is limited, and I'm determined to be thankful, appreciate, and make the best out of it :)