Before I joined the University of Manchester, I was both happy and nervous about some things. Grades, assignments, food and mainly the accommodation. Because, in a new city accommodation is more than just a room. For me personally, I did not know anybody in Manchester. It was a new country, a new city, and a whole new lifestyle. Finding the right accommodation was a task: I had to consider the distance from university, the security, the environment, the support and facilities, everything.  After considering all the options I decided to stay in University of Manchester accommodation.

The first night in my accommodation, I felt very happy and overwhelmed too. I had my room ready by the time I reached here, everything was cleaned and organised. I just came and crashed as I was exhausted from travel. I woke up the next day, and the kitchen was fully equipped, it had everything that a student could possibly need. So cooking my first meal was not that hard. Everything from the private facilities to the shared facilities was very clean and very well maintained. And in the moment I realised I made the right choice to go with student accommodation.

Here, we have 24/7 security and surveillance, so I don’t have to worry about safety. One thing is for sure: nobody can enter the building without permission, which actually puts my heart at ease knowing it’s a safe place. Not just that, once there was an issue with the heating system. So I just dropped an email to my management, and it was fixed in the next 4-5 hours. The biggest advantage is that deliveries, post and parcels are always taken care of, you don’t have to be home to receive them.  

Apart from this, the actual fun part of having the ResLife team here in university accommodation is the events! ResLife hosts a lot of events, I would say every two weeks there is an event happening. Every festival, occasion and culture is celebrated, and there are a lot of workshops, the last I attended was pom-pom flower-making workshops. They also give out free tickets, vouchers, and freebies.

During exam season, in some of the accommodations, the ResLife team will arrange free breakfast stalls. The best part is that when there are such events, everyone is invited, so that a great opportunity to meet new people and make friends. Not just that, there are constant emails from ResLife asking about your well-being, what to do during holidays, how and who to approach if something goes wrong.  They just make sure everything is taken care of, and we have a great time staying with them. This has helped find new friends, do my favourite activities like sip and paint, and made me feel at home in a new city. Sometimes I don’t feel like attending the events, but just looking at them and being in the audience made me feel light at times. All I can say that the Res Life team just help you feel at home in a new city and make things easy.

Written by Jahnavi, a current postgraduate student in SEED. 

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