Hey everybody and welcome to today’s video!
My name is Megan and I'm a secondary geography student.
I think that's the first time I have ever said that out loud but I'm going into second
year in September.
And in my first year I was in a catered halls so the hall that I was in was Cavendish Hall
I had the best time there.
I’m actually so gutted I’m not going back there in September as I am going to be in
a student house but my time at Cavendish was great and today I’m here to talk to you
about my experience of living in catered halls.
So a lot of the halls are situated around the downs.
So around the downs you've got Derby hall, Lincoln hall, Lenton and Wortley, Cripps and
Hugh Stewart.
And then some of the other halls are dotted around so Cavendish, ancaster and willoughbuy
are situated near the west entrance so near Coop.
If you have a friend in one hall and you’re in a different one, you're only going to have
a maximum 10 minute walk I'd say to reach them so literally, that it's like its own
little mini village.
some of them are quite big where you have opportunity to meet literally hundreds of
people and then some are a little bit smaller with only a couple hundred.
So why did I choose catered halls?
What are some of the reasons you might want to choose a catered halls over self-catered
where you have a kitchen and you can cook your own food?
Well first of all I thought it would be a great way to make friends because I thought
if I'm eating breakfast and dinner with these people everyday then that is already ready
made friends who are all going to be there if there's hundreds of people in the dining
hall at once surely I'm going to find one friend to sit with, you know I mean.
And I also like the idea of being on campus so my course geography is on the Uni Park
Campus and I thought if I've got lectures then it would be nice to just have quite a
short walk to go there I just like the idea of being around everything else and obviously
the food was a big thing for me I can't really cook I'm learning though coz obviously I have
to cook for myself in less than two weeks time so that will be interesting.
I'm quite lazy if I'm being honest I like the idea of my food being on the table so
that I could spend the rest of my time doing lectures making friends sort of settling into
uni life.
I thought the cooking can come a bit later, that responsibility I'll have in second year
rather than in first yeah it just seemed like the best option for me at the time.
I know it's not for everyone but I personally think, even
in hindsight, catered halls was a great option for me.
So now I'm going to talk about the actual logistics of living in a catered halls.
So what times do you have to go out for breakfast and what time should I have to go for dinner
what happens with lunch so we're going to talk all about that now.
Breakfast I believe was 7:30 to 9:30 so you did have a good two hour slot you didn't have
to get up too early and there's nothing saying that you have to get up and sit in the dining
hall and be all ready, literally people used to come in their pyjamas or they just take
some cereal and take it back to their room or sit in the JCR it was quite chilled.
So for lunch you wouldn't have it sat down in your hall because obviously they recognise
that people were going to be going to lectures, are going to be with friends, you're going
to have stuff to do, you might be in town.
So you have £25 to spend throughout the whole week.
So you have on your student card they load £25 onto it, I think it's called like
a meal bites card I'm that basically means that every day you get £5 to spend which
is quite a lot for lunch I think.
there are so many places on campus to accept your meal card so in a lot of the halls they
have their own cafes so I had Cavendish cafe we had Willoughby hall cafe which is called
vesper, Derby has echo, Hugh Stewart has latitude.
All the different halls sort of do different variations of food.
So Cavendish hall for lunch was really good for wraps and soup and Pitta and Hummus.
Hugh Stewart did an amazing katsu Curry, vesper did pasta lasagna anything like that pizza.
in a week you don't have to go to exactly the same place you could try out the different
menu options and also in the main at Portland building which is the student union that is
where you find most of the food outlets so one of our favourites me and my friends went
to quite a lot was Portland cafe which is the student union run café.
It is like a little coffee shop it's so nice and there they do such good hot drinks, they
do paninis, they did really good vegan options.
Starbucks is also a popular one that we like to go to, apparently there's a subway for
this year which is so exciting it's so sad they didn't have it last year.
but yeah there were loads of different options.
if you don't spend your meal card within the week then you can spend it in the spar, which
is the on-campus supermarket.
I would often not spend £5 everyday so I have like 3 pounds four pounds to spend at
the end of each week in the spar supermarket and you might be wondering why I said you
have lunch five days a week when there's obviously seven days in a week but that's because on
weekends you have brunch so that obviously mixes breakfast and lunch.
They appreciate that students might like to have a little bit of a lie-in so you have
brunch which is from 11:00 o'clock until 1:00 o'clock and that is a full fry up if you want.
obviously if you don't want that, you can have toast or cereal or whatever floats your boat.
they do vegan options as well.
it was a little weekend tradition.
And then dinner was served from 5 to 7.
There's always plenty of food options as well, there wasn't just one set meal and if you didn't
like it that was it there was more options.
So I'm going to talk about the actual menu for dinner which is something that I was so
worried about but then when I got to uni I realised it would be literally completely
OK.
So the menu worked on a 2 week rotation I believe, or maybe it's three weeks, so every
week there was sort of a different menu and then that rotation would then get switched
up at the start of a new term.
So in January and in April we got a completely new menu so you will always try new things
and it never got dull because they'd always switch up the meals.
I'm just going to give you some examples of the food and pop some photos up.
Towards the end of the year they served katsu Curry, we also had a roast pretty much every
Sunday or at least some sort of meat, veg and potato.
We had shepherds pie, we had like other meat or steak pies, wraps which was really good.
We had burgers with onion rings and chips.
As well we have lasagne, and we had tacos.
And I hope that the photos that gave you an insight into what would be there.
There was often dessert.
There was a lot of cakes and ice cream and apple crumble.
There was always a piece of fruit that you could take as well.
And if you didn't fancy the main meal then everyday there was either a jacket potato
or pasta.
If you were busy one night and you missed dinner then apparently you could get a microwave
meal from the kitchen if you told them in advance or you could get a cold option so
they might keep a sandwich back for you or something.
I personally never did this because obviously it was locked down for a lot of my year so
I never missed dinner.
Also if dietary requirements is something that you worried about then you shouldn't
be, as long as you let the hall know just as you start then they'll keep an eye out
and make sure that if you only eat halal then you'll get halal options vegan, veggie, if
you've got a nut allergy.
But if I was being super fussy one day didn't fancy what the option was, then you have pantries
on every corridor.
On my corridor we had two pantries, I think we had one between eight which was a pretty
decent amount and the pantries had a microwave and a toaster and a sink.
And you had a kettle in your room if you want to pop noodle or cuppa soup.
I found that I didn't really reach for the pantry very often, I think I made myself a
sandwich once and it was just handy to have it there if you want to make your hot chocolate,
you could do that in your room without having to trek to the dining hall.
but obviously if cooking is a big part of your life and you quite enjoy it and you were
super fussy and just know that you want your own food, then self-catered might be a better
option.
So I'm going to shut up about the food now because I feel like I spend so long talking
about that.
I'm going to talk about the social side of living in catered halls.
The formals was a big part of catered hall life.
I mean they do have them in self-catered halls but I think it's quite different for catered
halls because like you actually have it in your own hall and it's just really exciting.
We had a Christmas formal which was under the guidelines at the time so it wasn't quite
what it could have been, but it was still pretty good.
We got dressed up, we had a really nice roast, a really nice dessert, so I really loved that.
And it's just nice because they played festive music and we had to go home early that term
because that was what the government was suggesting at the time, so it was nice just do a little
bit of festive farewell.
Also we did an end of term, but like an end of year formal which was so much fun. we didn't
know if that was going to happen, but restrictions lifted enough so that we can have a formal
and that was one of my favourite night.
And then after people went into the JCR.
You're going to hear a lot about the JCR and it's good if you actually know what that means.
So the JCR is basically a common room, a bit similar to a common room that you might have
had in sixth form.
So you have sofas a pool table, maybe football table if you're lucky, a TV. and it's just
it's big enough to accommodate a lot of people.
In in the beginning it was the place.
Actually I went in there on my first day within the first couple of hours of being there.
I just socialised, met people.
When they'd be football on, people would sit downstairs and watch football.
People would put movies on, there's just lots of different opportunities for meeting like-minded
people and it soon started feel at home quite quickly.
As soon as I decorated my room.
you have quite a bit of freedom with decorating your room.
command strips are a must because they don't leave any marks on the wall at all.
You know when you're at home with your family and after dinner you sort of maybe wash up
together, and you know they might be like at eight we're going to watch something on
TV, if you want to come down and watch TV with us.
I was quite worried that I go to uni and then after dinner at 7 everyone would be like,
bye, and then you don't see anyone for the rest of the night.
But honestly, a lot of nights, unless we were all busy with coursework, we'd go and sit
in someone's room and just chat.
And the amount of times I’d just be walking somewhere and I bump into someone in the corridor
and would end up standing there for half an hour just having a chat.
Most times I went into the pantry, I would bump into someone in my corridor.
Halls is just a lovely community vibe.
We did so many things in our rooms although obviously we didn't have a kitchen, we really
utilise our rooms.
We did movie nights, you just put on High School Musical on someone's laptop and sit
there for a few hours.
Birthdays we loved, we would always get a cake for someone's and would always do a takeaway
for someone's birthday, just to make it a little bit special.
Halls is such a unique experience that you might only experience once in your life so
it's nice to just make the most of it and I have such fond memories to look back at.
And then not only did it feel like home but it also felt really safe.
So to get into the hall you needed your student ID to tap you in and then obviously you had
a key to your room but there was also a Porter.
Our Porter Pa was lovely guy, but it was just so easy if you're ever having a problem.
If you locked yourself out your room, or there's something wrong with your room or people are
making a bit too much noise and it was around exam time, then you could easily ring up the
Porter and be like can you come and sort out this issue please.
And they would be there so quickly and even if the Porter isn't there then there's always
a number that you can ring at literally 24/7.
Catered halls isn't for everyone but if you are someone that wants ready made friends
who you can go and have meals with every single day, if you want somewhere that's going to
feel really safe, if you want somewhere where your meals are just there for you waiting
then catered halls will be perfect for you.
And as I said I've no regrets I would 100% go back to catered halls if I could but I'm
ready for a new adventure at the student house.
If you have any more questions about catered halls there just leave them in the comments
and we will get back to you.
If you'd like to follow my university journey and see some vlogs, a room tour of catered
halls then all of that is all my own channel which is Megan Mahoney.
Thank you so much for watching I really hope you enjoyed this video and if you're moving
into catered halls or if you're thinking about it then I know that you're going to have a
great time.
Thanks for watching bye.