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Hi guys. I'm Maddy, and I'm a first-year Business Management and French student
And I'm going to show you around Derby Hall on University Park campus.
So all of the halls have a reception area, which is where you’ll come and pick up any
parcels that you might order. They're in the office 8am - 5pm in the week, which is really
handy if you've got any questions, any problems with your room, the bathrooms – that kind
of thing. And then in the evenings and at the weekends, there will be a porter or a
member of security who can help you out if anything happens out of those office hours
– so that's really good.
This is the Derby dining room, so you can come here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
every day. My favourite thing about catered halls is the fact that it’s catered – I
find it so sociable. You can come down with your corridor, or with someone you know from
your course, who just happens to be in your halls. We also have four formals every year.
So everyone dresses up really nicely, comes and sits in the dining room – and then we've
got the top table (which you can kind of see at the back), and that's where the warden,
members of the JCR (which are students who, kind of, represent the hall) and, sort of,
academic guests will sit for formals.
Most of it is self-service. There’s always three options - so international, vegetarian,
and homely, so there's always something. And if that doesn't suit you they can make a jacket
potato or that kind of thing for you, which is really good. And then things like fruit,
yoghurts, salad, hot drinks in the corner – that's all unlimited, and you sort of
help yourself to that as well. I've really enjoyed the food this year, and I find it
a huge benefit that I didn't have to do any washing up. So breakfast is 7:45am - 9:30am
every day; lunch is 12:30pm - 1:30pm; and dinner is 5:30pm until 7:30pm. If you can't
make any of those times (so for all three meals, you can request the day before), just
fill out a small form saying what you would like. So dinner is probably the most convenient
one; they'll give you a microwave meal which could be, like, chilli con carne, a curry
– there’s about six or seven different options, so if you missed quite a lot of meals
it doesn't get too boring either! And then you just come and pick it up when it suits
you and take it back to your room. We've all got fridges in our rooms, and then microwaves
in the pantry. So it's really, really handy, yeah, if you do miss those mealtimes – there's
always something to sort yourself out.
One of my favourite things about Derby is it's got one of four of the hall bars. So
this is Echo, which specializes in burgers, and it's open every day 11:00am - 11:00pm.
And you can also get, like, drinks here; it’s not just food. And catered students get their
student card topped up with £5.30 every day, so you can come in here and spend that. And
the food is seriously good, it's so nice in here – but it’s also like a really nice
place to chill out. There’s a football table, TV, darts – that kind of thing – so it's
a really nice place to come with friends.
This is the Derby Hall library, and every catered hall has its own library. Derby’s
is quite big, obviously, because, I think, it's the third biggest hall on campus. It's
obviously really quiet because everyone’s just finished exams but it's a really nice
space during exam time. Obviously there are two big libraries on University Park campus,
but then there’s like this space that you can just use and, yeah, it's not too intense.
And then you get to, like, see people, obviously – that sort of thing – and then there's,
like, computer facilities and some books as well.
There’s two mailboxes: so an internal, if you need to send something to maybe, like,
your personal tutor, that kind of thing – someone who is based on campus; and an external, so
you don't have to go all the way to the Portland Building to post letters, which is quite handy.
And then there's two communal areas just through here. So this first one is like a games / TV
room; there's like a ping-pong table and a TV in here, and there’s loads of different
board games as well available. Quite a lot of people come in here before, like, going
out; or instead of going out in the evening, just to relax.
And then this is probably the most important communal space – it's the JCR, and it's just a really nice place to
sit and watch TV; come with friends. So there's like another dart board, pool, table football,
a Wii in here, a Sky Digibox, DVD player, amp – that kind of thing. And they’re
just things that our JCR have decided to buy over the years.
This is the safe bike lock. You don't actually get the key when you move in, so you'll have
to go to reception and request a key, because, obviously, not everybody has a bike. I bought
mine just after Christmas, and it's been so good because, obviously, I'm half the time
on Jubilee campus. There is a Hopper Bus service, which can literally take you straight from
outside Derby Hall to the other campus, but, yeah – so you can lock your bikes up in
here. So, this is the laundry room. There's loads
of washers and dryers, which means at the start of term I found myself waiting quite
a lot, but now it’s gotten far better. We hardly ever have to wait for washing machine
or dryer – I think people get a bit excited by the concept of washing, and then it kind
of wears off and you realise you don’t need to wash half as much as you have been.
You'll be given a wash station card which you can load online and then you just like
hold it to here. I've never actually loaded mine because the one on the end you can use cash.
This is like the master key - so this lets me into my block, to my bedroom, to the laundry
room, to the JCR and the games room - so a really important one but obviously it's slightly
different for everyone's room.
Matlock is made up of three floors and there are roughly
30 rooms on each floor, which was a bit daunting at first but I really liked it because it
meant from the second I’d moved in I already knew about 29 other people which was really,
really, nice. And these are all single study plus, which just means that it’s a sort
of standard room but with a double bed and that means that we do share bathrooms. So
there are three main bathrooms distributed across the floor but you don't just share
with 10 people - the ratio is still you have one bathroom (so one shower, one toilet),
between five people. I'm really lucky because I'm right next to the bathroom.
So, this is my single study plus. I originally applied for just a normal single study - I thought
that it would reduce my space but it's actually been really nice. We have movie nights that
kind of thing with friends and I really do like my room - so it came with, obviously,
the wardrobe, the sink and storage space which is really handy obviously. I share a bathroom
but it's nice to not always have to go to the bathroom every time I just want to wash
my hands, wash my face, in the morning. And the towel rack, pin-board - which I thought
it just made it so much more homely for me. Got the bookshelf and desk, desk- chair and
sofa chair as well as then a mini-fridge. My sister was also on this corridor in one
of the rooms just a little bit further down from here but when she was here they were
single beds - so I thought I wouldn't have very much space but it's a really spacious
room even with all the furniture in it and with a sink. So, that concludes my tour of
Derby Hall - I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Good luck with your results
and we hope to see you in September.