How to live harmoniously with flatmates

by Abhishek, Chief Resident

From creating a sense of home and comfort in a new space to working out a washing-up and cleaning rota, moving into student accommodation for the very first time is no easy feat.

Here’s a low down on how you can not only survive but thrive while living with fellow flatmates at university.

Be considerate at mealtimes

Communal student areas tend to become the busiest and most cluttered during mealtimes, particularly in the evenings when everyone looks to prepare and tuck into a home cooked dinner with fellow flatmates. It’s at this point of the day that students are hoping to relax and unwind following a busy class schedule. In order to live harmoniously with others, it’s crucial that students are courteous of each other during these points in the day as it’s during this time that students look to socialise and enjoy the company they keep.

Be respectful of those around during this time by not outstretching or being too noisy during mealtimes. While we want everyone to relax in their new home, putting your feet up on a table can be unpleasant for others trying to enjoy their meal or drinks in the communal living spaces, as too is shouting or singing whilst others are looking to initiate conversation. Leaving litter around or not cleaning up after themselves is another area students should be aware of if they want to get on and live harmoniously with those around them. It’s important to remember that if you keep the communal spaces clean and tidy, others will follow suit. Create rotas for cleaning, cooking etc. so that workload is shared evenly!

Assign responsibility to tasks early on

There are many essential responsibilities that come with sharing student accommodation with others. For example, the purchasing of washing up liquid, the hoovering of the communal carpets and the wiping down of shared surface areas. Instead of waiting for someone to find the urge to do this early on, it’s best to allocate these responsibilities to individuals who are sharing the space at the beginning of term. Not only will this ensure that essential responsibilities are split fairly amongst the group, it will also instil a sense of camaraderie among them and prevent any arguments or clashes occurring from things not getting done.

Spend quality time together

While inevitably, schedules will clash with fellow students during your first term at university, by organising weekly meetups and social get-togethers with flat mates, you’ll create a sense of community in the shared space with those you live with. These don’t need to be massive nights out but just something everyone can partake in once a week to ensure weekly bonding time in the living spaces. Activities such as movie nights, pizza making or card games, are a great way to get everyone together. Making the effort to socialise in a positive environment will not only ensure you make new friends but will also make it easier to discuss and delegate important tasks and responsibilities with fellow flat mates. You only get 1st year at uni once in your lifetime, so make the most out of it!

For tips on how to live harmoniously with your flat mates, look out for your kitchen meetings!

Four simple but essential tips to meet new people and make friends

by Jeongeun Park, Senior Resident

Starting university is a huge transition for all new students. It is a new adventure full of exciting opportunities as well as enormous challenges. Building a support network is vital in adjusting to university life. Making friends sounds easy, however, in reality, it can be daunting and requires active effort and skills. It is completely normal to feel anxious to leave behind close friends and make new ones. Here are four simple but essential tips that you can take to make this process fun and less stressful.  

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Things I wish people had told me I didn’t need to take all the way from China to uni!

eby Juntao, Senior Resident

I still remember the day  I was packed for my Masters, packing for an exciting adventure to a different country, different culture, and of course, a completely different food system from China. My mum was standing next to me, muttering about all the things I should squeeze into my poor suitcases: clothes, shoes, stationery, sanitary pads, skincare, eye drops, rice cooker, tableware, woks, quilts, pillows… Then there was the day when I was carrying two giant 28-inch suitcases and one boarding case, struggling all the way from the train station in my city to the airport in Shanghai, to the airport in London, and then finally to Bristol. Oh, yes, how can I forget the day when I finally submitted my dissertation and started to pack my things and leave for home, I looked at my wardrobe, sighed, and wished someone had reminded me not to bring this stuff!  

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ResiLife World Art Day 2021: Write up and exhibition announcement

 Rhiannon Roberts, Residential Life Advisor

April 2021, spring is truly underway, flowers in bloom and the city becoming greener and more colourful.

Covid-19 had ripped through our world and given us some of the toughest challenges in our lifetime. As restrictions begin to ease and vaccinations are light at the end of the tunnel we began to hold some optimism for the rest of 2021.

ResiLife, as a service like all others had many challenges to overcome. To maintain supporting our students through this tough time whilst keeping those most at risk safe and well, and protecting our NHS. We too, like others felt the frustrations of screens and lack of contact. (more…)

10 Top Fav Places in Bristol

by Yeliz Vural, Senior Resident

I have been in Bristol since 2017 and I have had chance to explore lots of great places. Here is a list of my top 10 fav places:

1. Harbourside

I love everything about harbourside! It is a convenient place for students and very close to the University Halls in East and West Villages. During the pandemic, outdoor activities (i.e. jogging) around harbourside helped me a lot to cope with my anxiety. Morning walks here are amazing and as a coffee lover I love drinking my coffee in the mornings after a nice walk somewhere close to harbourside. (more…)

ResiLife events of this year part 1: International Women’s Day art and writing competition

This year saw some changes to the way we at Resilife ran events, but run events we did! This blog post series is designed to show off some of the fantastic work you as students have put into engaging with us, and to any new students reading this as you move into halls for the first time – these are just tasters of some of the events our Senior Residents run – which will only get bigger and better once everything (hopefully…) returns to normal!

Part 1 is our International Women’s Day Art and Writing competition, with a theme of ‘Choose to Challenge’, where we all came together to produce art (competition open to those identifying as female) and written pieces (open to all genders). With prizes of £50 CASSArt vouchers open to each winner, we received over 50 fantastic entries, which were assessed by a panel of 6 per category, each containing experts in their field. Below are some of our fantastic entries, and some comments on what made them stand out to us. The quality of all submissions really blew us away, so thank you to each and every one of you who got involved! (more…)

‘Compliment Your Mirror Day’ and other wholesome days of celebration in July

Today’s blog post is a little light-hearted. If you’ve been on Twitter any time over the last 5 years, you may have seen the resurgence of some seemingly ridiculous days of national celebration. I did, however, recently stumble across some that are very wholesome throughout the month of July, and I wanted to share 5 of them with you today with a little help from Google, in the hope that they will make you smile, wherever you are right now.

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Food for Mood 6: Sauerkraut

For our final Food for Mood recipe, Caroline from Every Good Thing showed us how to make Sauerkraut.  This is a German dish that literally translates as “sour cabbage” but don’t let that put you off. Sauerkraut is made by the process of lacto-fermentation, where we’ll be using helpful bacteria present on the veggies and a little salt to make a delicious live pickle that will be packed with nutrients, lactic acid bacteria and fibre  – all fantastic for your gut health. Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last few years, you’ll know something about how important looking after your gut health is! This is a very simple recipe. (more…)

Food for Mood 5: Adding spice to your life with Dahl and rice

This week’s recipe is a quick and easy dhal and brown rice recipe to add in herbs and spices. The dish included in-tact wholegrains (brown rice) with bags of fresh herbs + peas plus the easy to cook red lentils that are great prebiotics and a good source of protein with orange and green vegetables.

Eating a diverse rainbow of colourful foods with added herbs and spices everyday gives our bodies a range of antioxidants, polyphenols and fibre to keep our gut health in tip top shape supporting our mood and giving us energy. Spices, such as garlic, ginger, turmeric and chilli contain potent medicinal properties that offer a range of health benefits. They support our immune system (you’ll get less colds and seasonal bugs and reduce your cancer risk) keep our vascular system healthy (helping our brains and heart work effectively), support our brain function and detoxification (to help cognition, focus, memory and vitality) plus they taste great (we feel good when we eat tasty food!). (more…)

Food for Mood 4: Three very easy suppers

Our next Food for Mood recipes make a very easy supper (and lunch for the next day) with cheap ingredients that are nutrient dense. This is the fourth of six cook-a-long sessions looking at how we can support our mood with food.

You’re busy with your studies and you don’t have time to prep food or even think about your mood. How about making a three-dish meal in 45 minutes that will feed you twice, plus help keep your energy and motivation topped up. (more…)