What your freshers’ room says about you

Putting up a postcard from India does not make you an interior decorator

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Considering most rooms in Pollock are very basic and uniform, it’s no surprise that we all come armed with our posters, photos and fairy lights to make everything homely.

Every fresher hall has the standard posters – Trainspotting, Pink floyd and Jimi Hendrix plastered everywhere. The wall hangings of elephant prints and the multiple pictures of friends from back home just to prove you have friends. Anyway here are the some of Pollock’s finest rooms.

The American

In case you couldn’t hear the accent, one Pollock resident makes it obvious that she’s from the States with her good ol’ American flag, the ‘lets get lit’ poster and photos of her and her mates doing shots in the background. I don’t think you could get any more American if you tried.

The Gap Year

This is the classic gap yah room, with ornaments from travels over the walls and photos from exotic places. Fairy lights are a must for the gap yah. As are polaroid photos, one of which usually will have a finger slightly over the lens. The gap yah room will never be tidy, and it will always have an odd smell to it – like that of stale hash and unwashed knitted ponchos. It will always be cared and loved for though.

The Fresher Lad

This is the standard boy fresher room, no posters, only empty beer cans, empty baggies and underwear sprawled everywhere. They’ve always too busy enjoying university lifestyle to begin decorating, or cleaning, or participate in general hygiene. At one point they wondered whether they should get their life together and spent half a day buying folders, pens, and a couple more pairs of socks from H&M. That was all a bit too tiring for them though and since they got back from that shop the folders and pens have been left untouched, along with the 1 and 2 pence coins which aren’t worth scrounging with for a pint in the JMCC Bar.

The Rockstar

Do you music? A question no one needed to ask this aspiring McCartney. If it wasn’t the guitar, oh so subtly placed on the bed, it would be the extra-large Bowie poster and the copy of Melody Maker, hung artfully from the wall, that led you to the conclusion that you were in the presence of soon-to-be greatness. The musician expects to spend a lot of time in their room so has stocked up on homely items – the illegal kettle, the biscuits, the vintage Roberts radio. Mummy’s probably in the process of sending up the record player and vinyl collection. They’re going to have a nasty shock when they realise noise complaints are very much a thing.

The Mess

This one may look strange, but in fairness the room has been bare for the past 3 weeks. He ordered this poster on the internet, only issue is it was supposed to be full size and not A4. Such is the way of The Mess. The Mess didn’t quite prepare themselves for university. Didn’t entirely understand the level of independence that comes with moving away from home. The Mess probably hasn’t been to a lecture yet – and if they went, they’d probably go to the wrong lecture. God bless The Mess.