Home Sweet Home?

If you thought halls was the reality of living with students, think again ….

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By now you freshers are contemplating life after halls. You’ve chosen the victims you’ll be living with and have endured the endless search for the “perfect house”.  What could possibly go wrong?

Living with fellow students can be a big shock to the system. You may under the pretence that living with your friends will be like one big, happy sleepover, but house sharing can be far from perfect.

After a couple of nights you definitely won’t all want to sleep like this…

Everyone has been brought up with different house rules.  There is always someone who traipses mud through the house, puts their bare feet on the table, leaves a pile of slowly moulding washing up and feigns ignorance that they were trying to grow penicillin.

For some, ‘washing up’ is an alien term.

Kitchens tend to be prime problem areas. One inexperienced cook can burn the house down when they decide to make chips. Yet, the ultimate fail has to be when someone in a zombie- like state turns off the freezer switch instead of the toaster, the depression that comes with knowing all of your food has gone to waste is unmatched. We’re students! It took a lot to actually buy freezer food and wave Dominos goodbye.

Bathrooms are another bad habit breeding ground. Washing your hands over a tooth- paste streaked sink or slipping on someone else’s leftover bath scum is the least of your worries. Gone are the days of the UEA ensuite accommodation, now you must be prepared with a face mask and some body spray in the mornings. Worst still is that awful moment when someone has used the last of the toilet roll and not replaced it.

Nobody likes a toilet roll hog.

At night, there are no words to explain the terror when you think your housemate has broken through your bedroom wall. Then you realise it’s just their bed crying out in an attempt to escape the imminent damage it will be facing from their one night stand.

What’s that noise? Oh no, wait … awkward

Being a group of adolescent “know it alls” with an “I know I’m right” attitude can lead to a fair few arguments. What was once funny banter becomes a full blown slag match; EastEnders has come to Norwich. This week someone didn’t hoover, another person has taken up the whole fridge, and don’t even get us started on the person who blocked the toilet.

If you’re a first year you have all this to come, the rest of us know the ups and downs of living with friends, but in the end they are that. As much as you hate their habits, they are the ones you cry with over tubs of Ben and Jerry’s, they are the ones that make you laugh until you can’t stand and drag you home after a drunken night out. The university experience just wouldn’t be the same without them and their annoying ways.

If these guys can do it, so can we!