By Patricia Obawole

2nd year BU Student, LLB (Hons) Law

So you’ve applied for Bournemouth University and they have given you an conditional offer. Congratulations!! Now you can start considering where you want to live. There’s a whole array of options to choose, from Corfe House (if you want the perfect scenery), Purbeck House (if you want the flat parties), Dorchester House (if you want the lush furniture) and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, as Bournemouth University aren’t Match.com you cannot ask for 6, 4” boys with green eyes and dark hair to live with you (trust me, I tried, and failed).

Has anyone watched the channel four series called “Fresh Meat?” Well for those who haven’t, it’s basically about a couple of students (six I think) all living together in a shared house, or as we Bournemouth students know it as: a Unilet. When they all meet for the first time, they are all kinds of disappointed, and you know it’s because they did not make it into halls (which is where most freshers want to stay) and now they have to live in the second choice of shared housing. Well, this is where I come in *queue dramatic music* I honestly (cross my heart and hope to die) don’t think I could’ve had a better first year, keep reading this and find out why.

To be honest, even still to this day, I don’t really know how I felt when I got the email through saying that I was going to be living in a unilet. I guessed I had university “bigged – up” in my mind and one of the key aspects of that was living in Halls of Residence. I remember dropping off my older sister when she first went to University and being in awe of the tall blocks of flats that she was going to call home for the year, and thinking “I wonder how many flat parties are going to take place here?” UNIVERSITY!! Honestly I didn’t even know of things such as unilets. But as I said before, looking back with hindsight, I wouldn’t have wished for anything else.

There are so many advantages to being in a unilet from little things like: not having to pay for the washing machine, having an actual living room. To slightly bigger things like it really does feel like home (and it makes you feel soo grown up). Also, they are soo much cheaper which means you can spend the excess money on other things (my personal favourite: food! And nights out). Plus, you still get to go to all the awesome flat parties and it’s not as if your treated any differently from any other student…and you don’t have to clear up after, bonus! Also, unilets tend to come in clusters, so you’re not alone, chances are there may be another set of students living down the street be adventurous and check it out! My Unilet was walking distance from the pier and made lovely night-time walks when you really need that crisp, fresh air and even better daytime walks when you can spot out the “talent.”

I guess we can all learn something from Fresh Meat, they had an epic time! It is a little known fact that you get out as much as you put in. If you huff and puff and stamp your feet, then no matter where you live, it won’t be a truly great as it should be. Just go with it and trust me, it’ll be great!