Rutherford nightmare (Halls Of Residence At The University Of Kent At Canterbury)

Member Name: littleemma

Product:	Halls Of Residence At The University Of Kent At Canterbury
Date:	05/05/02 (700 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: on campus

Disadvantages: expensive, tiny and uncomfortable, noisy

My experiences with halls of residence at the University of Kent were far from positive. When I came to Canterbury in my first year, I had applied for accommodation on campus and got it - and, although I had actually applied for self-catered accommodation, I was put into Rutherford College, the oldest of the four colleges apart from Eliot.

The first shock I had, happened when I walked into my room for the first time and realised that two steps took me from the door to the window (and I'm not particularly tall), which obviously means that the room was, moderately spoken, tiny (the rent is pretty high, however, about £280 per month but paid per term). I had the second shock when I realised that in the kitchen which consisted of a partly-working cooker and kettle (NOT a fridge), I was only allowed to boil water and warm up soup - saucepans and frying was not allowed, officially because of the danger of fire but, as the people in my corridor and I agreed, in fact so that we would have to go to the dining halls and pay between £3-5 for a shitty meal. Double money-making, so to speak. And the third shock? Oh, that was when I fell out of my bed at night because it was so narrow.

It took me about half a month to get used to the university, make a few acquaintances and find the time to look for a different place to live - and after three and a half weeks, I finally moved out. I had hardly gotten any sleep during those weeks (both because of the bed and because the walls were thin enough for me to hear somebody coughing four rooms away from me at night), lived mainly on pot noodles and bread and definitely hadn't had the time nor the nerve to study (but then, it was my first year, so that is probably rather normal).

Fortunately, the house I moved in was better, ie. more spacious, less expensive and more equipped - but a few of my friends still stayed at Rutherford after I had left, either because they were too lazy to look for a different

place or because they didn't have enough money to pay for a second deposit. But hardly any of them really truly liked the college accommodation.

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