So this Tuesday I finally completed my quarantine!! šš
My new room is now at the second floor of the building and the view from my window isā¦
Not really great! š
Sadly Iāve got a room where the window is directly in front of a wall^^ I tried to ask if I could maybe move to another room (there would have been a 100RM [~20$] fee but that would have been fine for me) but sadly the hostel management said that there are no rooms available where the window is not in front of a wall, so I guess Iām stuck with that room for a whileā¦ I donāt mind staring at a wall as I donāt look out of the window that much, but it makes my whole room very dark, so I always have to use artificial lights. The worst thing about it is that getting up is now much much harder for me. I wake up way easier if there is sunlight shining in my window, but when I now wake up I canāt tell the difference between 8am and 11am.
Apart from that the room is fine though. Except the AC is making strange noises, so I have to file a complaint for that tooā¦ And there were ants in my roomā¦ I woke up on the second day to find my Laptop and desk covered in ants! I immediately wrote the hostel management that I wanted to change my room, but after killing like 20-30 ants while having my lectures they appeared less and less frequently so I thought that the reason might have been, that the window was opened when I first moved into my room. After my lectures I bought some bug spray from the 7/11 downstairs and fogged my whole room with the spray twice and left it like that for 10-15 min each time. After that I fortunately didnāt see any more ants. Because of that my room smelled like bug spray for the next two days thoughā¦^^ But well thatās a cost Iām willing to pay. That also meant that they most likely came through the open window, so Iām good now as I will never open my window anyways.
I started now to pack out all my stuff and really use and decorate my room. I still have to put up the pictures of my friends I printed out but apart from that everything is tidied up now and has its place š
The new shared bathroom and kitchen are luckily also very clean. My housemates really pay attention to have everything clean. Whatās funny is that they have put so many shower gels and shampoos in the showers, it thought for a second I was living with girls š
aSpeaking of girls, in the house rules it was written that āunauthorizedā visits to room of the other gender are strictly forbidden. I was wondering what exactly āunauthorizedā meant, do I have to notify the management if I wanted to visit somebody or what?^^ I asked this my guide and he told me that it just meant that it is completely forbidden^^ Itās still allowed to be together in the common rooms and the hostel lounge and everything but they donāt want anybody in the private rooms. āSo that there wonāt be any āāaccidentsāā ā^^ A bit weird for someone coming from a very liberal country but yeah itās still fine and somewhat understandable. After all this is a pretty strict and Muslim country, couples are even forbidden to show affection in any way in public^^
Aalso, what just came to my mind, at the reception there was sing of a survey about harassment in the hostel.
It might not be the most representative study, with 36 female and 10 male participants but still, itās very sad to see that there seems to be also a problem with sexual harassment at this hostelā¦ Maybe for that reason it might be not that bad that the genders are separated into different blocks at this hostel.
Also of course the gentle reminder: always stand up for women if you see something bad going on. Speak up and curse on them assholes if you see them harassing women or pushing them to uncomfortable things. Most of the time you will witness something like this in public, so people will help you if things go out of control. And if you see something like that going on with only you around, especially step in and help people in need. If youāre afraid of them attacking you, call the police first, take pictures and then step in, the worst that can happen is that you get a black eye and if it gets worse than that you at least called the police which can take care of you. But thatās like the worst possible scenario and Iām pretty sure that wonāt happen most of the time. And I think a small injury is definitely worth saving people from harassment, discrimination or worse things.
Well, coming back to the main topic^^, the next few days were packed with lectures and assignments I had to do, it caught me a bit off guard how fast it went to full study mode. I had to pretty long assignments in the next days and we learned about all the different group assignments we have to complete over the course of this semester. I first was worried that I would have trouble finding groups, but it was actually quite simple, I just wrote some people over Microsoft Teams and they all were very nice and had no problem taking me into their group š
The assignments will be quite some work, we have to do a whole website in one class where we partner up with people from the school of business. They have a business idea and a plan on how they want to have their website and we have to build it for them, it will get a bit challenging as the schedule is very tight, but I think it also will be an exciting task! I already had a similar group assignment back in my home country so I kinda know what to expect.
The other group assignment is creating a web application in php, as I have no foreknowledge in that area it might get a bit trickier. But then no one in this course has so much knowledge as it is a beginner class so it shouldnāt be super hard. For the last group assignment I still donāt know what we have to do as we get the tutorial for that next week, but it will involve virtual machines, kali linux and network security so Iām really hyped to learn how to penetration test networks and stuff! The last class I have doesnāt have a group assignment but our lecturer told us that the exam will be very hard and if I read it correctly we will also have a mid-term exam in that class, so I canāt allow myself to be behind with the subject. Our whole semester is 12 weeks and weāre already done with week 2, so 10 more weeks and the semester is already over! š® But I think somehow I will manage it. Somehow everything is manageable^^
Because of the classes and assignments I havenāt gotten the chance to go off campus yet but I plan to go to the next biggest mall tomorrow to get some stuff I wanted for my room. And on Sunday I might manage to get really into the city and wander around a bit! š
Speaking of malls! Guess what, my whole hostel building is actually a mall!!
Yesterday I met with the guide who was assigned to me from hostel management! A really nice guy called Liaw. Heās a student here and study architecture for a year now. He originally came from the Malaysian part of the island Burma, so heās not really local too. But he showed me around the hostel area a bit and offered me to show me the city and everything too! Iām really looking forward to that!!
Anyways back to the mall, the hostel reception is at the first level and from there upwards the rooms are. But the ground floor and lower levels 1&2 are filled with shops and restaurants! We have four small shops like 7/11 or FamilyMart, one haircutter and many different restaurants! From Chinese to Indian to fried chicken and noodles, there are many places to try out! It blew my mind that there was so much more to the hostel building than I expected! Thereās even a Starbucks! Iām not a big fan of Starbucks but its crazy that we have one! Some of the restaurants are still closed but many are open. We even got a vending machine with the craziest popcorn flavors you have ever seen! š
Also we have a lake at our campus which looks pretty nice š
Also the singing of the muezzin is very nice here, you can hear it all five times a day š
(The sound may sound a bit botched though, you can hear the singing pretty clear if youāre standing here, but my phone makes it much quieter so I had to enhance the audio and try to get rid of the background noise, but still you get the idea^^)
It was very nice talking to Liaw as we had many topics and even talked about Chinese politics and stuff which is like one of my favorite discussion topics^^
I also talked to one housemate next door who also seemed very nice, he also immediately offered me help I f I had any questions. Heās also a local from here so I hope I can maybe hang out sometime with him and he can show me a bit around š
Today I was outside with a housemate I met while we were both isolating at the same floor. We went for lunch and dinner at the hostel mall and walked around the campus a bit. The university campus is open and looks so awesome! I havenāt taken any pictures yet but there is so much I have to show you!! Walls full of descriptions showing different innovations the students of interior design and architecture came up with and a really nice common room! And that was just a bit at the ground floor which I saw while walking by. So I think thereās still way more to discover!
That guy was also very nice but he seemed a but sad as it is the first time for him being away from his family and having to get used to so much new stuff without man people he knows. Heās also Bengali so Iām pretty sure he is quite a family person so I can imagine that it might be extra hard for him. For me itās a bit easier as I got used to being on my own from my previous travels and living in a rented apartment back home. But I think he will become accustomed to everything once heās here for some months. The pandemic makes such stuff way harder though, although we live in a hostel with so many other students itās way harder to meet new people. Also having only online classes doesnāt work in out favors here. But well, if you try you can overcome all those obstacles and still have a good time š
Iām really looking forward to the next weeks! I think I have to take the uni stuff very seriously and should not spend too much time exploring the city but I think every now and then I can allow myself to drive to the city and look around a bit š