Flat Sweet Flat

And, the post that many have been waiting for has arrived. This post was meant to be posted much earlier, but it took me a lot longer to get my room cleaned and organized than I expected.

I'm living in Nido Notting Hill for this academic year. If you remember, I didn't get LSE housing which I think is now a payoff as I might have gotten the best "bang for my buck." Nido is a student housing accommodation company that has three different buildings around campus. There is a location a bit closer to LSE in King's Cross, but I decided to live a more far away to escape what stress is expected to arrive with my work. When I arrived at Nido on Tuesday, my room wasn't quite ready, so the security staff were able to store my suitcases which was great.

The building has a lot of amenities including a gym. While I have yet to find this said gym in the building, once I pay an induction fee, I am all set to start using it. The lobby on the first floor includes public computers, a bunch of vending machines, a pool table, and a private movie room as well. The lobby also has wireless internet. As you make your way upstairs in the elevators, we arrive on the third floor--> my home!

View of my room after entering

When you walk into my flat,  you are greeted with the studio set-up. The kitchenette is to the right with the bathroom to the left. The kitchenette is the perfect size for one person. I've got two burners, a fridge underneath the counter that's actually bigger than the mini-fridge I had at Syracuse, about five cabinets, and a microwave/oven combination. Yes, you read that right. The oven and microwave are in the same unit.  I have used the microwave portion, but I have not tried the oven portion. It might be wise to do that during the day...I won't bother anyone sleeping if the fire alarm goes off!

Desk

The bathroom is the usual...again, it's perfect for one person. I've got a huge medicine cabinet and shelves all the way around the room. The rest of the room features my bed with storage underneath, a wardrobe, a desk, and a bean bag chair.  I've added my personal touch, if you can't tell.  My bed was worse than any bed that Syracuse ever provided. Clearly, if it was in the US, I would have brought my own twin mattress as I did for three years at Syracuse. Nevertheless, I went and popped into Argos (think Target and Kmart combined), and picked up memory foam, couple more pillows, and some throw blankets. I will eventually need to add a quilt of some sort to my comforter as it's already started to get a bit frigid in the evenings.

#memories

The desk is quite large and messy at the moment. I'm in the midst of still organizing my jewelry (second shelf) and paperwork from LSE. The top of my desk has scarves, etc. The wardrobe does the job that's needed. I managed to hang up the clothes that need to be hung up with space left over for my winter coats that are on their way. I also have a giant bulletin board above my desk complete with photos of senior year at Syracuse.

My Bed

So, that's just about it. I managed to fit three of my four suitcases in the storage underneath my bed with the leftover one being used as a purse/bag holder. I had to purchase a few more housewares for my room than I was given including some storage bins for my sweatshirts and pajamas. While I have to have an ethernet cable in my room to use the internet, that's the only downside that I have found so far. It took me a good three nights scrubbing and cleaning my flat, but now it's very much me. It will be a great comfort zone to escape graduate school stress. I'll be writing another post this week about my neighborhood as well as trying to finally take a photo of the outside of the building. I meant to do that today, but alas, it was raining cats and dogs with a temperature more suitable for Syracuse.

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