My Room: A Safe Haven

I'm really impressed with the standard of accommodation provided by Jesus College - I must really thank God for an awesome room, it's just splendid and almost hotel standard! Or maybe my standards are way too low, oh well!

I found out from a friend (an Italian from Bolognia, called Marco) that Jesus College is one of the richest colleges, and that's why it can afford to have such nice rooms and give its students travel grants, book funds and other what nots. So, really, thank God! Because I made the choice just based on the name, and nothing much. So I guess, blessed be Your name!

I guess I could show you what my room looks like but first up is the customary toilet video- the reason why I took this video was because I learnt how strong the toilet flush was the hard way, with all the water splashing onto me:

I'm not sure where to start from my room - oh very well, let's start from the bed shall we?

My Bed, Bedside Table and Armchair - Wei Hong sleeping

I'm given a duvet (which is like this thick comforter/quilt), a mattress with bedsheet, and two pillows to hug. It's pretty darn awesome already, but I think when winter comes I might need something extra - I'm not sure what to do but my Italian neighbour (alright his name is Marco so I'll call him that from now on) says that he wouldn't mind lending me his fan radiator, which is essentially a thermistor with a fan blowing across it. Sounds decent enough - it costs about £15 or so.

I'm given a really large desk to work on, and I'm really grateful for that:

My Workstation - A Laptop on a Desktop

I'm given those type of office-roller chairs and it allows for much self-entertainment rolling around; the windowsills are really pretty and I'm given a desk lamp as well (it's so dark and gloomy here it's absolutely essential). 

The previous tenant left an owl ornament for me, made up of cardboard pieces - it's quite cute and elegant if you look at it closely:

My Study Companion - The Night Owl

I really hope I don't become a night owl here at Jesus College! My neighbours tell me it's really common for students to study all the way till 4 am with their desk lamps on the whole night. Apparently, Oxford is known for rigorous mugging. I wonder if I'll become the mugger that I was in JC again?

The Food Corner

Part of my bookshelf is now the snacks corner - but frankly speaking, I haven't eaten any snacks at all ever since coming to Oxford. I gave away my Toblerone chocolate bar to Marco as a sign of friendship and the potato rings you see here? I haven't even touched it ever since I bought it from Sainsbury's. I guess they're all there just in case I have a sudden hunger pang. There's Ovaltine, chicken rice paste, Milo, four glasses, a big pack of potato rings, some tupperwares and a 1 kg pack of long grain rice. And my oh my, is rice expensive here in Oxford!

The Quintessentials on the Bookshelf

I guess there's nothing much on my bookshelf right now except for some Christian books and just one textbook - the rest of my textbooks are on my computer because they were much too heavy to lug to the UK. Oh well. I guess there's always the library!

The Water Corner

Ah yes, there's a small corner, just this niche in my room that I've set aside for placing my mineral water and my travel kettle. But I just bought a water filter (so that I can just filter my tap water to drink), so I guess this water corner will vanish pretty soon, and I'll shift my kettle to my work desk where the filter is.

Oh yes, the windowsill, it might just become my favourite place for doing quiet time:

The Windowsill Beside Ship Street

 Today someone was just whistling Guantanamera along the streets and I heard it from the windowsill - I whistled back in reciprocation, but I got no reply. Oh well.

Sleeping Bag by the Windowsill

It's a pretty nice position for sun bathing - but a pity it's so cloudy, you're just going to be basking in Rayleigh-scattered light, haha!

Back Street Entrance, Jesus College
View of Ship Street from the Window

So this is how the street looks like from my window - you're staring at the back entrance of Jesus College in the above picture. The picture below shows the top of the building - looks somewhat like a castle but not quite. How do you describe such architecture?

Jesus College Building, Back Entrance

And this is what's behind me and the laptop when I sit down to have a chat with you guys or do some work. There's a nice big wardrobe, a washbasin beside it, and do you notice that beside the work desk there's a notice board? It's full of thumb-tacks, and apparently I can tack up all my important notices up to remind me of my schedule! How convenient!

My Wardrobe and Wash Basin

Oh yes, I found a shoe rack in my room, how nice of Jesus College; but Wei Hong's stuff is cluttering up my shoe rack space, haha:

My Shoe Rack - My Shoes and Wei Hong's Stuff

And my washbasin looks quite organized, no? I've toothpaste, a glass for my toothbrush and gargling, a sponge and dettol spray to clean the basin, cleaning cloth, facial wash, shower foam, shampoo and shaver:

My Wash Basin (Close Up)

And they even give me a mirror! I guess when I wear my formal suit or full academic dress I can stare at my clumsy self:

My Mirror and I

And these are my keys; I'm located at Ship Street, Staircase 4, Room 21, shortened to 4/SS/21 - and the blue thing there? It's really useful! It's an electronic key called a Fob, and it grants me access to the IT room, cafeteria and many other places like the biggest library in Oxford! The door auto-locks though, so I've to be very careful - if I get locked out then I guess I'm a dead duck! So I carry it with me all the time now:

My Room Number, Key and Electronic Fob

And my work desk has three drawers! Not telling you guys what's inside yet though, haha:

Drawers on the Work Desk

I guess it's good to have drawers, but no lock? Oh dear me. Oh well, I trust Jesus College - they have room service where this nice lady comes to clean my room every two days! Wow. Amazing!

And I promise I'll get a laundry basket soon, I will - but I haven't had time to, so I just got a big plastic bag from this department store for my dirty linen. Does this count as washing dirty linen in public? Haha. And yeah, there's a LAN access point and a telephone point, quite convenient for me in the UK:

Bedside - Temporary Laundry Basket, LAN/Telephone Point

And there's Wei Hong sleeping again (he was down with fever/sore throat; and look, another notice board to pin up my notices! Heh. Ultra convenient. Oh yes, and look, a bedside table just beside my bed with a bedside lamp:

Wei Hong Sleeping

My Bedside Desk - Replete with a Bedside Lamp and Alarm Clock

Thank goodness I brought an alarm clock with me! Otherwise I wouldn't be able to wake up on time!

Now there's the door:

My Room Door

And when you go out, you're greeted by this nice windowsill - I do my QT there sometimes:

Windowsill Outside My Room

When I sit by my windowsill, this is what my room looks like:

Room 21, View from Windowsill

And the staircases are really winding and I've to climb two flights of stairs every time I want to get back to my room - you guys don't have to worry I'm not exercising, because there're no lifts, elevators or escalators and everywhere is just stairs, stairs and more stairs:

Stairs by the Windowsill

What you see now is the staircase that leads to my room - I climb this many times everyday:

Staircase 4, Storey 3

And they supply me with a refrigerator to share with my neighbours! I already have some milk inside to drink for about a week:

My Fridge, Shared Between 3 People

And what if there's a fire? What with carpeted flooring and everything! So there's a convenient fire point just outside my room:

Fire Point Access

And the washroom is just outside my room! There's two of them on the level where I stay, I'll just show you the one which doesn't look so nice, because the nicer one is being occupied at the moment; so there's the toilet bowl, shower and basin:

Toilet Bowl at a Glance

Flush System

Shower Head

Shower Area

Wash Basin

And that's about it for my room at Jesus College! Hope you guys found it nice looking at them too. :)

Toodles!