Sounding off. Stay far away.
Rents in Singapore is depreciating fast, rent in SMU hostel is heading the other direction. The land and buildings were donated by the government. Why do they need S$130/week (especially if they’re not subsidizing anything else like catering, *cough* laundry or stuff?
Speaking of laundry, this is what we pay: S$3 per load in the washing machine; S$2 per half hour in the dryer. No drying racks provided, by the way. No other hostel, be it at NUS and NTU, or private hostels, charge this much. Maybe washing machines, water and electricity costs more in the city. Though, strangely, private laundromats in expat areas like Tanglin charge less. (The contract with Fresh Laundry Pte Ltd stipulates that half of the profit goes to the university. Yes, we are a profit making venture. Welcome to SM-fucking-U
The design of the rooms sucks eggs. Essentially it is a narrow, 1.5m by 4.5m room. That’s fine. But instead of putting normal furniture, they put in a loft bed. Okay, to each his own regarding loft beds, but in a narrow room, it’s stoopid. There’s exactly 1-1.5 feet between the loft bed and the “wall” beside it. Imagine sitting there day in, day out. On top of the that, they decided to use a custom-size mattress. Just that I absolutely hate the mattress. I have a better time sleeping on random friends coaches than I do on that mattress – and it annoys me to no end that I can’t fit in a single-size mattress in that slot because the loft-bed was made for smaller mattresses. Asshole interior designers who hate students.
More on the room design, its just certain little things that drive me bat shit crazy – like the lack of a remote for the aircond (which is BTW exactly one feet above you when you sleep). The stairs for the loft bed is at the narrow, far end of the room, and you have to cross the narrow passage way (which they supply a nice swivel chair to injure yourself during a cold, sleepy night) to switch off the aircond. Why not put a timer on that damn aircond, something you can do with off-the-shelf, dirt-cheap units? You can’t. You fucking can’t.
And one wall is glass. Half of that is some stupid decorative aluminum thing that adds nothing to the room. They could easily fit in regular furniture, and use the dead space provided by the stupid decorative shits to put things like a shelf (we don’t have a shelf) or a proper closet (they provide two small drawers and a hanger). No, wait, you can have both. And a normal bed. Where people like me can buy a cheap IKEA mattress to replace the PVC-covered rock-like monstrosity the hostel provides.
And there is hostel life. Its great – friends and all, around where you stay. And that’s about it. With the lack of dining facilities (“there are so many great (expensive) places to eat around hostel!”) and the fact there isn’t any hallways (all apartments can be accessed directly by its own stairs, isn’t it shocking hostel residents aren’t as enthu as NUS and NTU residents?
And like all things SMU – substituting real student life with events. Being a residential senior, I have to plan, in a team I don’t choose, one event that would boost hostel life. Even though I know and everyone knows it is completely futile. Worse still is when there are people in the RS team that you absolutely can’t stand. Last term I couldn’t attend a lot of prep work and meetings and part of the event because of classes and other commitment. Real commitment. Earlier, in a meeting, this other bastard SOB was using that against me, like, “You don’t know how hostel crowds are like”. Fuck you – I handle other events before that, I know what it is like. I was there throughout the same event last year and I’m telling what happen. Don’t be a fucker and say it’s not like that. You weren’t there asshat.
And he sprouts stupid, innane suggestions like replacing the Lunar New Year event with a nice, genteel visit to an Old Folk’s Home (which I doubt anyone would come). Despite explaining to him for one and a half hours why 1) its a stupid idea and 2) it’s not the purpose of hostel events, he still didn’t get it. I really wouldn’t care if I volunteered to join this team and I volunteered to do this event. I didn’t. There is no choice – you are randomly assigned groups – and it fucking annoys the hell out of me (rarely do people push my buttons like this, by the way). And yes, you might be reading this, and every RS reading this might know who you are. Good. I don’t care asswipe.
Rajan Rishyakaran 
One Comment
Ummm, sucks eggs is actually a “good” saying.
Prior to mass market sweets & chocolates etc, people would make a small hole in an egg & suck it dry. A bit of a knack to it. Hence the saying “teaching your grandmother to suck eggs”. She already well knows how to suck eggs, the grandchildren are just learning!