A Newbies Guide To Settling In

If you’re new to the Village you’re probably a little bit daunted by the prospect of making new friends and learning your way around the area. But fear not! We have the ultimate beginners guide to settling in during your first week at the Village.

Whether you’ve moved to Australia from foreign lands, or if you’ve just moved suburbs, everyone is new here and you’re definitely not alone! So here are a few of our best tips for starting your on-campus experience off right.

Say hello to your roommate(s)

Anyone who has lived at the Village long enough will tell you that if you don’t talk to your roommates then your apartment will be set up to function that way for the rest of the year. Saying hi to your new roommates as soon as you arrive sets the tone for the relationship you have with them. If you ignore them then they will ignore you, so don’t be shy and introduce yourself! It’s much more easy-sailing when you’ve got a cool roomie in your corner!

Walk around the Village

You’re going to need to know where a few essentials are, so it’s best to get this out of the way early on. Go back down and take a look at Reception, then locate the laundries, common spaces and other recreation areas of the Village. This will make things much easier when events start happening, you’ll know where to go!

Get to know your classrooms

Grab a campus map from reception, check your timetable and find where your uni classes will be. Then go for a walk and check out where the buildings are. Waking up early for your very first uni class is 100x more stressful if you don’t know where you’re going! This will definitely help you out on the day.

Get on the grid

Join the Closed Community Group for your village on Facebook to get the most out of your Village experience! Your Resident Assistants will be posting event calendars, pics of events, announcements and other student-related news, so it’s definitely good to get connected! Campus Living Villages is also pretty active on Facebook and Instagram so make sure you’re following us on these channels!

Stock up on food

If you’re one of those lucky people who arrived before O-Week started you’ve got a chance to stock up on food for the busy week ahead! Familiarise yourself with the local shops and grocery stores and get stocked with all your essentials. O-Week is pretty exciting and very busy, so it’s good to know you’ve got food to get you through the week!

Come to events

If you start showing up at events you’re going to meet our RA’s straight away. Getting to know these guys is the best way to meet new people quickly. Come down to any of our upcoming events and just say hello to a few people, the next time you attend an event you’ll start to get recognised and the rest is history!

Organise your life

It’s very easy to get behind on different aspects of your life if you’re not actively organising yourself! Avoid that happening by either purchasing a good diary or making a Google calendar. Colour code, set reminders, do whatever works best for you. Also download your course outline the moment the uni releases it and write those important assignment and exam dates down.

Save important numbers

If you get locked out of your room at night for whatever reason you’re going to need the number for Reception so an RA can let you back in! It’s also a good idea to save the campus security number and any other emergency numbers in your phone just in case. Hopefully you’ll never have to use them, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Another handy number to save is the phone number of your uni faculty if you ever need to ask questions about your courses or classes.

If you do these things in the first week of moving in to the Village we’re confident that you will be settled in in no time! As always, make sure you come down to Reception and speak to our staff any time if you’ve got any questions.

Good luck, have fun and enjoy your new life at the Village!