My first impression of the dorm? This sucks. Honestly, I was expecting much more from Jin Qiao because it is brand new and because, from my experiences with the residence halls at other NYU sites, newer tends to mean better. I suppose I also had high expectations because this is China - easily the most affordable NYU site - where labor and other construction costs are considerably lower than in, say, New York or London or Sydney. NYU is getting more bang for its buck here, so surely it will indulge us with nicer dorms, right? Apparently not. Yes, us study away students knew we would have shared bathrooms, but we were told it would be something like the suite-type setup you would see in New York where each unit has two or three bedrooms, a common space, and a bathroom. It was a bit shocking to find that here the hallway, in fact, is the bathroom. That’s no big deal though. We got over that quickly. I actually like waking up in the morning and seeing my friends in the hallway getting ready for school or saying goodnight to them after I brush my teeth before bed. However, it would be nice if the showers and toilets could work properly. The toilets routinely stop working and the water temperature in the shower is uncontrollable.One thing I remember everyone being unanimously dissatisfied with was the kitchen. I had been expecting a big, state-of-the-art kitchen because the other global sites had conditioned me to expect as much and because so many people would be sharing it. We found the kitchens here to be pretty pathetic and decidedly inadequate for ten people to share. Or maybe not; as it turns out a month later, nobody actually uses them. During our first week, we all got in the habit of eating out every day because our kitchen appliances had yet to arrive and most of us have continued eating out for every meal out of inertia. Moreover, we have a decent cafeteria at the academic building and street food is also pretty cheap, so why go to all the trouble of cooking your own meals? I know some of the portal students still decide to cook, but, for most of us study aways students, investing in the spices, oils, dishes, silverware, and other relevant equipment you’d need to make proper use of the kitchen just does not seem worth it, especially when you might eat only one meal at home per day.The actual dorm rooms are much smaller than expected but not unacceptably small. In fact, I’d say the singles are a very decent size, but the doubles are barely any larger which just does not seem fair to me. Moreover, the desks are tiny and I can barely fit my textbooks on them, so I do all of my work in the lounge room or on campus. As a consequence, I spend less time working in my room alone and more time studying with friends -- which, admittedly, is not the worst thing.I remember on my first day in Shanghai the one thing that upset me more than anything else was the location of the dorms. I was horrified when the airport shuttle pulled into Jin Qiao. So this is where I’m going to be living for the next four months. I hadn’t been expecting to live in the city center, but I also wasn’t prepared to live in an isolated, gated residential enclave on the side of a highway, far removed from the vibrancy Shanghai is known for. This kind of setup seemed so un-NYU. NYU New York prides itself on being a university “in and of the city.” There, our college life is seamlessly integrated into city life. Us study away students decided to come to Shanghai for many of the same reasons that we decided to attend college in New York. We wanted to immerse ourselves in the hustle and bustle of the global metropolis. Instead, we live in the boondocks. Jin Qiao is where bougie, upperclass Shanghainese go to settle down and raise children. Whose bright idea was it to put a college dorm here? There is nothing vaguely interesting within walking distance. It would be the equivalent of NYU New York being located in Forest Hills, Queens. When I tell the local Shanghainese I live in Jin Qiao, they often remark that I live in the middle of nowhere. I’d say this is pretty accurate. On the flip side, the relatively isolated location of the dorm helps foster a community that NYU New York completely lacks. Whereas NYU students blend in with the general public on the crowded streets of New York, here the NYU community is very visible which makes it much easier to get to know other students. I always run into friends and classmates standing outside the dorms, crossing the street, on the way to the shuttle, or while getting food. As mentioned earlier, the communal bathrooms and smaller dorm rooms also help foster community as they force us to spend more of our time in shared spaces where we interact with each other. Ironically, in this respect, NYU Shanghai - a university in China - more resembles the traditional American college experience than NYU New York.If I sound ambivalent about the dorms, it’s because I am. There are pros and cons, but overall I’m pretty content as are most of the other study away students I’ve spoken with. It’s a huge change from NYU New York, but perhaps that is just what we needed. This article was written by Alexander Kario. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: NYUSH Residence Life