I’m sitting, surrounded by the debris of a suitcase explosion in my new room in the NYU Shanghai dormitories. Upon my arrival, I was expecting something dramatic, perhaps a gated palace guarded by a golden lion or an unfinished shack with electrical wires still dangling precariously from the ceiling. With all of the speculation and emails of random floor plans and excel sheet petitions for same-sex floors sent by NYU staff last semester, I hadn’t expected what I actually found -- a place quite liveable.I went through various emotions last year while forming my expectations for the new Jinqiao (金桥) dormitories:

After a period of silence over the spring, the student body was promised ‘suite-style’ dorms during the end of last semester. We still had to use our imaginations, but finally we were given some concrete details. Once we received blueprints detailing the arrangements of two floor plans, what we were promised seems to be what we got. However, our dorms really being ‘suite-style’ depends on your definition. Here is a graph of what we were promised compared with the actual dorms:

So it seems that after the issues with transparency and a lack of communication between the faculty, who were in charge of building the new dorms, and the students, who were worried about living in these mysterious dorms, I believe that the students have gained something quite similar to what we could have hoped. As it always seems with NYUSH, the dorms are still a work in progress. There still hasn’t been any clear information on the status of a gym or a shuttle schedule for the entire year, but I’m confident that if we wait patiently we will know soon enough. The thing I always remember is that I am lucky, we are lucky. We get to be part of NYU Shanghai and a major part of that experience is that everything is new. We will encounter some teething problems and whilst mildly frustrating, that’s ok. What is important is that we get to live in China, meeting and learning with incredible people from around the world. And above all, no one has to live in Motel 268 ever again.

* Opinions may vary. This article was written by Stephanie Bailey. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: NYUSH Residence Life