I hate living in halls

I'm so annoyed right now because I stayed up so I could eat whilst they were gone but there's a bunch of random people just hanging out in my kitchen. I actually hate it so much. My flatmates aren't even here. I'm sat here hungry whilst a bunch of people are just eating in someone elses kitchen I don't get why they don't just leave

Hi there anon,
This sounds like a dreadful situation and I'm really sorry to hear you're having to go through it. But please rest assured that you're not alone. Its very common for people to have a bumpy start to year 1 at uni, especially if your flatmates are the type of people who like to go out and stay up late. I lived in a flat full of late-night partygoers so can empathise with the noise ☹️
I think the best thing you can do is to reach out to your personal tutor about this. They're there to look out for you in a pastoral as well as academic sense so might be able to offer some tips. Perhaps your university's wellbeing service may also be able to offer some advice?
Have you tried talking to your flatmates? It doesn't need to be in a confrontational way, just try to explain your situation and ask if they would mind if you used the kitchen to cook. Its your flat too and you have as much right to use the kitchen as they do! Besides, I'm sure they'd be mortified if they knew what you were going through because of their behaviour. In the meantime, a quick fix may be to move some of your non-refridgerated food to your room until you can resolve the issue. Savoury muffins, oat bars, nuts and dried fruit, crackers?
If this doesn't work and things don't improve in the next week or so, I would advise getting in touch with your accommodation team to explain what's happening and see about moving accommodation. Its a risk, but you never know your new flatmates might be a lot more settled. The team may also even be able to allocate you to a quieter block if this is available.
Please remember to put your own needs first. You don't deserve to be going hungry. I would encourage you to try to be brave and face your flatmates, even if that means simply going into the kitchen when you need to cook and just saying hello and nothing else.
I really hope that helps, best of luck 🙂 and keep going.
Holly
University of Bath

Thank you so much, it really does help knowing other people can empathise. I’m really worried that if I tell them about it or I speak to my accommodation team they’re going to take it in a bad way. I feel like it’ll probably make them annoyed at me tbh and my accommodation is private and all the spaces are gone. I’ve been keeping food in my room as well, so I have snacks it’s just annoyingly expensive yk. I would wanna talk to the wellbeing team but I’m just so nervous when I try to speak to people in person about things like that I lose all ability to properly communicate. Thank u for ur advice ik things will probably get better soon

My flatmates have been preing since 10 and just went out at 1. There were at least 20 people over and half of them stand in the hallway shouting and knocking on peoples doors to use the toilet. There's six of us in the flat and usually I don't go out with them and I understand that there'll be noise but they're standing right outside my door chatting and drunk really loudly. It's been 3 weeks since freshers so I thought it'd die down but one or the other will invite their friends for pres at least 4x a week.
I didn't have any dinner today so I waited all night for them to go out at 1, I heard the kitchen was quiet and when I go in there's still a bunch of random people I don't know eating food from the cupboards and playing games in the kitchen, my flatmates think it's ok to just let them stay over since they don't wanna go out?? I literally just walked right back out and into my room. The other week I woke up and went to get breakfast and there's 2 girls who I don't know lying on the sofas, one of them told me they were just waiting for my other flatmate to get back from her lecture.
I just hate not feeling comfortable in my own 'home'. I try to only use the kitchen if no ones there so I haven't been eating enough and I can always hear my belly making noises in lectures, but I can't really afford to buy food out everyday to avoid the kitchen. I've been living off a box of cornflakes this week so I can just eat in my room, but I know the food in my fridge is about to go off. It's just that everytime I go into the kitchen and one of my flatmates is there I feel SO uncomfortable and I'm awful at small talk, I'm pretrty sure they don't like me. I'm the only non white one there and I heard the guys joking about white supremacy when I was about to go in there. I can't live just completely avoiding the kitchen/living space, but I get so much anxiety when I attempt to use it. The worse part is not being able to tell whether or not there's someone in there.