In Australia, “uni” means university while “college” means you live in a specific dorm on campus with its own traditions and culture. At my end of campus there’s Basser, Baxter, and Goldstein colleges and we all share a Hogwarts-esque dining hall. Since I go to Basser, I sit only with Basser kids in a column of tables at the far end of the dining hall. There isn’t any animosity between the “colleges” beyond what is typically fostered by some simple competition (there are inter college games of soccer, Australian rules football, and rugby; of which there are apparently two versions… it’s a big enough difference to spark debates but slight enough to be completely undetectable by the untrained eye).
There are games where Basser, Baxter, and Goldstein form a unified team to play against the colleges at the lower end of campus (the only one who’s name I can ever remember is Shalom).
So yeah, going to “college” isn’t a common thing over here. Going to “uni” is.
The dorm I live in (Basser!) is set up as follows: from a helicopter, the (mostly) two-story building would look like a digital clock’s “8″ with quads in each of the open spaces. “Boy’s quad” has plenty of trees and plant life while “girl’s quad” is essentially a grass field. The names are meaningless by the way, just holdovers from when men and women couldn’t coexist. Walking on the second floor from the “birdcage” (the common area with a vertical, 70′s style wooden lattice) onto the outside walkway, there are alcoves to the side, each with four doors. Each alcove contains two seniors (senior means anyone who has lived in college for a year or more) and two freshers (first years, obviously). They’re families, the seniors the parents and the freshers the children (each family All four rooms are singles, but the seniors’ rooms are more spacious in every way (floor and closet space). Some seniors even have small balconies. Nice enough, bed, two chairs (one is actually nice), a desk, shelves, a closet, a sink, and the least soundproof window ever. Down stairs there’s a study area and the “green room” which is a larger common area with a small stage, reserved for community events. There’s a spire sort of thing with tv room and some open space. Also, I’m tired of describing this place. Google image UNSW or Basser college. They’ve got a website, I’m sure.
One fun quirk about my college (I think it’s just my college… but it could be a general college thing… maybe) is that everyone goes out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, instead of the weekends. When it’s the weekend, everyone just studies and chills out, recovering from the non-stop barrage of classes attended hung over and the big nights out. It has a sort of logic to it if you think about it. That’s why I’m writing this on a Saturday night and not a Wednesday night. I mean, I could go out but man, I gotta get my work done sometime. Speaking of which, I better get reading.
