OK! Meal plans. You can choose from five meal plans. You can either have 19, 14, or 11 meals a week, and the 19 and 14 plans have a premiere option. Basically, with premiere you get a bunch of benefits:

• your meal swipes roll over from week to week
• you can swipe people in
• you can swipe in more than once each meal period
• you can donate unused swipes

Premiere plans are referred to as “19P” or “14P.” These are more expensive than the regular ones and the more meals you have, the more expensive your plan is. Your meal plan works by swiping your Bruin Card. Most of the time, you will be swiping into the dining halls (we have three that all have different food). Dining halls are all-you-can-eat buffet style (oh, yeah). You can also use your swipes at Bruin Cafe, Cafe 1919, Rendezvous, or Late Night. These are all take-away options, as you swipe for a pre-portioned meal (sandwich, side, and a drink) and then can take it into campus to eat. I mentioned meal periods; these are times (breakfast from 7-11am, lunch from 11-5, etc.) that you can swipe in for a meal.

On to roommates now! You can either have a single, double, or triple. It’s pretty simple–a single is one person, a double is two, and a triple is three. I had a triple my first year and it was honestly not that bad. Sure, we all kind of lived on top of each other and by the end of the year the floor was not visible underneath a layer of clothes, but it’s not that bad. You don’t have to be best friends with your roommate, and you don’t even have to live with them. If you really want, you can request a room change. Get excited. It is really weird to have sleepovers every night of the week.

Now time to talk about some cool things about the Hill (oh yeah, if you haven’t figured it out or didn’t know, the Hill is what we call the area with all the dorms). Besides all the delicious food and the classrooms on the Hill, you can find a few other fun things. For one there is the Sunset Recreation Center. It is UCLA’s own country club complete with swimming pools, big fields, volleyball, a ropes course, barbequing, a cabana, athletes, and local Bel Air folk in fancy clothes. The Hill also is home to a farmers’ market, lots of construction, dances and other events in Covel’s Grand Horizon room, and a breathtaking view of the university.

Let me finish up by telling you a little bit about my own dorming experience thus far. Last year, I lived in De Neve Evergreen on the fourth floor. I had a lovely view of the construction on the new De Neve building next door as well as a lovely view of my two roommates’ bunk bed (not too lovely, actually / I slept on the loft bed). I was by far the messiest, the most decorated, and the least math & science-y.

Next year, I am rooming with my friend Safia on the sixth floor of De Neve Birch. But how? Remember the Gender Inclusive housing I mentioned earlier? Well, we are like the first ones to try it out (I am pretty sure we are the first)! Basically, if a girl and boy feel more comfortable rooming with a gender that is not their own, they can send in a request and if they are approved, they may live together on campus. Très chouette! So, that’s what’s going on next year for me. I’m really looking forward to it. Send me a comment if you have any questions or my descriptions were confusing (I always end up writing these things in the nighttime). Good luck!