Get to know your neighbour

Are you one of those who just moved into a student accommodation? You are not alone. Overall, there are thousands of students living in our accommodations, in and outside the city centre. There is a good chance that your neighbour is a student and if you are lucky, that person can be cool. In general, we think it's much nicer to live in a student accommodation where you can say hi to your neighbour. Then it may be easier to knock on the door of your fellow student the day you run out of toilet paper, when you really need it ;-)

How to get to know your neighbour:

1. Smile and say hi. Smiling works most of the time. If you are having a good day you can also be totally crazy and say, "good evening" or "good weekend".
2. Talk about the weather. Bergen provides a solid conversation topic, ranging from rain drops to heavy rain showers. Tell your neighbour it's raining approximately 270 days a year and maybe tips them on where to buy a good umbrella or rain jacket?
3. Organize a movie night. Use some of your hard-earned cash and buy some popcorn and candy. A movie night is a win-win situation for you. You can check off a good movie on the have-got-to-see movie list and fill some of the embarrassing silence which can occur when you don’t know each other that well.
4. Make coffee and bake something, anything. Remember to open the window or the door in the hallway so that the good smell spreads out. Guaranteed that at least one neighbour will fall for the temptation to come and make a conversation.
5. Work out together. Both you and your neighbour know that it is smart to work out, but the doorstep is often heavy to pass. If you make an agreement on going to the fitness centre or go hiking together, the workout will be harder to skip.
6. Create a study group. When both you and your neighbour are students, none of you can escape from future exams. Why not work together on potential exam topics? It can be smart to learn how to explain an economy student about dissection of a fish for example.

7. Make dinner together. Now, the fish is already dissected. How about making a delicious dinner of it? Knock on doors and invite your fellow students. Everyone brings something to make it a feast. You can also save some money by making dinner together with others.
8. Organize a game night. There are always one or more neighbours with competitive instincts that will join. In a game night you cannot avoid getting to know the neighbour’s good (and bad) sides, when it comes to honour in winning a Monopoly game.

No matter which of the tips you are going for – just do it! Hope we can say congratulations with your new cool neighbourhood friendship :-)