The Corridor

Corridor is the most common habitat of an Umeå student. They are not-like-a-dorm dorms. Freemovers get to choose a room in these corridors on their own through the website of Bostaden, the housing company of the town, while the exchange students are offered to select one from the list of the International Office.

When I had been hunting for my room as a freemover, my primary criterion was the location. I wanted to be close to the campus and the ski slope in Mariehem. I didn’t really care about being close to the down town. Coming from Istanbul, I had enough of experiencing the urban.

So there was Berghem, right across my department building and a few minutes walking distance from the slope. I booked a room, but then said, “Why not Mariehem? It’s better to be closer to the slope. You can always walk to school with fresh legs in the morning, but will you have the same strength to walk back home in the evening after having skied for 2-3 hours?” So I booked another room. But was still not satisfied with something. It was the linear corridor layout of the rooms.

Having had no interest in Ålidhem, as it was quite far from the slope, I booked the room on Fysikgränd since the floorplan was developed as a hall. It just looked more like a house. After I moved in, I got gladder with my decision, as I found out that Ålidhem was the real heart of the student life in Umeå. And moreover the proverb says “don’t buy a house, buy a neighbour”. I was very lucky with that as well. Easy-going, fun neighbours with a mixture of internationals and Swedes.

My room.


The common kitchen.