Hi, all! Ready to discover what daily life is like for a young turtle researcher in Malaysia? It's probably quite a bit different than yours!
My full name is Kathryn Baker Hegarty, but please call me Katy.
Currently, I am living at the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu’s (UMT) student hostel (dormitory). The hostel is much like a typical college dormitory, with many students live together sharing rooms and ideas in large apartment-like buildings. Typically, two or three students share one room. Each student is allotted his or her own bed, desk and cabinet by the hostel staff. Once a student moves in, the student can begin to personalize the space with the help of his or her roommates.
UMT provides on-campus housing for first-year students and international students, which means I am able to live on campus when staying at UMT. I love living at the hostel! At the hostel, I am surrounded by a loving community of students and I have easy access to the lab, office, professors and restaurants (and I’m a ten-minute bike ride from the beach!). I’m quite sure I’ll appreciate the ease of access even more once the rain begins to fall during monsoon season!
While I love staying at the UMT hostel, I did not always live here.
