In my freshmen year, I arrived at NYU Abu Dhabi almost six weeks into the fall semester – courtesy of my Egyptian nationality and visa processing issues. Minutes after dropping off my luggage in my first dorm room, I found myself on a bus en route to IKEA with the freshman class representative and other latecomers in an attempt to decorate our rooms. Like most NYUAD students, an IKEA shopping trip is one of my earliest memories in Abu Dhabi, as this trip has become a tradition passed on from one class to another; helping students with their journey in creating a home away from home in their dorm room. From desk lamps to fairy lights, the IKEA freshmen trip is the first step to creating a home away from home in your dorm room.

Living far away from home is daunting, especially at the start of an entire undergraduate experience abroad. Students often resort to decorations in their dorm rooms as a reminder of their identity.

"I started thinking of bringing my whole country to my dorm room,” explained Adam Sherif, Class of 2021. “How would I classify every aspect of my Egyptianhood and portray that on the walls of our dorm's common area?"

That was Sherif’s starting point in decorating his dorm room, before coming to design what he would call one of the wonders of the world. "I started breaking down my Egyptianhood into what it represents to me and eventually came to design the Eighth Wonder of the World: the Inverted Pyramid of Giza.”

The Pyramid was conceptualized from a variety of topics: sarcasm, history, modern reality and the revolution.

"They are embedded within the inverted pyramid in various social and political undertones which have influenced me during my upbringing," explained Sherif. "There's a reason I had the pyramid inverted; it stands for everything that led to the Egyptian reality that we now live within."

The implementation itself was easy, requiring printed images and blu tack. "I found the pictures I wanted online, printed them in 10 minutes and then bought blu tack from the bookstore and that was it. 30 minutes of cutting, hanging and sticking later, my dorm room was decorated. You sometimes don't need much to have a well-decorated room, especially if you're on a budget," Sherif proudly explained, along with how he now loves to spend time in his room.

I take a different approach, thinking of my room as a blank canvas at the start of each academic year. I try to decorate it the way I would like to be represented, my thoughts, emotions and everything that makes me, well, me. I divide my room into four sections: bed with a view, the study corner, a trip down memory lane and the great wall of music.

My bed is next to a big window pane facing the Abu Dhabi skyline. Surrounding the window pane is a long string of fairy lights, which you can get from Amazon for around 65 AED. In this low-light, warm ambience, is usually where all my reading and writing takes place.

On its left, my study corner, which comprises of books gifted from friends or bought from the Thrift Distribution and Books store for as cheap as 30 AED.

The third wall consists of all the photos that capture special moments I hold dear to my heart. All the pictures from class trips, Thursday night selfies, snaps from my study away semester and moments with friends and family are placed together in chronological order. The photos were printed at Sameeha Studio, a local print store, for as cheap as 4 AED per picture. This wall is the last thing I see before I go to sleep and the first thing I see in the morning, giving me a reason to start and end my days positively.

Image Courtesy of Youssef Azzam

The final section, the great wall of music, exhibits different performances I have taken part in during my time at NYUAD with my band Shaghaf – from winning Battle of the Bands to opening for an Arab music festival, Wasla. A variety of album covers also plaster the wall, from No'taa Beida by Cairokee to A Good Time by Davido.

Beyond photos of memories and reminders of home, other NYUAD students seek dorm necessities to make their spaces cozier. A cactus sits on the bed-side table of Mariam Amer, Class of 2022, which she purchased for only 10 AED from her visit to the Mina plant market during a film shoot. Other students’ living areas tend to hold an array of bigger plants, ranging from 30 to 100 AED depending on the size, giving the room a sense of nature and greenery. Another aesthetic and homey addition to common areas are rugs, bought from the Carpet Souq, with prices ranging based on size and quality. Souvenirs and postcards from places visited during study away to gifts from friends’ home countries, also find a place on desks and windowsills.

Whether it is fairy lights bought from your first trip to IKEA as a freshman, an African Dashiki picked up from a J-term in Zanzibar or a souvenir gifted by a friend from the conference they attended in Shanghai, NYUAD dorms are as diverse as the student body occupying them.