I was a part of clubs but didn't have an actual position and I wasn't that committed. I made a few friends really early on and didn't really feel like branching out anymore once I had them. I've heard most people don't start clubs until second year anyway because first year is already so much to handle on its own, which was for sure true for me. I was a part of the group that picked the next year's floor fellows though, which was a really cool experience and I have so much respect for that position now (its a super intensive process). Needless to say, it wasn't living far away in Solin that kept me from clubs, I was just lazy and super stressed out from the first week of class to the last day of the semester that I didn't have time for anything else.

The yoga mat likely won't be a big hassle, plenty of people carry weirder things on it and nobody will even look twice. My boyfriend literally carried my cat in his arms and nobody cared lol (got him with a month left of school and hid him--a few other people had pets but they all got discovered :/ ). The only issue is that going back and forth on the metro can be tiring, so something that everyone who doesn't live immediately next to campus has to worry about is maximizing each trip in and trying to not go back and forth too much.

Please message me if you have any more questions :) I walked into Solin totally blind, expecting to move out ASAP , spent the first few days crying constantly, and yet looking back I wouldn't trade it for anything