First day back? If that’s what you want to call it…

Beth arrived on Saturday! Took her on a very long route back to the house via other people’s houses for breaks. In the evening we went out to Old Orleans restaurant for dinner. There were 9 of us in total and we had a great time. After dinner we went for drinks in town and I got to finally go in Fahrenheit 55, which is a really nice bar in Guildford. Will definitely go there again, it had a great atmosphere.

On Sunday Beth and I chilled in the house in the morning before taking Beth back to the train station. In the evening it was time for Monopoly.

If you remember back to last fresher’s week we can take this except from my blog:

“In the evening, we had a big game of Monopoly in the kitchen. Needless to say it went on for about 3 hours before we gave up and went to bed.” (27/09/08)

So this is now officially a tradition. This time we upped the anti from 11 people to 18. But we had a bigger room this time. It was good fun. We had Chinese and maybe cheated a little…

Either way it was a good night. Looking forward to our next games night, Cranium!

Monday was my first day of lectures. Now officially a second year student! Yay!

Only had one lecture, but I did a lot of reading about the course and what I’ll be studying this year. Most of it sounds really interesting, so we’ll see how long that lasts…

Sorry I’m being quite brief today, but I have so much to say being vague is the best way to go!

Finished off the day with the Stage Crew Fresher’s Meeting, got about 30 fresher’s this year, so all looks good!

Tomorrow I only have 1 short tutorial and I’m free the rest of the day. Love these slow starts… eases me in slowly.

MAD TV stuff is boiling over in the background too, got that on the go when I can.

• Happiness. 8 out of 10 (which is good considering…)
• Tiredness. 4 out of 5
• Last Meal. Chicken Kievs & chips, and leftover chilli!
• Song of the day. Hansen - Mmmbop
• Thought for the day. Life goes on…
• What I’m Doing Now. Wondering if I should get up in the morning and do work before my lecture…

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Ice skating on Thursday was fun. About 20 of us went in the end. I was the only non-chemist there, but then that’s what you get when you gate-crash a ChemSoc event! After skating we went to Nando’s and I claimed a free 1/4 chicken! I ate very well that day :)

After Nando’s I broke from gate-crashing with ChemSoc to gate-crash someone’s birthday in Channies. I don’t know them as such, but pretty much everyone I know knows him, so I think it’s justified. To be honest, I didn’t have a good time. There were lots of people there who I didn’t really know and I had a lot of “stuff” on my mind. I left at about 11:30 with Mike and walked home.

Once home me and Josh took it upon ourselves to undertake the mammoth task of washing up… everything. 2 hours later we’d finished. If nothing else it was fantastic to talk to Josh and catch up.

Yesterday was very cool. I had a meeting with MAD TV in the afternoon about filming our next episode and stuff, which made me realise how crazy busy I’m going to have to work this year…

After that Josh and I went to Wetherspoons in town to claim a beer and a burger with chips for £3.99. That’s all the convincing we needed. After chocolate fudge cake for dessert we headed over to Channies for another pint (because we could, and, technically, it was on our way home…)

Josh left me on my own to go to foam party. I was nervous about not meeting anyone in there, but that was shot when I bumped into Nick and Ollie as soon as I walked in. Then I met Laurie, Chris, Joy, Vicky, Adam, Becky, Jack and Emma and I knew I was sticking around. All in all a very, very, very good night.

• Happiness. 10 out of 10 (lets bring the scale back to normality)
• Tiredness. 4 out of 5 (I couldn’t sleep)
• Last Meal. Burger, chips and chocolate fudge cake
• Song of the day. Fragma - Toca's Miracle
• Thought for the day. Sorry?
• What I’m Doing Now. About to have a shower to 1) wake me up and 2) rid me of foam.

PS PICTURES! (I might need to start screening and vetting these soon…)

Water problems, free pizza & the craziest night of the year (so far…)

Sozies, lets crack that whip and let you peeps know what I’ve been using my time doing the last 3 days.

Monday can be summed up in 2 words: Stage Crew. I worked all day setting up an elaborate video rig for the DJ night that evening. We had 2 pit cams and 3 other cameras. It was crazy fun and I hope to do it again soon.

Tuesday was a completely different kettle of fish. After being awoken only a few hours into my precious sleep by a text I was quite tired the whole day. Went to the library with Sophie to help her buy internets for her house. After bumping into Lauren and talking to her for a bit I headed off to Tesco with Phil. Stocked up on cider :)

When I got back I got to speak to Josh for the first time in ages while I made my dinner (tuna pasta if you must know) and then had to dash off to go to comedy night in Channies (remember, student bar, yea). That was a good night, the comperé was a bit weird but the acts were good.

On Wednesday (once again after getting ridiculously small amounts of sleep, mainly my fault for talking on the phone too long) I went in to help Stage Crew setup for Fresher’s Fayre and Calvin Harris in the union that night.

Turns out that there had been a water leak to the main feed that supplies campus and the whole east side of campus was without water. This meant that unless the problem was fixed, the union would not be able to open that night for the gig. Not keen on the idea of setting up for a gig that might not happen, and one that I hadn’t signed up to do either, I met up with a load of people at Fresher’s Fayre and wandered around there for an hour or two.

Then we went back to Sophie’s house, because it’s just off campus, and had tea! One of the things we got at the fayre was a free 7” pizza from dominoes. So we went. You can imagine the queue was quite big and we had to wait a while to get our pizza’s. But when something's free, you have to expect a mass of students to appear.

After that went back home to get changed and then headed back to Sophie’s and headed off to Channies with Sophie, Phil and Julie. After a drink in there we went to the union for the Calvin Harris. I was quite excited about this one…

To summize, the night went very well. Calvin’s set was a bit meh, but the rest of the music really made up for it. I saw L.O.A.D.S of people I knew and got talking a bit more to a few people I’d met from the last few days. It was a great night and I’m glad I didn’t miss out by doing stage crew.

To top it all off I had a good nights sleep last night. Feel very refreshed and ready for a new day! Ice skating this afternoon with ChemSoc :)

Speak to you all soon. Loves, Charles

• Happiness. 13 out of 10 (just because it has to be higher than last time)
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5
• Last Meal. Breakfast!
• Song of the day. Calvin Harris – Ready for the Weekend
• Thought for the day. When am I getting my timetable!?
• What I’m Doing Now. Should tidy my room and have a shower before I have to leave in an hour :S

PS plenty of pictures are on there way, don’t worry :)

The One And Only!

And so it begins…

after a day working at Ascot on Saturday, in the evening Julie and Sophie came to my house for dinner. It was a good laugh.

Then yesterday I spent the morning being a fresher’s angel and got to move lots of tiny fresher’s into their rooms, it was really exciting!

In the afternoon I setup video in the union of the big opening night. Didn’t go exactly as planned because their weren’t a lot of people to help out. During the gig I was only needed for a small part of it, so I spent most time with my various groups of friends clubbing. I had such a good time, and it felt sooooo good to be back in the union again. I love it! And seeing everyone again! And hearing all the summer anthems bring played! Such a contrast to the awkwardness I remember from last years first night for me.

Spent way to long packing down the gig once it had finished and then got very little sleep. And here I am. Ready to do it all again today. More video to setup and more people to meet. It’s going to be the craziest week of my life. No doubt. And I'm loving every millisecond of it!!!!

• Happiness. 12 out of 10 (those things annoying me seem like they can wait a week…)
• Tiredness. 5 out of 5 (and it’s only going to get worse…)
• Last Meal. Just had breakfast cereal… but don’t have anything to drink :(
• Song of the day. Jim Jamison – I’m Always Here (Baywatch Theme)
• Thought for the day. Wot’s Occurin?! (Thanks Criddle!)
• What I’m Doing Now. Not sleeping or working :(

My Room (taken 21/09/08)

More Pictures Of River Sports Day

Picture 1 - Canoeing

Picture 2 - More Canoeing

Picture 3 - Left to right: Heather, Lauren, Sophie, Me

Picture 4 - Releasing the ducks for the duck race

Picture 5 - Tug Of War

My First Full Weekend

Saturday

Went to river sports day. It was an event held down by the river in town where teams competed in several events including canoeing, tug of war and water gladiators. You can see one of the canoe races in the first picture.

In the evening, we had a big game of Monopoly in the kitchen, see picture 2. Needless to say it went on for about 3 hours before we gave up and went to bed.

Sunday

Went to Tesco in the morning for my weekly shop. Then made a cheesecake. Watched the Grand Prix. James came over and we had lunch in the Chancellors, the union bar. Showed him round the campus and intorduced him to a few people. Once James left, I got myself ready for the start of my lectures tomorrow and ate some cheesecake.

Tomorrow

Lectures start at 9am and finish at 1pm. Will be interesting to see the format and how much work i'm given. I'm excited about it, but also know it will be the start of a lot of hard work.

Friday

Yesterday was a good day to catch up on sleep. I got up at 11am and went swimming at the Guildford Spectrum with Josh. It was good fun. Next time I'll have to go ice skating there. The rest of the day I spent relaxing.

In the evening I went out with a dozen other people to School Disco at Rubix. Queued for an hour and a half to get in but then had a really good night dancing and watching someone get gunged.

Today I'm going down to the river to watch river sports day. Will be fun to watch people get wet and make a fool of themselves!

Day 5

Today I had my BIG introduction to my course. Basically, there is a common first year, so I can swap if I want to at the end of the year to another Electronic Engineering course.

 

I'm in the higher group for maths, which means I have about 2.5 hours less lectures a week in maths!

 

The rest of the day I had various things, tour of the media labs which were very exciting.

 

This evening I went out to Open Mic Night at Chancellors bar. It was a good night. I'll admit now that I did have my first sip of alcohol tonight, a Smirnoff Ice and a Snake Bite.

 

Tomorrow I have a free day, so me and Josh are going swimming at the Guildford Spectrum. Should also get my loan money tomorrow.

 

Sorry if this post is not readable, its 1am and i've had a bit to drink.

 

The picture above is of Josh filling out a form in a lecture we had today.

Day 4: Explained

Right. So this morning I had a computer briefing, basically got to register so I can use the computers in the Electronic Engineering department. Very boring but had to be done.

Met my tutor at 12, we were put into about a dozen groups and im in group Q. I still can't read my timetable, but I get an explanation as to how to do that in the morning at my very long intorductory lecture.

The picutes from the last post are of freshers fayre which was in a huge tent (pic 1) in the main field on campus (background in pic 3). As you can see, it was very busy in the tent, mainly because it was raining outside when it started.

In the second picture you can see one of my room-mates, Mariana, in a giant pants.

Third picture is of my three female house-mates, left to right: Lauren, Sophie, Mariana

Final picture is of one of the events they had outside, those two guys were really going for it!

Since my last post i've been out to Wates House, which is the same place I went to for the comedy night yesterday. Its really good place. It is small, but its also a bit of the beaten track and very close to my halls, so very handy.

The picture in this post is of the band playing at Wates House tonight.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, plenty to do and even more to think about.

Freshers Fayre!

WOOOOO!!!!! FRESHERS FAYRE!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!

 

OK, it was cool. You can see some pictures above. Joined a load a clubs: radio, badminton, climbing (yay) and stage crew (for union). Going out to a club so i'll do a full report later.

Day 3

Had a really, really good day today. The live guide this morning was very funny. Registration was seamless and now I have a campus card!

The afternoon presentations very very informative and interesting, told me a lot about the sports and languages facilities available.

Got some fresh food from Tesco: cucumber, salad, ham, mince, etc. Only a few things for the next few days.

This evening I went to the comedy night, very funny stuff. All around been a great day, feel great, people great and can't wait for Fresher's Fayre tomorrow (or today technically).

Internet working now so I managed to read your comments and get emails.

Got Computer Registration at 9am so better get some shut-eye.

A Quiet Night In

The rest of the day went smoothly. The job shop was busy, but I'll find out on friday if I've got a job at the union.

 

The meet and greet was fun, met some new people and hung out with Josh & Nnaoma, who are both doing Media Engineering as well.

 

After the meet, which went on until 6:45pm, I came back to base to relax. The evening was spent finishing the unpacking (now I just have to put eveything somewhere) and talking with the girls on my floor.

 

The people on my floor:

 

Adam, studying Business Management

Chris, studying Business Management

Mariana, Portuguese, studying Psychology

Sophie, studying Dance

Lauren, studying English

 

So a good mix of people. They are all very friendly and we're getting on very well so far.

 

Last night, the boys went out to the SU (called Rubix) and the rest of us had a quiet night in.

 

Today:

 

09:00am - Health & Safety Lecture

10:00am - Live Guide (presentation about alot of fun stuff)

01:30pm - Registration (get Campus Card and hopefully loan monies)

04:30pm - Sports presentation

05:15pm - Languages presentation

 

This evening I plan to go out to Rubix for Comedy Night.

 

Speak to you soon!

Getting Better

Just to let you all know that I feel a lot better now, still have the odd moment, but on the whole feeling more like myself.

 

The morning's activities were exciting. I had an introductory talk to welcome the Electronic Engineers into the Faculty. They said the usual stuff about how university was about managing work and leisure, and a few things about how the course works. Then had a wonder around before having a few more talks about Mentoring, the Library and the Students Union. All very valuable.

 

I'm having trouble with the Internet at the moment, apparently the switch that serves my court is not working properly, so I can access some websites, but not others. Skype works, but I can't got onto the St Mary's Website or Google. I can get on my blog, however. Hopefully everything will be up and running in the next few hours.

 

As for the maths test, It was fairly straight forward. It was done on computers, so you get your score immediately. I've got 84% (21 out of 25) which will hopefully be enough to get me on the higher maths lectures. I only want to do this because the lower maths group have more lectures, and a few quite early in the morning. I find out which group i'm in on wednesday, so I will update you then as to how my timetable looks.

 

For the rest of the day i'm going to a Job Shop at 4pm and then another meet & greet at 5pm. After that I have to do some shopping and maybe have a look around town.

The BIG Day

Got up at 8:45am, after getting myself organised and packing a few last things (coat) I went to church.
Church was great! The sermon was about learning to let go and go for something, very approapriate. There was also a notice for me and I got given two st mary's mugs.
After church, and saying my goodbyes, we returned home to pack the car. After much thought and careful planning, the car was full and ready to go.
At 2pm we arrived at Uni. By this point I was feeling a bit sick, but we still managed to unload the car into a big tent. We then walked to reception and I got my keys, ect.
Then we moved all my things (21 boxes in total) into my new home. Met a few of my new room-mates (more on those another time) and got unpacking. The unpacking process was very emotional for me, it was the moment when everything dawned on me and I was very overwhelmed for about 20 minutes. Eventually, we got the room into a liveable state with most things unpacked.
Goodbyes. Now this was alot more difficult than I thought is was going to be. I won't go into specifics because I think you can all figure out what that means.
Parents finally left me outside my faculty building where I went to meet people on my course. Still feeling uneasy. I met two other people and we hung out for about an hour talking. I started to feel a bit better. We then went for a walk around, to the shop on campus and then the kitchen of one of my new friends. We stayed there, talking for another hour. Finally went back to my room about 6:30 and properly met with my room-mates.
At 7:15 we had a briefing about living in halls, fire safety and the Student's Union. When that finished at about 8pm we went back to our room.
By this point I felt comfortable nough to force-feed myself a pot noodle. At 9:45pm I went out, with a load of girls in my house and another house nearby, to Rubix, the Student's Union nightclub. Because I still wasn't feeling 100% I didn't hae anything to drink. It was a good night talking and dancing.
Getting back to my room about 1am and went straight to bed. The nights sleep was awful, I kept waking up and feeling queasy.
Got up this morning at 8am, force-fed myself some cereal and orange juice. I now have a full day planned, staring with a welcome talk at 9:30am. Maths test this afternoon that I need to be awake for and then another meet and greet in the evening.
Hope I survive. I am really enjoying myself, but my stomach seems pretty intent on spoiling the party. If I was a betting man I would say is was home-sickness, but whatever it is, it better not outstay its welcome.
A short video of yesterday's events to follow soon.