Hey y’all! Welcome to my blog where I hope to document my university adventures and endeavors here at Durham University! So before I get into Freshers Week, I’ll quickly explain the set up of Durham.
Durham University is a collegiate school which means that within the university itself there are various colleges (16 to be precise) that function as residence halls but also serve social purposes too as they provide their members with socials, balls, formal and informal dinners, and communal spaces so you can get to know other students. My college is St. Mary’s, which was founded in 1899 and was originally an all women’s hostel until the university recognized it as an official college in 1919. It is co-ed now and currently has over 200 freshers (freshmen/first years) who are studying a myriad of subjects.
So here in the UK, the induction week of university is called freshers week, where we participate in a bunch of activities to help you meet people and bond. They also have a theme depending on which college you’re in and ours was Friends, hence why I will try to title my posts like friends episodes (gotta be on theme, you know?).
So the first day consisted of people hanging out in the JCR (the Junior Common Room which is the common room for undergrads) or in their corridor as they all unpacked, asking the holy trinity of college introductory questions:
- What is your name?
- Where are you from?
- What are you studying?
To which their new best friends, with answers that began to sound like broken records, responded, knowing that in two days this person would most likely ask them the same questions again as if for the first time.
After the unpacking had finished, we were herded into the dining room for some icebreaker games. Crowding at numbered tables, we each played things like telephone, charades, and any game which could be played in the span of about seven minutes before we were ushered away to another table with a new set of people.
Throughout the week, other nights consisted of dressing up for themes. Newcastle night (where we ventured into the nearby city of Newcastle) was neon night, where we wore neon or—if you were a poor, foolish soul who forgot neon, much like myself—you wore dark colors and then decorated your face in neon face paint, looking like a millennial off to a music festival.
Our dining hall also served as a dance hall for the “Back to School Bop,” an evening where we dressed up in our uniforms from middle school. Having been homeschooled for middle school, I elected not to wear pj’s or a t-shirt and nike shorts (as is the homeschool stereotype) and instead tried to assimilate and so I wore a tie and button down shirt.
But the crowning jewel of the whole week occurred on the last night with “Glastonmary’s,” a clever play on Glastonbury’s which is a huge music festival held in the southwest of England. It’s the rainy and British version of Coachella. A night to remember, there was glitter, brightly colored outfits, braided hair, and a mechanical surfboard which humiliated many a student who attempted to impress onlookers. It was the perfect way to end the week as my new friends and I took photos in a photo booth and eagerly stood in line for the chocolate fountain, where you could enjoy a variety of ingredients soaked in chocolate flavored goodness.
As the night neared midnight, however, the freps (older students that help out with freshers week) started passing headphones out to students entering the dining hall and on the dance floor. The DJ eventually disappeared and as I put on the headphones and music started playing, I realized that Glastonmary’s had just turned into a silent disco.
In case you don’t know, a silent disco is an extremely entertaining event where participants forsake a DJ, and instead are given a pair of headphones that have different channels playing different kinds of music. Lights on the headphones indicate what channel you’re listening to, so if you feel like listening to the same music as your friends, you can easily figure out which channel they’re on. For the dancers, it’s great because you get to listen to music you actually like, and onlookers are afforded a priceless scene of people dancing to different beats and singing different songs all at the same time.
At one point, while my friends and I were listening to a channel and enjoying our music, we looked over and saw the freps going ham over a different channel and out of curiosity decided to check out their channel to see what music was so amazing. And do you know what was playing? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. It was static silence on the radio. This jarring disappointment phased us for a quick moment as we puzzled over the single word question of “why?” Just, why? Eventually we got over our daze and switched back to a real channel, but I must say, I will forever be perplexed over their great enjoyment of willingly dancing to nothing.
But to conclude this post, I would like to give some advice for anyone who might be thinking of coming to the UK and will do Freshers week—or literally anyone that might be going through an orientation-esque event like this. Firstly, if you don’t meet your lifelong friends in that week—it is completely ok. I’ve been here for almost six weeks and I am still meeting new people in my college and in my subject, so don’t worry. Universities have so many students that you eventually will find like-minded people that you click with, if you don’t immediately. Secondly, know that it is completely ok to take a night off and stay in and watch a movie or do something lowkey. Taking a personal night for yourself is definitely necessary and there is nothing wrong with needing some alone time to recharge your social battery and do things that you love. Thirdly, say hi and be friendly to everyone because there are so many different and interesting people to meet, and they are all just as nervous about starting a new experience as you. I highly recommend getting a doorstop so you can leave your door open, especially during the first week, as it’s kind of like an invitation for people to come in and say high. And lastly, just be who you are and confident in that. This is a great new start but take advantage of it to just really be yourself because the people that will be good for you are the ones that accept you as you. Don’t stress about being something that you’re not. You were so uniquely designed to be you and the best version of you that you could ever be.
So far it’s been extremely fun and freshers week was definitely a week to remember. So thank you so much for checking in, and keep coming back for updates! 🙂
Sincerely, Hippity Hop
The Fabulous Hippity Hop 