Top five fresher moments

I arrived at York a complete fresher to the whole university experience.

1. Exceeding Expectations

I’d never seen the campus, never made it to any of the open days and the most I’d seen of my accommodation was in pictures on the website. Rocking up to the car park after the four-hour drive, my first problem was how to get my stuff in – and my parents out – without permanently embarrassing myself. Luckily, I moved into my flat, greeted my flatmates and got my parents out without too much of an issue and I’m pretty happy with the state of things. The James college campus, my block (it’s pretty sweet, has to be said), and my flatmates are all absolutely brilliant (apart from the one we don’t see, who may be awesome, if they actually socialised once in a while).

It was about 8.00am the next morning that I really felt I’d ‘arrived’ at York. I lurched out of my sheets, my ears ringing and with a banging hangover, slamming my hand down on my blaring alarm (my Dad seems to think he’s a bit of a joker) and slurred into the kitchen to fix a hangover-reducing breakfast after the night before. I had a bunch of new numbers, a couple of texts and absolutely zero idea of what’d happened the last night beyond the first ten minutes. Good times.

2. Gallery Foam Party

By Friday, our flat was a pretty tight group and we’d made friends with the other flats in our block. We’d spent the evening neon-ing it up with glow-in-the-dark paint, and writing JAMES COLLEGE all over our arms, not really knowing what a foam party would involve, or just how much of a waste all our “art” was going to be. A short taxi ride later, in the depths of Gallery, after a cheeky beer we piled into the centre of the floor, hazed on alcohol, arms in the air and busting out our flat dance! A countdown blared over the speakers, and we screamed in unison as several tons of soapy foam crashed down onto our heads. Seconds later we were coughing and spluttering as mouthfuls of soapy bubbles clogged our throats and brought tears to our eyes. We stumbled through the floor, dancing and coughing with tears in our eyes, navigating the press of people around us who were all going through pretty much the same experience. It’s the closest I’ve ever being to drowning, and the next day none of us could talk.

Despite that, or maybe because of it, it was probably the most fun night I’ve EVER had out. The combination of adrenalin, good friends and alcohol was brilliant, and coming out of the floor into a confused shamble of snowmen lookalikes doubled me over in laughter.

3. American Football

When I came to uni I just knew I wanted to try out a new sport. At Freshers’ Fair I signed up to about 50 different things and the most random one I chose was American Football, which I knew absolutely nothing about, except the fact that you could tackle pretty much anyone at any time. It sounded good.

I turned up, running late, to see around a hundred other freshers – all of us pretty clueless about the sport or how to play it. I couldn’t even throw the ball! The next 3 hours was pure fun, with a brilliant atmosphere of camaraderie and socialising, the buzz of conversation punctured frequently by bone-shattering tackles as we were put through our paces. I’m not short at six foot three, but one guy pretty much blocked out the sun, and when my shoulder connected with the tackle bag he held, I lost feeling in my arm for about five whole minutes. They filmed the whole thing, to make a highlight reel, and afterwards we went to Yates for some beers and to watch the NFL.

I’m definitely going back.

4. James College

This is partly just to annoy a friend in Vanbrugh, but James College is absolutely awesome! I chose it based off some recommendations, and the fact that the gym and sports pitches are all about twenty seconds walk away, but I couldn’t have asked for a better part of campus if I’d actually tried! Everything is easy to reach, our accommodation is fantastic, the people are amazingly friendly and all the freshers are already in love with it. I’ve joined all the college’s major team sports, football as a goalie, rugby as a second row and I know people in all of the blocks, even the infamous N block. If my gushing for James is making you puke, you’re obviously from one of the other colleges and are just jealous. James till I die!

5. Flatmates

My flat consists of sixteen people; all about my age and most of us took a gap year. Moving into a new place, living on my own for a pretty big chunk of my year was always going to be a bit of a risk and the thing I worried about was not meeting people similar to me.

Worrying about that was probably my biggest mistake during the entire week.

Absolutely none of them are particularly similar to me and that’s brilliant. I’ve already learnt to appreciate and get on with a massive variety of people who’re all really interesting, up for a laugh and love to joke about. There’s only one guy we never really see, and he spent most of the first week in his room. The rest of us are already really close, and there’s a big bond of trust between us. I barely lock my room when I’m out, we haven’t gone through the whole tedious thing of labelling our cutlery, and we’ve got a ton of in-jokes and banter already. Ironically, the only part of my flat I don’t really know is my own room, as I only spent about twenty-four hours there in the first week! I feel like I could move in with these guys next year, and things would go on without too much of a hitch.

I guess it’s just luck of the draw, but I feel as though I just moved into a second home, rather than out of my first.

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