A Fresher's A to Z

Behind the bar at Evil Eye

Alcohol Unless you’re the most restrained person ever (in which case I mightily admire you), you will drink. You will “consume”. And you will probably regret it in the morning.

Browns But what better way to get over the hangover with probably one of the best sandwiches in the world? That’s right, Browns in Heslington is a fantastic place to find in Freshers’ – especially if you’re in Derwent: it’s so close, you don’t have any excuse not to go there!

Condoms Even if you insist you really, really won’t be needing them, you will get plied with the things. Might as well take them – after all, hours of fun can be had with washing-up liquid, and they can make excellent balloons if you’ve forgotten about someone’s birthday. If you’re lucky enough to get some of the glow-in-the-dark ones, even better.

Down it, Fresher! The cry of second and third-years everywhere, even thought they’re not technically meant to promote drinking. Basically, there aren’t many ways to avoid this, especially if you’ve joined a sports club. The only piece of advice I’ll give you is: try to make sure you aren’t left with a drink for too long. Oh, and if, like me, you resolutely refuse to down the drink the first time they say it, hopefully they’ll never actually expect you to. That won’t stop them saying it though.

Evil Eye Without a doubt the best place in York: discover it quickly! Even if you don’t like cocktails, during the day they do excellent hot drinks and an Evil Eye Sunday lunch has got to be experienced at some point, why not get there sooner rather than later? With its oriental-style furnishings and actual four-poster beds to sit on upstairs, I’m pretty sure that this is one place you will visit at some point in your first year – so why not suss out your favourite drinks early and impress your friends later?

Freebies Ah, forget discovering what the University has to offer, this is the real reason Freshers’ Fair is so popular. Make the most of it. If you’re clever you can pick up enough pens and discount books to last you the entire first year. So take a big bag and put on your most interested face: it’ll be a long afternoon, but it’ll be worth it.

Gallery So, one third of York’s proper clubs, The Gallery is the University’s official Thursday night out, although SNG or “Sunday Night Gallery” is just as popular. Most colleges will give you the opportunity of being introduced to The Gallery at some point in the week.

Health But don’t forget to look after yourself amidst all this partying. Don’t eat rubbish all the time. And make sure you know where the Health Centre is on campus – you never know what’s going to happen.

Idiots Yes, you are undoubtedly going to meet some of these. Unfortunately there’s not much to do about it, apart from just ignoring them. Hopefully you won’t be living with them, but if you are: just let it go – they’re probably just having some difficulty adjusting.

Or they could just be idiots. Whichever.

Jealousy Of course, when you get so many people from all over the country together in one place there is going to be huge amounts of envy going on. Don’t worry about it: if it annoys you too much, just don’t hang around those you’re jealous of/who are jealous of you: simple.

Kitchen (raves) I’ll never forget my first day in Derwent. A couple of friends and I were going to sit in the kitchen with hot chocolate and chat. When we got to the kitchen, someone had turned off the lights, got some bass speakers and a strobe light in there and we found our kitchen turned into a mini-rave.

This just demonstrates how unexpected things can be. Once I got over the initial shock of finding so many people dancing in my kitchen I thought it was a nice touch really.

LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender society that throws excellent social events: something to look out for.

Melancholy I.e. Homesickness. You’re going to miss something. Tip? Throw yourself into university life so you don’t have time to miss anything!

North/South Ah, I spent many an hour debating this in those first few days (and the rest of the year actually). Let’s just say people love to correct your accent, wherever you are from: don’t take it personally.

Open-minded Possibly the most important thing – you don’t know what the week is going to throw at you, so be ready for anything. And most importantly, don’t judge others for what they choose to make of their week.

People Get out and meet them! It’s the whole point of the week – talk to as many as possible – you won’t stay in touch with all of them, but say, if you add fifty people on Facebook in the first week, I guess that’s probably at least five friends for the rest of the year. But you won’t find the people you’ll really get on with unless you get out there and look.

Queues Freshers’ Fair. The Gallery. Tru. Ziggy's. At the bus stop. Unfortunately, queues just can’t be avoided in this first week.

Rape Alarms One freebie that can turn into a curse. As useful as they are when walking home late at night, they will assuredly be used for practical jokes. Don’t leave your door unlocked at night – you will get a live alarm thrown into it.

STYCs Or college parents or whatever they’re called: these guys are essential. Some may even become your friends if you’re as lucky as I was. Basically, they’re there to help, so get their numbers and feel free to ask them anything. Well, maybe not anything but I’m sure you get the idea. Oh, pulling one in your first week may seem to some as a challenge worth winning, but technically it’s not allowed on their side; plus it can make things a trifle awkward – you should be seeing a lot of these guys over the first term.

Toyko The newest club in York's night-life scene, Tokyo will be taking over the old Tru and providing the University's official Thursday night and probably some greater "quality" to York's clubbing scene.

Unwell Aka Freshers’ Flu: as a rule, it happens to everyone, making those first few lectures incredibly difficult/amusing as the lecturer struggles to make themselves heard through the coughing.

Vikings (Kitchen) Aside from an important part of York’s heritage, the Vikings also give their name to a rather good takeaway, Vikings Kitchen, that has pizzas named after the colleges. The Derwent Supreme is rather good: the perfect end to a night out, maybe, or the start of a relaxed night-in?

Willow York’s resident Chinese restaurant that turns into a “nightclub”: need I say more? Try it, it’s not for everyone, but it can be fun. Plus free prawn crackers and £1 shots. It stays open later than all the other clubs, making it the usual place to end up: anything can happen in the Willow.

X-rays Otherwise known as “what you have to have when you fall over while drunk and break your ankle”. I’ll tell you now, the nurses in A&E aren’t too keen on drunken accidents – don’t let it happen.

Yourself What you should be. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not in this week – you’ll only have difficulty backtracking at a later date.

Ziggy's! Last but most certainly not least: love it or hate it, Ziggy's is certainly an experience. Like Willow, I guess you’ll just have to find out for yourself whether it’s for you. More like a massive house party than a club, Ziggy's free entry for students on a Wednesday certainly make it somewhere you have to go at least once. Though be prepared: it’s going to get very hot.

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