a couple more pics

ED JESS LUKE NICOLA JO RICH

HELEN LUKE ED JOE ED

Here are a few random photos (all for you Meredith!)

HELEN JAMES GEMMA MARTIN MICHAEL

STEPH AND HELEN
JOE 'N' ED

RICHARD
DENSE DUNK (ED)
JESSI
JOE
JESS DUNK JOE

The Fresher's Ball

i cannot remember sunday, or really monday (i did my nail varnish in a girly night...), and most of tuesday. it has all blured into a shambles of staying up 2 late, going to lectures, falling alseep in lectures and goin on the computer! on tuesday we had the fresher's ball. i left my lecture half and hour early so that i would be ready in time for the coach to depart with me on it. i got ready and we went to the reception to wait for everyone going from college to congregate. james decided to come at the last minute cos he was offered a ticket cheap. we walked down to the coach stop with ruaridh carrying our things. helen and gemma wore flat shoes down there and then changed into heels. ben, steph and matt came down to wave us off as well!!
we got on the coach but helen was on a different coach. we chatted on the way down and then we arrived. we got out (holding up our skirts cos the floor was wet) and walked into the ball. we werent too impressed. there were girls wearing mini-dresses or skirts and tops. it was a ball gown event!
we got some drinks (a diet coke i think) and made our way over to somewhere we thought we had seen some John's people. we met up with many ppl and cos we didnt stay tlkin with them 4 tht long i cant remember who we saw...! then ed and luke joined us and they bought helen and i drinks (i had a water!) after some cgatting we went down to a dance room. we danced a bit on the floor and then luke, ed, and i left as the musoc was too loud and not really to our taste!
we tried to find a cheese room and found a room with a bungee run on. luke and ed had a go and i took some photos of their humerous attempts.
we danced a bit and were joined by james and gemma aftr a while. we had some really classy moves we did! chesney hawks came on to lots of cheerin and he did some okay songs. then he did 'i am the one and only' and everyone went mad!!
we all (i think) had a brilliant time.
once chesney had left the stage for the last time we all went on a loo trip! ed and luke were separated from the rest of us and in the end we decided to leave , we werent going to be able to find them and it was late. we went out and got on a coach. really near college all the hatfield people got off and we suddenly realised ed and luke had been sitting three rows in front of us the whole time and yet none of us had realised. i thought it was fabulous!!
once we got back to college my mmemory is totally blank, except ed, luke and I went back to luke's room and we had a good old chat.

saturday 7th October

I had brunch today. Brunch was good: eggs, bacon, baked beans etc. There was a college fresher’s fair from 1-3 which I went to. I signed up for the neighbours, football, hockey, CU, and bailey theatre societies.
it was meet the parentd night so i went to leech hall and met my parents (harriet and julian) and my brother (chris) we chatted and ate pringles and then moved on to the bar. they offered to buy me a drik but i had water (which i think i have proved is an alcoholic beverage!) After a while we went to the Bailey room and i was talking to the man who played leaonato in their production of 'much ado'. while in the Bailey room, i chatted a bit, watched them play piano, and watched them play pool.
i talked to Rob (with a twin..!) for a while b4 realising it was a bit late and going to bed.

friday

I had 9 hours of lectures today. Raagghh! At 11am I had a diagnostic test in maths. It was really annoying as first of all they didn’t have enuf sheets so I had to share a question paper which confused me and made it harder, and you had an answer sheet which just had the letter we chose from a multi-choice. It means all those stupid mistakes I make would look exactly the same as if I had guessed or made any other huge mistake. It was weird. At 7.30 the bad taste night began! My outfit was truly bad!! I can say in total honesty that I was appalled when I saw the photos showing just how bad I looked! I sat in the bar for a while with gemma, Helen, steph, and a few lads like sam and…um…oops, iv forgotten who else! After a while I went upstairs to the bar overspill and talked to Richard and Joe who were up there and then Ed and Luke arrived with their drinks. Gemma, Helen and Steph came back after doing some more to their outfits. Gemma went from looking like a slight fashion disaster to a total slut hooker with bad taste! It was impressive! They had taken photos of each other posing in many places ie with a potted plant, in front of the senior tutor’s office, and on a couch. All of us then went walking round to take photos of ourselves in bad taste. We got photos of us in leech hall, of us in cruddas laundry room, and then we went back to the bar overspill. Us girls (me, gemma and Helen…not steph) left to go to to Planet of Sound At the DSU. We were queuing from about 9.30 and got let in just before 10, it was a fiver to get in. we went downstairs and got ourselves drinks. I had a water, and Helen and gemma had…baileys? we sat down and drank them by which time a few more from john’s had arrived and were dancing. We got up and joined them. I had promised Helen that I would dance (As I already looked humiliatingly bad it couldn’t get much worse!) we danced for a while where I would have occasional bouts of dancing but mainly I did the ever so popular nervous stepping from side to side. Gemma decided she wanted to leave and I was fine with leaving then as well though I would have liked to stay longer. We told Helen and she said she’s leave too. We went back to college enjoying the coldness enveloping us…brrrr. How do people wear short skirts without tights? During the night, as soon as i took down my hair, some random strange man came up and started chatting to me. you could telll he was drunk but it started getting awkward and he was complimenting me on my clothes (let me remind you...it was BAD taste night) fortunately Gemma (?) bailed me out by asking if i wanted to dance again...!

First day of Lectures

I had my first lectures today. My first one was at 11am. It was a physics lecture but i had no idea where the room was. i went to the library to ask there and, after they rang someone else to ask i got sent to the Geography buiding. then i heard throigh the door something about geography so i went to the physics department to check my room number. i found i had been looking at monday, not thursday. i went to the room the lecture was actually in but by now i was half an hour late.

I had my second lecture at 1.15. it was a maths Core A lecture with Luis Fernandez. I could have been worse! my last lecture of the day was another Core A one with Luis.

I arrived back at college at about 6.30. I was supposed to meet college tutor at 5.30-6.30. I quickly went to meet him but he wasn’t there, he couldn’t make it. Talked to those in my tutor group. Had dinner.
Everyone else went to a karaoke night in leech hall. My corridor spent the evening in Gemma’s room. James had stolen the rubber duck given to Gemma by her ‘dad’. We decided we had to get him back so we cunningly took his Walsall football shirt and took it around Cruddas to try and find people to wear it so we could take photographs. We found Felix, Martin, and Rob from our year..not sure who else. Gemma, Helen and I also all tried it on. Then we went to James and Ruaridh’s (Rory's) room and gave the camera to James after asking if he wanted to see some pictures. It was easy to tell when he got to the football shirt ones. He stopped moving and just stared, as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was furious! But he did see the funny side to it and congratulate us on finding something so good to get back.

(im so original) fourth day of uni!

I went to my room and got dressed for the run, putting my gown on over the top as we were instructed to do. i went outside for ‘traditional freshers’ five mile run’ (ie jogging down to river, round a bit, and back up to college) after this i had breakfast and then went to a meeting about societies (late) there was a matriculation at the cathedral which was boring, especially as my total view was of a pillar. we all filed in to lunch when we got back and then went from lunch to the lawn to have a freshers' photo taken.
after the photo i went and got changed and then went to the fresher's fair with gemma and helen. i joined the Maths society (£6 for life) and the Neighbours society (£5 for life)
once back in my room my 'trying to keep busy so i dont feel tired' failed miserably. id tried talking to people, tidying, everything. but sleep overtook me and i had a nap in bed. i slept right through dinner
When i woke up i ran downstairs to get to leech hall in time for my health check. i handed in my form and they took my blood pressure (111/67) then there was a bar quiz in corridors. we had fun :)
we wen off to klute which is always referred to as so bad it's good. for me it was just so bad it was bad. apparently they did have loads of money spent on doing it up which may be why i left after about 20-30 mins.
i am having a good time but i have my worries and concerns. i keep having min depressed moments, im sure nothing is going right for me and everyone else gets things when i dont. (i know, paranoia!) one main concern is: what is the 'protocol' with new friends and people you have spoken to a few times. can you go to their roo and randomly knock on their door to say hi? anyway, i still reckon im irritating everyone but hopefully this will improve
my lectures begin tomorrow and im not prepared, i dont even know when they are. my internet isnt working so im going have to walk over to the computer room to look up when my lectures are. i have no idea how long it will take but here goes.

third day of uni (third October)

I managed to sleep through breakfast and the meeting about health and safety (its okay, i asked people if anything improtant was said!) i then got all my physics stuff sorted and got my campus card. this took ages but i suppose it was worth it!
I then tried to get my internet working in my room but even asking dad for help and downloading a load of stuff it didnt work. after lunch i spent over 2 hours talking to someone called Ed in his room. we covered many topics including the 'hi, who are you, how are you, what do you study, where do you come from' talk!
in the evening we had the Prince Bishop river cruiser event. we were told it was a black tie event so we all dressed up appropriatel. unfortunately the boat had no such invite so it wasnt dolled up. a shame really, it didnt fit with our gorgeous clothes, it was a bit of a mess really! it didnt really matter though , a good night was had by all (to my knowledge!) I had 3 burgers :) they tasted quite good.
after this i stood on the riverside with Ed, Richard, Luke and Joe for quite a while and then we decided to follow people to Studio, a local club. we stood by a table with our drink occassionally attempting some well known bad dance move like the 'big fish, little fish, cardboard box' one. (i believe this is a favourite of theirs!) a random woman asked Joe if she could borrow his bow tie. after much effort on her part he still refused but she found Luke much more willing to part with his. he did get it back...
in the end we all headed back to college leaving Richard behind (not as in we forgot him! he decided he wanted to stay) with Larry for company.
I went with the other three to Cruddas C (the floor on which they all live) and we chatted in the corridor till Nicola and Jo ame out to see what the noise was. then we went into their room and carried on talking. Luke went to bed. soon after we started to leave as nicola and jo were (unsurprisingly) chucking us out.
we found ourselves talking in the bar overspill covering no end of topics from religion and smoking, to sex ed and drugs.
an ever so slightly drunk 4th year came and joined in, spilling to us his hatred of all things, especially the JCR president.
When he fell alsleep we went to the TV room leaving him in the bar overspill. we carried on the conversation and at some point i did some handstands but im not really sure why or when. it was after i had gone to shange into my pj's but i think it was before Richard went to bed.
I carried on talking to Ed till 7.10 in the morning. as we were supposed to be doing a fresher's run at 7.30 we both went our separate ways.

second day at uni (second october)

On Monday I had breakfast which was followed by the principal’s address. This consisted of the principal saying some stuff and then introducing some other members of staff. The most notable was the senior tutor. He was hilarious…he spoke like a toff, as my mother would say. He sounded like a public school boy but he was willing to make fun of himself. The year was then split into the three faculties, (Science, Art, and Social Science) and I then had a college tour around the library with some other science students, they showed us where the computer room, bailey room, DVD room etc were. At about 11 we congregated inside the chapel with our robes over our arms. We were to have our college registration. The Senior Tutor and Principal said some words from a sheet and all the students said ‘I do’. Then each of our names was read out by the JCR president and we had to, in turn, walk up to a fresher’s rep to hand over our robe, then write our date of birth, name, and ‘faculty of science’ in a book. Then we got our robe put on and then we shook hands with the principal before sitting down. It was quite embarrassing…but I suppose it was an experience. Then we had to sort out finance and book our meals. It was all quite boring. We were given some sheets which e were told had to be filled in before we could get a campus card and we had to get a campus card in order to use the computers, to use the internet, or to go in the library. This meant I had to chose what optional modules I wanted to take. I was originally choosing between a theology module a chemistry module, and a physics module. Then I decided theology was too much essay writing. I was then told chemistry clashed so I chose to do a double physics module entitled ‘Foundations to Physics’. I had to go to a maths talk/lecture/introductory meeting at 2:15. at the end of this I got someone to sign my sheet to enrol me for my maths modules. I still had to go to the physics department before I could get my campus card. I go back to college and at 5-6pm there were subject parties. I met my mum, Harry, as she is doing Maths. Some of the mathematicians in above years made me concerned I would turn into a geek but thee were a couple of saner looking individuals. We went out to Chase and then Walkabout in the evening which are two clubs. It was a good evening though my legs ached by the end as I was standing up constantly. I didn’t dance but preferred to observe and cat to people as they took a break from their classy dance routines!

1st October

im finally at uni! ive had my freshers 'week' moslty. my lectures started today. ive got 17 per week!! an 9 of them are tomorrow. (if my research is right)
i have thr internet working in my room...yay!!
im sowly talking to ppl which iss good...i keep forgetting to take any photos though...
anyway..best go to bed

Today was my first day at uni! We left the Travelodge in Doncaster at about 9:30 and got to Durham spot on 11:30 (with a mid-way break for elevenses) It took about an hour to get to St. Johns from the edge of Durham because of the traffic. When I arrived I was shown to a room and it was explained to me (many times!) that this was not my actual room because when they had tried to open my room this morning the key had got stuck and the room would not open. They hope to break down the door (gently!) tomorrow and then I can choose which room to stay in, apparently. I have met Gemma (Maths), Frances (Natural Sciences), Steph (Chemistry), Lottie (sport), Jane (Chemistry), Ed (Modern Languages), James (Theology), ‘Rory’ (Law). Everyone seems nice so far. I spent much of the afternoon in James and Rory’s room talking to them as I have a single room and I can’t unpack as I don’t know how long I’m staying here if at all! We had an inside BBQ, I went to see Gemma and Jane’s rooms, and I got shown where my real room is (I prefer the location of my temporary one..) I’m off to bed now as I spend the evening downstairs in the bar overspill talking. I’ve bought a gown, a fresher’s t-shirt with the names of all the johns freshers on the back, and JCR membership. I don’t really know what’s happening as my information pack is locked in my actual room. Hopefully my timetable will be enough for a while.