After busy days of meeting lots of people, listening to great talks and getting lost around campus, the evenings commenced! I actually don’t drink (which may, or may not, be a good thing) but I have had a couple of amazing nights out this week! My flatmates and Freshers Reps have taken great care of me, always checking that I’m okay and that I’m enjoying myself (so if you’re reading ‘Thank you guys!’). Among other events, The County Bar Crawl was something to behold; I really enjoyed it.   After donning our yellow County T-shirts we caught the buses into town, chanting and chatting excited for what was going to happen – it was great to see people out of the lecture theatre just getting involved and the smiles (along with the neon face paint) could light up the campus, I think! Heading out to town on the Shipwrecked evening was cool too! Some of the costumes were great; I’d never have thought to bring a plastic shark or parrot, with a Jolly Roger t-shirt and matching eye-patch! In fact seeing some of the other colleges dressed to the nines in animal costumes, ghost outfits and even a Greggs sausage roll and a bottle of ketchup (?) really made me smile – I genuinely hope that everyone else had a great time! I also went to the chocolate and mocktails evening! It was so nice to take time to just listen to some music and have a chat, plus the chocolate’s always a bonus!

So, Freshers Week has left the rest of the university experience an open book, ready to be filled with memories (and, of course, lecture notes), but I know that I will definitely look back on it and smile…

Thank you all so much for reading; I hope you enjoyed it and that you’ll come back for more stories next week! History Hugs,

Ellie :0)

Rather boringly I spent my first evening making my room my own, complete with lots of stationery and files, But the second day and the rest of the week was full of more reportable events. I must set aside a section of this post to mention my flatmates and college advisor (who very kindly gave us biscuits, yay!). They are such a great group and speaking to other Freshers from other houses and colleges throughout the week, I get the feeling that I’m not the only person to be saying this either! I feel like I’ve known them for much longer than I have; it’s weird! There’s somebody I can turn to if I need a hug, or if I feel like baking brownies, or if I’d like a chat, if I need a giggle or some time to just relax. We’re all learning things from each other and it’s really great (tips on how to party are also coming in handy!)

The meet your major lectures on the first day were great and it was so interesting to find likeminded people who clearly share the same keenness for history and philosophy as me. Sitting in the lecture theatres also gave me that real, stereotypical image of a student; there were notepads and coffee cups at the ready!  The student-y vibe and energy from everybody was so fantastic – it’s great to be in an environment where people are so interested and interesting too. The minor sessions gave me even more opportunity to interact and make friends from a wide-variety of interests. Armed with the three-absolutely-essential-questions survival kit, it was so fun just to continue making contacts from other colleges and other courses. However, picking a minor was tricky – there are just too many interesting combinations to choose from! Nonetheless, I look forward to EPR!

As I was making the decision about my minor it really hit me that this was actually happening! It was strange that I’d been to sample lectures and things and I’d felt that student-y vibe: yet, as I walked towards enrolment I couldn’t help but think that this combination of subjects will help me to create the plot of my university story and will moreover effect the next stages of life’s story. Seeing the floods of students choosing their new subjects made me appreciate that university, like stories, will be unique and influential. Beyond these somewhat overwhelming events of choosing minors and enrolling on these potentially life-changing (*cringe* sorry, that’s such a cliché (and probably more so because I pointed it out) but, hey, it’s true and no other word sounds quite right) courses there was also an awful lot of fun to be had this week too! I don’t think I have laughed so much in a long time!

But, before I move on to talking about the ‘eventful’ (being one way to put it!) evenings we’ve had this week, I feel it is essential to highlight the awesomeness that was the Freshers Fair! They say that there is something for everybody and I’ve never known a statement like that to be so accurate! Everywhere I turned there were things I’d never heard of, or didn’t even think could be a society. The buzz from inside The Great Hall and in the queue, even, was incredible – honestly the genuine passion people had for football, or debating, or Harry Potter, or writing made me want to sign up for most things (and that is not a huge exaggeration!) I ended up signing up for a few societies and I’m really looking forward to going next week – I’ll let you know more in the next post!

In my introduction talk this week I couldn’t help but notice the emphasis on interpreting stories of the past – as a history student I’ll be considering the impacts of these tales in today’s society and the shaping of the rest of history. This idea seemed to translate allegorically, in my mind, to be an appropriate theme to this blog’s introduction as Freshers Week has drawn to a close.
With this in mind it is important to consider that each story needs a setting and Lancaster seemed the perfect backdrop for a new tale! It was a constantly fired question from friends and family: ‘why Lancaster?’ and the answer has never been particularly clear. I mean, aside from the importance of the course and the accommodation as contributing factors, the real, definite answer has been really difficult to explain! However, on arrivals day the fog had lifted! The entire feel of campus, the reassurance that this is the right course and the genuinely lovely welcome from everybody has made it very easy to begin enjoying the time I have here.
I have always believed that first impressions count – these impressions provide the building blocks for these great stories that I hope you have all begun to compose. “Hi! What’s your name? Where do you come from? What are you studying?” These three questions have cured any metaphorical notions of writers’ block that I have had so far in creating this story. (So, in an ambiguous way, I guess what I’m trying to say is that simply by jumping in with these questions it’s been a really great way start things off!)
In light if this last comment, it is probably appropriate to introduce myself properly! My name’s Eleanor, or Ellie (or, my flatmates call me Martha, in likeness to Martha from The Great British Bake-Off, because I really like baking and we made brownies on day 2!) and I’m from Weston-super-Mare, a small-ish town in North Somerset. I’ll be studying History and Philosophy, with EPR as my minor subject and I’m in County College. It’s really nice to virtually meet you all!
So, introductions and salutations over, I will get on with it! Attempting to describe the entirety of this week would prove a joyous task, but no doubt the finished article would be a couple of hundred pages long! So I’ll just skip to the best bits so I can retain your attention!
There’s no doubt that the first day of uni, for me at least, was scary, exciting, nerve-racking, worrying, liberating…tiring!

Eleanor will be blogging about her experiences as a first year history student from freshers’ week to the summer exams.  Follow her in what promises to be an entertaining insight into life as a fresher studying History at Lancaster.  Enjoy