21 September 2018

The freshers are coming

It's almost Welcome Week (WW), the new students are coming! Most freshers will live in halls, and halls allow you to move in in the weekend before WW. That means that is when the bulk of students arrive. The Peer Guides are there to meet them and make them feel welcome. And take them to the pub.

I decided to bike to a nearby cluster of Halls to have a look myself. The bloke who does the central coordination of the Peer Guides, Julian, would be there too. And the atmosphere was great! It helped that it was sunny; I bike around in a T-shirt, and saw all these parents unloading cars full of stuff, and carrying it to the halls with their teenage offspring. Such a momentous day in their lives! There were peer guides (recognisable from the printed T-shirts) everywhere, ans there was music, and a BBQ, and people throwing a rugby ball around, and whatnot. I sort of got the spirit again myself! It's 25 years ago for me, and I didn't move into halls, and my parents didn't bring me, and everything was different, but still; it was the first day of the rest of my life, as the cliche goes. It was a very exciting week! And I still have friends I made then!

I did bump into Julian, and had a chat. All seemed to be going OK! And I also saw two of my Head Peer Guides, who are in charge. Everything was under control!


Good vibes at Ffridd site 

On Monday I would be the one to welcome them to the School of Ocean Sciences (well, after the Head of School, that is). I had printed information for them and made a powerpoint (or rather, adapted it from the year before). And then I bumped into David who said I was chairing the whole thing from 10:30 to 14:15. Eh, OK! Hadn't quite realised that was my job but that's easily done. 

Towards the end of the day all staff appeared to have lunch with their tutees. Including me! I have eight this year, and they all seemed nice. As usual, it was a mix of those that will talk all the time and those you have to drag every word out of. But it'll work out! I look forward to working with this lot this year!

David (the Head of School) welcomes the freshers


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