A student's view of living in Alcuin College
This is what Emily has to say about her first year as an Alcuin student:
"I don’t think that anything can ever really prepare you for University. However much of the recommended reading you plough through, or however many exciting experiences you rack up on your gap year travels, when it comes to the crunch, you are thrown into the deep end. Assigned a flat with 12 or so strangers that will be approximately the centre of your world for the next year, nope, you will probably not be entirely ready. And so it stands to reason that the first few days of Uni pass as something of a blur.
However, as sure as Fresher’s week sucks you in, it will spit you back out again, with (hopefully) a handful of decent mates, and almost certainly with the fundamental belief that you will be 'Alcuin 'till you die.'
A blur of black and red t-shirts and nervous sideways glances at those strangers that may, or may not, one day become your friends. Three shooters for £5.00 in B Henry’s that you will probably never subject yourself to again, awkward conversation and organised bar crawls, all to a soundtrack of 'I'm Alcuin 'till I die.' However, as sure as Fresher’s week sucks you in, and forces you to climb numerous metaphorical ‘walls’ ('so tired ... need sleep ... must go out ... again, etc'), it will spit you back out again, via a lost voice and bout of 'fresher’s flu,' with (hopefully) a handful of decent mates, and almost certainly with the fundamental belief that you will be 'Alcuin 'till you die.'
And so eventually, regrettably, you gain 'First Year' status. People stop dropping pennies in your drink and ordering you with glee to 'Down it Fresher.' You just about manage to establish a routine (though if you’re a humanities student that will probably always remain elusive). Your bedroom feels like home and you have more photographs on Facebook with Uni mates than with anybody else in your life. Sideways glances became small talk and small talk somehow became late night/early morning discussion in your kitchen (which by now is a shadow of its shiny Freshers week glory and has a suspicious, indefinable odour). B Henry’s is no longer unfamiliar terrain but the lynchpin of your Tuesday night routine (Al-quiz... Nags... Tru...). Alcuin no longer feels like a vast community of nameless faces and you realise that perhaps, within the college community anyway, you aren’t the proverbial 'small fish in a big pond' after all.
Alcuin no longer feels like a vast community of nameless faces and you realise that perhaps, within the college community anyway, you aren’t the proverbial 'small fish in a big pond' after all.
So I'm writing this now in Summer Term. Week three already, and the halcyon days of living in Alcuin feel numbered. Bedrooms doors are perennially open as my flat realises that next term we will actually have to go to the effort of up to a twenty minute walk just to watch YouTube clips and Disney films together. The remaining eight weeks promise to pass in a flurry of sunbathing, socials, barbeques and various other summery pursuits. And of course seminars, and all that jazz. Maybe even Labs if you do a 'proper subject.' A bit of sunshine breathes life into the quad, and pays testament to the six degrees of separation legend. Everyone seems to know each other. Or know someone. That knows someone else. It’s nice."
