Friday 10 June 2011

Early nights, little drinking and organisation borderlining on OCD: My first year at University

So my first year of uni finished at the end of last month, following 2 months of tedious revision and constantly telling myself "after this, that's it, I'm quitting," with that following a severe hatred developed for the subject I once loved, and I can now honestly say, I'm so bored it's actually more tiring doing nothing than it is doing something.

The title of this post doesn't really seem like what a first year student would endure during their first year of uni. In fact, I didn't get the student experience at all to be honest (unless you count the severe stress and wishing you'd just gotten a job). Where most students spent their nights partying in town or at the SU, I spent mine making cupcakes and sitting on the sofa watching whatever was on TV or Scrubs/Friends/Desperate Housewives/Frasier/Big Bang Theory boxsets, and being in bed by 11 most nights. I think since moving here, the latest I've stayed up has been 2am, and that was just from having an argument. I never underestimated the value of sleep before starting uni, now it's the most important part of my day.

In terms of drinking, I attended 3 SU events. Honestly, just 3. These were all during freshers' week.
The first was a T-Shirt party, basically a night of drinking where they give you a free t-shirt to write your name on, which Liam and I attended, but no one approached us because we were basically the creepy inseperable couple in the corner and we had left by 10.30.

The second was a UV Rave which again, involved us sat in the corner talking to each other (or rather shouting because of how loud it was) and spending 45 minutes at a time at the bar, while another girl started chatting to me and then ended the conversation with "can I have one of your glowsticks?"and then just pissed off. Sure, have a conversation with me with the usual small talk I'd had with everyone else that week about what course I'm doing and where I'm from, assume that makes us friends and then scab a glowstick like we've been BFFs for years. The worst situation had to be getting drinks, at one point you'd get to the bar, and then be pushed out of the way again. Although for SU drink prices what can you expect? Although we did leave at 2am for that one. Sober, though.

The last one, and probably the most fun was the fresher's ball. £12 was very steep for a ticket but it was an excuse to dress up and look nice. Although I assumed I'd be able to wear my prom dress again, which was green, but the theme was red and white, so that idea was out, leading me to spend £30 on a white dress I'm never going to wear again. Still, it was a good night, it was the first (and last time) I had Jagermeister (eww) and I really enjoyed it. No one really spoke to us, but still it was the most successful night of the week. And we learned that it benefits you to buy 2 drinks at a time and keep one near you or in your pocket so you don't always have to go to the bar.

Once I made some friends I had one night out with them, which I thought went really well. We went to a few clubs and it did feel like I finally had some proper friends. It was a shame we weren't out for long as we had visitors the next day, but it was a fun night even so.

Obviously when I've gone home with people I know better, I've gotten more drunk, but it's not really the student experience of going to bed at 4, waking up at 8 with a severe hangover and trying not to throw up in your 9am lecture, but while at home I've had heavy nights and been due to visit my Dad the next day, and very nearly thrown up in the car on the way there. That's probably as close as I'll get.

I think the fact I never went into halls probably didn't help with a lot of things. I live about an hour's walk from my campus so couldn't really hang out with any friends I'd made and just the fact that most people stayed in their flat groups to begin with was a clue in itself that I would have more easily made friends in halls, but I chose love rather than friends. I wouldn't change it though, I couldn't stand the thought of sharing a bathroom with several people and I have far too much stuff (mainly DVDs) for just one room ;) And at least I'm living with someone who understands that I'm a huge bag of crazy.

One thing I've enjoyed (and this is going to be the saddest thing I've ever written) is that I've loved being organised this year. I've loved having a diary, having to plan my day, having folders and such. It was probably just feeding my mild OCD (which admittedly did get a bit worse over the year), but still I enjoyed the tidiness of my work. And the smell of brand new textbooks. Plus, I enjoy a regular trip to Paperchase in Bath when we're home and Liam has orthodontist.

I obviously haven't considered the academic side of this year, but I will say, I've had some exam results back and they're pretty good. I just hope the rest are too, but only time will tell on that one.

So to sum up, I haven't drunk nearly enough as what I should have to live up to the student reputation, I've realised how much I love sleeping, that Jagermeister is AWFUL, I've done fairly well in some exams, I've made a hell of a lot of cakes and don't really have any BFFs yet. One thing I would have liked is to have a Friends style group of friends while at uni. Maybe next year.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Embarassing Bodies: What if Your Mum's Watching?

So I'm quite the fan of the C4 show Embarassing Bodies. Not because I like laughing at other people or watching gorey surgical procedures, but because despite the fact I'm not all that bright, I'm quite interested in health and I do genuinelly like medical programmes - documentaries, not dramas like Casualty that is. Still, despite the fact I find it interesting, I hate looking at the bits where they do operations on people. Hats off to doctors and surgeons everywhere, I could not do it.

Anyway, my question about Embarassing Bodies is this: why are you too embarassed to visit your own doctor in private but not too embarassed to go on national television aired to millions of people and potentially get your genitals out? I don't know if people get paid for going on there and having their cases shown, but surely your dignity is more important than money? Yeah, it's not all genital problems, so people who have feet or skin problems or stomach problems, I can understand, but if I had a gammy vagina or a swollen penis, then I'd be much more comfortable visting my own doctor in the privacy of their office as opposed to getting it out on national TV.

It's also a case of you don't actually know who's watching it as well, your colleauges could be watching, if you're a teacher, your students could be watching, your in-laws could be watching, even worse, your parents could be watching it. I suppose you might warn them not to watch it, but that's not actually physically going to stop someone you know switching it on and being grossed out or having a good laugh over the size of your penis or the state of your bikini line.

Obviously it looks like the people on there get better medical care than what they would if they went to their own GP, and I don't actually know what goes on behind the cameras, whether they're referred to private specialists or if they have treatment on the NHS or whatever, but I still don't get the general concept of going on national television with an embarassing illness and presenting it to the country, as opposed to just keeping it between you and your GP.

I will admit, the show gives out some good health advice, and nearly all the cases I've seen on there are sorted and treated very well, but I'm just saying I'd much rather visit my doctor in private than go on TV with an embarassing illness. I'm in absolutely in no way criticising the show, just the idea of why people go on there confuses me. Like I said, maybe they get paid, maybe they get better treatment, maybe they do it for the benefit of others who have similar illnesses, maybe the benefits of getting your genitals out on TV outweigh the costs of it, but even so, I think I'll stick to seeing my GP privately if it were me.