Freshers Week: Expectations vs. Reality

One week ago today, I was experiencing a typical lazy Sunday and enjoying my last day with no uni obligations. During the day I tried to quell my apprehension about meeting brand new people, which I would go on to do that night at the Icebreaker Predrinks event, exclusive to non-halls dwellers. I didn't even know what the Icebreaker was at first; when I found out I had no interest in attending, but still made myself go to the meet up. The first of many buses during the week turned up fairly promptly, but I had difficulty finding the pub. Eventually I made it there, but couldn't find the group, so I sat with some second years for half an hour before making contact with them via Facebook. I chatted with the intended group for about an hour, but I didn't even get a drink. We did, however, agree to meet to walk to our induction talk the next morning, so that was something. Oh, how it's developed from there! Here's a retrospective list of the things I expected, plus what really happened.

Expectation #1

I would meet up with the home-dwellers once, go to the folk night alone, and do nothing for the rest of the week.

Reality #1
I went out every evening between Sunday and Friday, and went to the comedy night on Monday instead, which was probably a better decision. In addition to that, I went to the Archery Have-A-Go session yesterday!

Expectation #2

I'd make small talk with the people at the first event and one or two people at my course meetings, but not really get to know anybody.

Reality #2
I've acquired eight new Facebook friends and four phone numbers, as well as getting to know a good group of people!

Expectation #3

I'd have one small alcoholic drink per event.

Reality #3
I drank a pint of Guinness and most of a bottle of beer on Friday... enough said!

Expectation #4
I'd avoid clubs at all costs.

Reality #4
Seven of us went to a club on Tuesday night, and it was actually a pretty good experience!

All of this actually happened, plus more, and it's got my uni life off to a great start! With under 12 hours until my first lecture starts, I'd better finish off here, with the hope that uni continues to be this fun!

Studio l'italiano!

I'm learning Italian! After seven years of studying German at secondary school, which culminated in an A-level grade B, I've decided to try my hand at learning another modern foreign language. I chose Italian for a pretty superficial reason: so that I could attempt to read interviews with Sebalter in his mother tongue. Still, as time goes on I'm starting to really enjoy developing my skills. It's a nice change to be learning at my own pace and for my own personal interest, rather than for a qualification. The main resource I'm using is Duolingo, a free web/app platform which generates simple listening, reading, writing and speaking activities within discrete lessons, helping the user to gradually acquire knowledge of the target language. The focus is on learning through experience rather than explanation, although the comments section is useful for finding out the theory behind each sentence. Strength bars indicate the skills that need to be improved, and it's always possible to strengthen skills, which is particularly useful when I don't feel like learning a completely new topic. I also have a 3 in 1 book, the Collins Easy Learning Complete Italian, which has grammar, verb and vocabulary sections. So far it's been useful to clarify grammar points introduced on Duolingo, and I might use it to write notes and flashcards. I've been learning for almost two months now and according to Duolingo I've acquired 30 skills and learned 862 words. My next challenge is the perfect tense... oh, and I'm starting uni in a couple of days! Alla prossima!