UOC Week 1 - Freshers

As scheduled, here is the first upload to my online diary over the course of my stay at the University of Cumbria. I’m staying at the Penrith campus, which is actually in Cumbria, unlike the Tower Hamlets campus which, for some reason, is down in London. I’m not sure what the uni was thinking when they opened a campus there. It doesn’t give the students easy access to facilities on other campuses.

Anyway, instalment one. We were actually told this week that making a diary of what we do would be a good idea, so I thought, “Oh, goodie. I’m doing something right already.”
I’m settling with relative ease in comparison to my shoddy introduction to Trent College life back in Year 7. I have yet to tell anyone here about the dinosaur and Gollum impressions, and I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. I am situated on campus in the Blencathra building with 7 other people – 5 boys and 2 girls. They are:- Neal, Karl, Harry, Elliot, Josh, Olivia and Kate. See, I know them already. Yay!

So, the beginning. Days 1 and 2 were, quite frankly, rubbish. This is because nothing unduly interesting happened. We just had lectures about a bunch of stuff, like the students union and what the course was about. In effect, it was a double open day. And since I’d already been to two open days, I was bored out of my mind. It took a real effort not to shout, “I’VE HEARD ALL THIS ALREADY! TWICE! GET ON WITH IT!” And guess what Trent Tridents, there is a chapel here. Fortunately, it isn’t a regular event – you just go there if you feel like it. And after the Trent College experiences, i don’t think that’ll be happening any time soon for me. Plus, the Chaplain has just left. Yeah, that’s right. Already.

However, on day two, as those of you who look at my wall will know, I made a small discovery that quite startled me. We went on the bus to Brampton Road to look at the media facilities there, and the minibus was crawling with tiny spiders. However, when we got back, we had an hour long lecture about Ixodes scapularis (note the Latin name, I’m gonna have to do this more often now) or deer tick, which look just like spiders and are common in the area. What’s more, they are a leading cause of Lyme Disease. Ooh-er.

Fortunately it turned out that the spiders were actually spiders, and none of us got bitten. But we were also told that one of the best ways to prevent tick bites is to tuck our trousers into our socks.

I don’t think so, do you? I’ll take my chances with the ticks, thanks very much.

Wednesday and Thursday were much better, although Thursday was not all good news. Wednesday involved heading to the RSPB bird reserve at Leighton Moss. What a great day out for birdwatchers that is. Shovelors, teals, nuthatches, greenfinches, bullfinches, robins, moorhens, lapwing, golden plover, pheasant and many, many tits – (yes, very funny) – blue tit, great tit and coal tit. Apparently there are supposed to be Bearded tit there too, as well as Bittern, but I didn’t see either on that particular day. However, I did see a rabbit and a bunch of red deer. Apparently there will soon be Marsh Harriers arriving at the place, so that should exciting. Also, the red deer rutting season starts soon, so while that is a great video opportunity, I’ll have to stay out of the way. Very out of the way.

On Thursday it rained.

When I was on a boat on Lake Ullswater.

A small boat with no cover.

Despite my waterproof I was thoroughly soaked and remained that way throughout the rest of the day. At least I didn’t fall in like someone I could mention *cough*Olivia*cough*. We also visited the uplands that day, to the area where Britain’s only Golden Eagle lives. Didn’t get close enough to see the eagle, but now I know where to go to see it.

Friday, I discovered my new timetable.

Pure... effing... win.

I only have a maximum of two days of lessons a week – and half of this is practical. I have a two hour lecture Monday afternoon, a three hour practical on Tuesday afternoon, nothing on Wednesday, a three hour practical on Thursday morning, and another two hour lecture on Thursday afternoon, and nothing on Friday. And if that wasn’t good enough, the lectures and the Tuesday practical only take place on certain weeks, so there will be many weeks where I have only have one and a half days, or just one day. There are a couple of weeks, such as 9, 11 and 17, where I only have the Thursday morning session. That means I have a maximum of only four hours of lectures a week, and then lots of fun crawling through mud outside. YEAH BABY!
Friday rolled around and became quite dull again. I bought a white lab coat, thus ruining my Mum’s plan of not taking any white clothing so the washing doesn’t get too complicated. Other than that, nothing happened. However, we did play several games back in Blencathra, such as Mouse Trap, Frustration and Kerplunk. Ah, good times. Next we’re getting Hungry Hippos. We also bought a fish tank to put in the kitchen, but if the fish we eventually will put in it begins to get unhealthy I’m going to commandeer it. Our kitchen started out as the cleanest one, stayed that way for a couple of days and then started to degenerate.

No, I didn’t do that much partying. I did some, but I didn’t drink anything and quite frankly I preferred the event that Dan organised at Rock City because I actually knew people there. Oh well.

Saturday became the maiden trip for my folding bike, which I took out of the bike shed and used it to cycle to Morrisons and back. The trip back was a killer – two heavy bags of food, one on my back and one of the back of the back, on a trip that was almost completely uphill.

Ah well, I need to get more in shape anyway if I’m going to go traipsing through the wilderness looking for wild animals.

After Morrsions I watched Merlin. How hilarious was that?

Anyhoo, that’s the end of my week so far. A reasonably good start I reckon. The only real downside is that I still don’t have any hot water in my shower, so washing in the morning has been rather unpleasant. Oh, and the other downside as that my TV does this weird thing were the colours seem to move slower than the rest of the image, which isn’t noticeable most of the time but is painfully obvious at others, like when characters are walking slowly. Oh well. I’ll just have to get used to it.

I hope everyone else is having a good time. My guess is that all those who have also been on fresher’s week did so more loudly and drunkenly than I did, but whatever floats your boat.

Goodbye until next week, where I can tell you all about my new modules. I may start uploading the best photos I take on the course onto facebook.

Matthew Leiper, signing off.