September 11, 2020, by Agnes

Your First Night In Halls

Just imagine…

You’re finally here! Welcome to Uni of Nottingham!

You’re all moved in- maybe you’ve travelled from really far away or maybe you were a short journey away- either way, I bet you’re tired. It’s a stressful experience!

Maybe before returning home, your parents will spend a day in Nottingham with you? Maybe, you’ll want to get started on unpacking? Maybe, you’ll have an introduction talk you need to attend? Whatever you do with your first day in Nottingham, eventually your first day will turn into your first night… what should you expect?

I can’t predict what your first night in halls will be, but I can tell you what I experienced! 

When checking in to your accommodation, you’ll be told about any events or introduction talks going on over the next few days – it’s worth going to the first one you can! I stayed in Broadgate, so my intro event was in The Courtyard, (one of the two common spaces.) I came for the pizza and I stayed for the socialising! I gathered up all the confidence I had and went up to a group of girls sitting on the sofas – soon, we were all laughing together and finding things we had in common. When the room started looking empty, we figured we could go over to one of our flats for a tea, because how else will you break the ice? We quickly realised that my flat was the closest (and I brought an abundance of mugs and tea) and that’s how I ended up with about 10 girls squeezed into my tiny kitchen on the very first night… thankfully my new flatmates didn’t mind too much. 

In fact, the night was still young. We didn’t stop at tea – obviously. We actually ended up deciding to go out to a pub so we arranged to meet in the Level 1 Common Room in 30 minutes. Waiting for the others, I sat in the common room meeting more new people and sharing a cider with a girl that lived in the flat above me. Eventually, everyone gathered outside and (deciding that Wetherspoons was too far away) we set on our way to Mooch. 

Note to self: check Mooch’s opening times. When we got there, we were told that they’re closing at 10pm, since they weren’t expecting many people – after all, it was the first move-in day. It was about 9:45pm. So… yeah, we sat around for fifteen minutes having drinks.

At that point, the majority of the group decided that the Wetherspoons wasn’t too far away anymore. (It really isn’t, to be fair.) I kind of wanted to go back to my room, so I headed towards Broadgate with a small group of people. We sat in someone’s kitchen until my phone died and I headed back to my room, tired from the long day of experiencing university life for the first time. 

I went to bed and struggled to fall asleep for hours. Cut to 1am when my new flatmates came back from the pub… loudly. I wasn’t asleep so it didn’t bother me, but hearing one of them hush the others and say “Could you guys keep it down, I think Aggie’s gone to sleep” warmed my heart. After that, I laid in bed and it really started sinking in that it’s the first night of my first year of university.

Posted in Agnes