'Freshers 2k11' will forever hold a place close to my heart. When I first got to Warwick I was terrified about knowing nobody but after the first two weeks of spending night after night on the sticky-floors of the copper rooms, and hours chatting rubbish in the kitchen I realised that I needn't worry, and that G and H block 1st floor kitchens were the place to be.
Here, freshers is...different. I'm not sure how I would have found it had I been an American freshman but observing it from the point of view of a third year exchange student was pretty interesting to say the least...
(I originally wrote this post for the boar so will put a link in at the bottom)
Fresher’s Fortnight
Warwick: Paint parties, X-rated hypnotists (watch out for that one) and three-legged bar crawls. Taking the U1 to the mysterious depths of ‘Leam’ for a night out. Experiencing the horrors/wonders of Smack’s downstairs room for the first time.
USC: Free food. Room decoration workshops. Free food. Pyjama Parties. Free food. BYOB ice cream social, with the B standing for banana. Multiple church organised barbeques. Free food. I understand the repetitiveness of the food element here, but we managed to spend nothing on food for the first week and a half so it deserves multiple mentions.
Dancing (so different it needs its own section)
Warwick: Standard club dancing. Sharking. Only Evolve OR Smack being open therefore the dance floor being so rammedthat you don’t control your dancing, everyone else’s dancing controls you.
USC: Sex with clothes on. Boys politely ask for a dance then proceed to hard-core grind on the girl. Not unusual for the girl to be bent over with her hands on the floor (no exaggeration, this has been the most shocking thing about America so far).
Classes
Warwick: First two weeks are pretty light. You can usually get by in first year with minimal reading and maximum cramming.
USC: Ten classes a week. Reading for every class. Hundreds of dollars you thought you would be spending on Krispy Kremes and plane tickets being spent on books. Pop quizzes, multiple choice tests and midterms so no possibility of end-of-year overnight cramming sessions. On the plus side, attending university events (free food!) gets you extra credit.
Sports
Warwick: Apart from when it’s Varsity, sport matches areonly really relevant to you if you are the one playing in the match.
USC: Gamedays are the most important days of the year. American football is a way of life here in the South and everything at the university revolves around its football team, the Gamecocks. The stadium holds over 80,000 and is sold out for every home match. Games are an all-day event with families and students going to ‘tailgate’ (drink and have barbeques out the back of their giant SUVs) before the match .Giant inflatables of Cocky (the mascot – a big red chicken) are everywhere. Go Cocks!
Rooms
Warwick: Fairy lights. Band posters and photo prints. Shelves decorated with empty vodka bottles. Tidy for first two days and then never tidy again. Small.
USC: Roommate. Gamecocks memorabilia. A bed so high off the ground you have to run and jump to get onto it. Smaller.
Clothing
Warwick: Good days and bad days. Not unusual to see someone turn up to a lecture in a pretty dress, but jogging bottoms/hoodie combinations are equally common.
USC: Norts (Nike shorts). Fluorescent trainers. T-shirt professing your love for USC, my personal favourite of which simply says COCKS in big letters. Rucksack. This combination is the official uniform of USC. If you’re in a fraternity or a sorority then have your Greek letters on you somewhere at all times.
Food
Warwick: Begin with good intentions of cooking from the student cookbook your Gran bought you. Realise how far it is to hike to Tesco and how impossible it is to beat the magnetised trolley system. Give in to a life of cereal, frozen food and takeaways.
USC: Realise that the walk to Tesco was nothing. Walk for 40 minutes to the nearest supermarket in 30 degree heat. Buy way too much and almost perish on the walk back. Give in to a life of cereal, frozen food and eating out because it’s affordable to do that here. Probably return home next year obese.
Students
Warwick: From all over the world. A full spectrum of beliefs and opinions. Ambitious. Outgoing. Kind. Quite probably the people you are going to be friends with for the rest of your life.
USC: See above
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