All of the mistakes you absolutely must not make in Durham Freshers’ Week

A reflection on the mistakes I made in Freshers’ Week and how you can learn from them

3 months ago

If you’re reading this, I am assuming you have accepted your place at Durham, so, congratulations! If you are anything like me, now is the time for extensive and over the top preparations. I equipped myself with all the essentials, including drastic measures such as a panic buy of wetsuit shoes just in case (in case of what I am still not sure). It was of course such a big surprise at the end of freshers week that I had not used them once.

Despite this rigorous packing, I was underprepared on what to expect during the week and in hindsight needed someone to write this list for me. So, I have generously curated a list of what NOT TO DO when it comes to Freshers’ Week.

1. Correctly trialling for a sport

I am starting with a nugget of wisdom. Sign up for any sport of society that tickles your fancy, even if you think you aren’t ‘good’ at it. Durham has a vibrant sporting culture and it is a great way to meet friends outside of college. Equally, it isn’t exactly a bad way of counteracting the colossal amounts of alcohol consumed per week, because let’s face it, the drinking culture is just as large.

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However, do not, and I repeat DO NOT, trial for a Team Durham sport whilst viciously hungover on two hours of sleep. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. I ended up sprawled out on the floor, surrounded by a circle of blurred faces asking if I was going to pass out, my face an unhealthy shade of red and my body profusely shaking. That’s bad enough when you wake up in bed at midday, and much worse when it’s during rigorous exercise. I did in fact manage to stand up again, only to sprint to the toilet and throw up. A great first impression for my future teammates.

2. Do not spend your monthly budget in Babylon

Freshers’ Week me generously bought drinks for anyone I had a fleeting conversation with, to the extent that I think a conservative estimate of 40 double vodka lemonades were purchased in Babs. I do not know how I thought I could sustainably fund this and by the end of the week, like my face at my netball trials, my bank account was looking extremely unhealthy. My advice is to be a bit more savvy with your money than I was. Weeks of strict budgeting followed suit, along with the great difficulty of not treating myself to Paddy’s curly fries at the end of every night out. Three in one advice; go to Paddy’s after every night out and walk home. Do not Uber – you are guaranteed to meet some of Durham’s “loveable rogue” characters if you take this walk back and you’ll be all the better for it.

3. Durham is a bubble

Coming from Manchester, I am used to going on a night out with my friends and never seeing the people we met again. However, this is not the case at Durham – it is ridiculously small. Freshers’ Week me had no concept of this ‘bubble’, in which everyone knows everyone. So, keep this in mind (or don’t as I did technically survive) if you want to save yourself many awkward interactions throughout the year, whether that be in the Billy B or in Maiden Castle Squash courts (sadly speaking from a quite specific experience).

4. Do not commit flatcest

This speaks for itself. Whilst I did not personally make this mistake, I think it needs to be in this list. It will almost never end well and you will almost always spend the year avoiding each other; there’s 20,000 people at this university, you do not need to get with your flatmate.

5. Do not pre a social

Me and my friends with great naivety aggressively pre drank a social in our first week at Durham. We never repeated this quite frankly ridiculous suggestion. To this day we still have no clue who kindly got us our Uber back to Collingwood College, or how we got from the Waterhouse toilets to this supposed Uber, or impressively how we managed to locate our rooms having been there less than a week. It was quite a remarkable performance.

Take this advice for Freshers’ Week and the rest of the year. There is absolutely no need to have a drink before a social. They do enough damage on their own.

6. Do not stress about your friends

The second day of Freshers’ Week my parents received a distressing yet unnecessary phone call from me announcing that “I had no friends” and “wanted to come home”. I had in fact made many friends and was really enjoying myself; I just hadn’t met my best mates yet. Let me emphasise it was my second day.

Don’t be like me and think it’s the end of the world that you haven’t met your people within the first 48 hours. Or at the end of the week. There are countless ways of meeting people at Durham; whether that be through your lectures, workshops, sports teams, societies, or from personal experience a petting zoo.

All in all, don’t put too much pressure on Freshers’ Week. I could not name a single person who would call it their “favourite week at University”. Just have fun and chat to everyone.