A Freshers’ Guide to the SU

Congratulations, you made it. Welcome to Cardiff!

You're probably beginning to stress-buy room decorations, lots of pens and other university essentials. You've most likely forgotten about what's really important here – how the SU works. This information is key to your next few years here.

Here we have the dummies guide to the SU because like you are now, I once was a clueless Fresher. Avoid the traps and turn up prepared.

Cardiff is the home of the VK

You'll drink so many of these during your first two weeks here, even if you've never heard of them before. You will learn to love them.

We apparently consumed 488,000 VK's in the SU alone in 2017. Not to forget nearly every club in Cardiff sells them. Clearly we worship them.

The almighty VK

The SU has territories everywhere

Two words, Rugby corner. Unless you enjoy being covered in sweat, it's best to avoid this area at all costs. How do you identify the rugby corner? You'll just know. Trust us.

If you're really struggling to find the rugby boys, they will most likely be in their classic blue shirt and chinos combo complete with their tie. If not, they do sometimes dress up as women so keep an eye out for that too.

So to help out, here's a pretty accurate map of the societies/territories in the SU:

Credit : @michaholloway

Check out the societies in the Fresher's Fair

On the topic of societies, there's loads. From Ultimate Frisbee to the Quiz society. Coming to uni showed me how many things I had never heard of.

Joining a society gives you the perfect opportunity to socialise with people from different courses and years. The socials tend to finish in the SU on a Wednesday too which is always good.

But what do I wear?

Sure, every night we panic about our outfits and when an outfit is too over the top. Honestly, the SU has many sights; from the rogue fancy dress, to full glam, casual, and sometimes PJ's (literally). Dressing up is an added bonus of going to the SU, because pretty much everyone is in fancy dress.

The classic theme for a first social is usually the family set-up. Freshers are the babies, second years as the parents and the third years are pensioners. It's brilliant. Your first few Wednesdays will probably be filled with these kind of costumes.

If you do join a society, chances are you'll be dressing up as something for a social in the SU. It could be as simple as an army themed night, or something pretty strange like 'anything but clothes'… nobody turns up naked though, and people tend to be really creative.

If you don't join a society, you can always go with your flatmates in your own theme.

The nightmare of the girls' toilets

Territories, sorted but that's not the worst part. Girls, good luck in the toilets. They're a nightmare. Endless queuing and, by the time you reach the loo, the whole place is a bomb site.

Unfortunately, there'll be the odd few who decides to sneak into the boys toilets, and that usually ends in chaos.

The SU sells chips until midnight

Do chips being served until 12am make up for the hell that is the girls' toilets? Definitely.

Who doesn't want a cheeky tray of cheesy chips whilst dancing to cheesy music? Count me in.

YOLO is free before 10:30pm

The worst thing you can do is fall down the pit of buying £3 YOLO tickets every Tuesday afternoon when you and your mates have decided on going to the SU on Wednesday. If you arrive before 10:30pm (and don't get caught up in the occasional huge queue), the SU is free. FREE.

Exhibit A of a wasted YOLO ticket x

We've covered the basics, the rest is down to you. Cheers to endless hangovers, the dreaded freshers flu, and over-consumption of VK's! Good luck Freshers.