Here are the eight best places to find your soulmate at Exeter Uni

1. £2 meal queue

8 months ago

There is a certain understanding amongst uni students that romance DOES NOT come at the forefront of the uni experience. Soul searching? Yes. But soulMATE searching… that’s unchartered territory. This is particularly the case in a place like Exeter, where there is a collaboration of stereotypes such as Chiefs rugby boys and “rah, where’s my baccy” girls. For all the hopeless romantics existing in a time where Hinge and booty-calling Instagram DMs exist, it may feel as if the prospect of a soulmate is a mere dream lost long ago.

Fear not, although we may have lost some sense of tradition in our generation of hook-up culture, let us just say there is nothing wrong with the occasional plotting and scheming that may or may not lead to you bumping into your soulmate. Whoops! As a bit of a lover girl myself, I have cultivated a partly ironic/partly not list of all the places for you to unintentionally loiter because everybody deserves a rom-com style meet-cute whilst they’re still in their prime. Warning: Use with caution. Someone may fall in love with you.

1. £2 meal queue

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You might be thinking: “What an unlikely first contender for this list.” But those who are £2 meal regulars are the real ones who understand there is immense potential in this queue. Not only are the people standing in it also probably broke (because it is the cheapest source of hot food on campus), but you cannot deny that they are also probably quite healthy. Considering the campus £2 meal is entirely vegetables, some sort of rice and occasionally, when we’re lucky, pasta. The £2 meal queue is also boring, so if you are exchanging sexually charged stares from a hottie standing next to you, this is my approval for you to brave it and strike up a conversation: “Chilli con-carne on me today love”.

2. Firehouse

Exeter’s notorious dating hot spot. Luckily, if you can stomach being surrounded by first dates, the venue doubly functions as a dating arena. Firehouse has a great atmosphere and buzz, having seen the arena work firsthand through my flat mate who got asked out by someone she met there, I did not understand its potential for singles until recently. If you’re thinking about giving Firehouse a shot, the trick is to attend during the live events. Typically, Firehouse hosts performers on Sundays who are directly from the uni and those performers bring along friends and flat mates for support (one of which could be your very own Mr. Darcy). Honourable mention goes to the Monday pub quiz.

3. Reed Hall

Do you think of yourself as mysterious? Or do you at least want people to think of you like that? You’re in luck because Reed Hall is the perfect place to express your sulky-loving energy. Reed Hall has an endless traffic of people walking through the gardens, and particularly in summer I can for 100 per cent see you capturing a rogue fresher’s attention if you are the type of person to sit alone and read a book. How quirky and different of you.

4. Student halls

Now this suggestion might be a bit strange if you aren’t a fresher, so please don’t wander around accommodations trying to act enigmatic. But, stranger things have happened than people finding their soulmate in student halls. I know we love to hate it, but have we ever stopped to think that the infamous flatcest might actually work and just sometimes lead to a relationship? Maybe the offenders were onto something there.

5. Seminars

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a sexually charged stare or two. If you’ve been a lucky individual, you might have even had one from a babe in your seminar. When found in this situation it is important to play the long game. Immerse yourself in the sexual tension of stares across the classroom and hopefully by the end of the term you might even be in the same WhatsApp group chat as them. Progress!

6. Late-night library sesh

If you thought seminars were hard to find time to pounce on your crush, why don’t you try the next level of that challenge: Late-night library sessions. Unlike the £2 meal meet-cute, you know that a campus crush studying past 8pm is deeply chaotic, unorganised and probably takes a degree that’s worth the student loan debt. However, if you are also a culprit of going to the library late at night then it’s most likely a match made in heaven. Time to look confused next to the printer.

7. EGB

Shout out to all the troupers who managed to score tickets this year (sorrows, prayers if this is not you). Ahhh EGB: The sun is always shining, exams are over, everyone’s on the booze. It’s almost like a scene from a movie when you coincidentally bump into the person you’ve been micro-stalking on Insta since your one-night stand two weeks ago. You could ask them for to go for a ride but whether they accept is a different matter entirely. But hey, it’s not my funeral.

8. Timepiece

You really thought TP would not make this list? It’s everybody’s favourite stomping ground and Exeter’s most versatile venue. There’s a room for everyone here and an abnormally large smoking area for when you’re being rizzed up under the influence. In some places, it’s even dark enough you don’t have to see the face of the person you’re eating. Yes, you might find your soulmate here but more often than not, they’re just your soulmate for the night…

And that is the list from one lover girl (let’s face it if you’ve made it this far) to another. Take these words of wisdom for a slowly turning geriatric third year and live your authentic truth. Be quirky and different because no one can stop you. I’m sure I’ll see you round the place.