Freshers: Surviving GIAG Fortnight?

The third floor union on a Wednesday night is not a place for the faint-hearted. Where it’s great for those who want to check out talent for the Roxy, mingle in a place where fancy dress is the norm and bathe in permanent marker pens, the first Sports Night of the new academic year revealed a lot about the average sporting person’s life at UCL.

Taking place a few hours after the first sports sessions of Give It A Go Fortnight, there didn’t seem to be many who were put off by their Wednesday afternoon taster of fitness and fun. In fact, you could practically feel the endorphins emanating from the crowds of buzzing students, some relieved to have finally found people who share their (sometimes obscure) sporting needs, some merely overpowered by pitchers of snakebite.

So wading through these waves of hormones, I managed to speak to our new generation of (slightly inebriated) sporting prodigies on what they thought about their first experience of sport at UCL.

“Great session of volleyball and everyone is very welcoming. I have played volleyball for three years and there is a range of standards. Definitely back next week! It’s a lot less forceful than football or rugby freshers.” Baz, Volleyball – 1st Year Medicine

“I’ve never played before but will definitely be coming back – they managed to make playground games into a really hard work out. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming, gutted I didn’t get tackled but everything was amazing.” Iona, Women’s Rugby – 1st Year Psychology

“I haven’t played before but it looked awesome and I had an amazing time. There was a lot of lunging. The people were very friendly and I’m not feeling too exhausted now. I think I will definitely be going again.” Adi, Fencing – 1st Year Computer Science

“I enjoyed the rugby, it’s quite intense and there are quite a few disgusting things you are asked to do but you’re not forced to do anything. I recommend rugby for everyone.” Dom, Men’s Rugby – 1st Year Natural Sciences

And if you weren’t one of those who used their first free Wednesday afternoon as a perfect excuse to make friends and get fit, you’ve always got next week to make a change and try something radical. It’s better than doing that extra reading, right? Right.