The ultimate Nottingham Freshers’ Week bucket list

Ahhh, Freshers’ Week. A right of passage for all university newcomers: Whether you drink or not, it’s sure to be a memorable experience for all. You’ll meet loads of new and exciting people whilst you navigate living in a new city and get to grips with your new course. Everyone is in the same boat, we’re all just trying to survive uni whilst simultaneously making memories that will last a lifetime.

It can seem somewhat overwhelming at first, there’s so much going on and so many things to do, so we’ve compiled the ultimate bucket list for your Freshers’ Week experience:

Go to a niche society’s taster session

Kicking off this list of must do experiences during Freshers’ Week in Notts is going to a taster session for a society with a somewhat niche focus. UoN boasts tons of societies, and even if you chose to opt out of braving the queue outside David Ross to get into the Freshers’ Fair, you can still join societies. Most offer taster sessions, either for free or at a discounted rate so you don’t have to commit to buying the membership straight away. Personal favourite societies include SwiftSoc, DogSoc, Cocktail and Flair Bartending Society, and many more. Most societies will post details on their Instagrams so you can find all the information you need there.

Get a scooter home

If you haven’t been made aware of the famous Nottingham scooters before, just you wait. The lime green speed machines dominating Derby Road and University Park Campus at all times of day and night are certainly a sight to behold, and even more fun to ride. The app takes a bit of time to figure out, but once you have, you’ll have the time of your life zooming through Lenton and the lush hills of Highfields Park, back to your accommodation.

Have a hungover panini from Portland Coffee

Portland Coffee Co. is the university’s own coffee shop, located on the bottom floor of Portland Building. Famed for their indie decor, chai lattes and monstrous queues every weekday lunchtime, it’s the go-to hungover scran location for many students living on campus. Their panini are enough to send any Victorian child into a coma, and therefore flavourful enough to absorb all the VKs inevitably left over in your bloodstream from the night before.

Go to your first course welcome talk still drunk from the night before

Another canon event every Notts fresher has to go through is rocking up to a 9am intro lecture to meet all of your course mates for the first time still slightly slurring your words and struggling to walk in a straight line. As so many freshers are freshly turned 18-19 year olds, you’re unlikely to have developed a particularly strong alcohol tolerance at this point, so it’s not uncommon for it to take a few hours or days to fully recover from a night out. Just try your hardest not to trip up the steps in Monica Partridge because you can’t really recover from that.

Buy a University of Nottingham hoodie

Having been on campus for a few days, you might have seen a lot of people walking around wearing various iterations of University of Nottingham merch, whether it be the standard grey hoodie, a T-shirt or the effortlessly stylish quarter zip, you might have been wondering where all these students are buying these fashion staples from. Well, the answer is Portland Clothing. Again, very surprisingly situated in the Portland Building, Portland Clothing is home to all the UoN merch you could possibly want.

Get chased by the campus geese

If you haven’t encountered the menacing geese haunting University Park Campus just yet, don’t worry – you will. It is, unfortunately, a rite of passage to find yourself running away from a flock of hissing geese in front of a crowd of giggling onlookers at some point in your university career. Bonus points if it’s on the Downs.

Go to at least one themed Freshers’ night out

Unless you’ve been living under a rock since you got accepted into uni,  you will most likely have heard about the legendary nights out during Freshers’ Week. The nights officially partnered with the University are usually held at Ocean or Rock City, but there are others around the city, such as Ink or Pryzm. It’s very likely that one of there club nights you go to during Freshers’ Week will be beach themed, so a word of warning: If you’re in Ocean and hear the theme tune to Baywatch begin to start, you’ll be surrounded by a hoard of topless lads whipping their shirts around their heads within a couple of seconds.

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