Freshers' Fayres

The Biosciences department has its own little campus out in the country at Sutton Bonington (near Kegworth for those of you that care, between J23A and J24 of the M1). The main university site is relatively close to the centre of Nottingham, so there are two Freshers' Fayres that apply to me.

I went to the University one on Tuesday, and the SB one on Wednesday. I don't know what I was hoping for, or expecting, but the barrier between me and the university in milage and time is rather high. The nice boy from the University Badminton Society was insisting that even my advanced years and dubious fitness are no barrier to a place on one of the teams, because I am a Lady, and Ladies are rare. Trials are at the weekend, however, and team training and matches will be a long way away.

Same for the film society (called Dark Celluloid for some reason), who show films on a Sunday night in a Nottingham pub. I also found the Mature Students Association, who claim to have a Facebook group, but I can't find it, and the Regional Students Association for people not living in university halls. Joining the Snowsports club costs £20 for the opportunity to have cheap lessons and go on rowdy trips with students - I thought about it, but probably won't. So I made the effort, but I don't think I'll be able to get very involved in university things.

SB campus has its own badminton society, though. I met those people on Wednesday, but the club sessions are on Tuesday night, which clashes with my current club, and Wednesday night when I only have lectures in the morning and have been going to a pub quiz in Kenilworth in the evening. A difficult choice.

Today I had to go in for a session about various aspects of IT, then a huge gap, and over an hour on Plagiarism to end the day. I filled the gap with talking to some more students on my course. Nearly everyone seems to be a mature student, with such different stories about how they got to where they are now. One woman is even older than me - she'll be 60 when she qualifies. She doesn't look like it.

The real students who are 18 and 19 years old are drinking all night and look pale and interesting in the morning; they all seem to have lost their voices too. There was an announcement from the SB Guild before the plagiarism lecture, where they announced the line-up for some awesome gig that's happening in Nottingham on Sunday. To gasps from the assembled masses (there were about 300 people in this session), they read out a list of bands and DJs: "...and can you believe it, we're gonna have The Freaks!! Wow!!" The lecturer about to give the plagiarism talk started by saying that he'd never felt so old in his life. I just found it hilarious.