It’s taken me a while to write my next blog post. You will all get over it, soon. Promise. (I’ve been insanely busy. I can’t even put photos up, which irritates me a lot, but I’m running out of time to get all the blogs out that I want to before term starts. Sorry.)

In the Corrie-news this week is the fact that I just spent six days at Towersey Village Festival. Due to the “what happens in Towersey stays in Towersey” rule, I can’t talk too much about it. You can probably guess what happens when a load of musicians get together and spend five days drinking, not sleeping very much, playing fiddle at 3 in the morning and sleeping in very not-waterproof tents. There was grumpiness, there was cheeriness, there was CHEERINESS, and I got home very tired.

After that, a friend from America came to stay for four days, then Tom and I went home for Tom’s birthday. We (his parents and me) gave him a Nintendo Wii, and we are enjoying that in our spare moments.

I’m now in the last eight days of my internship, finishing off writing up everything, finishing off my design project, working late to get some measurements on a Redlux….but nothing new, so on with Fresher’s Excitement!

I’ve had a lot of responses to my last blog. I’m very pleased! I received an email from someone accepted into Materials (hello!) asking more questions about Welcome Week – and a lot of “Oh my God, we have a maths test?” I thought I would do a brief rundown of what I did in my own Welcome Week. It’s very Materials specific, but might be an idea as to what happens in the rest of the University.

The first thing that happens is you meet people. Specifically, your tutor and head of year. You will meet so many people from the Materials Department, that you won’t have a clue about who is who for a long time. The most important person you will meet on the first day is your new tutor, who will also assign you a poster project in your tutor groups. In your year, there will be four people, give or take one, per tutor group. We had to make a poster about artifical heart-valves – our tutor is a Biomaterials God, which is the reason for that little gem. It will obviously depend on your tutor’s special subject. This is the main ‘work’ thing you will have to do in the department.

The other work thing is the dreaded maths test. I really scared one of the Fresher’s last year by going on about how difficult Maths is. He looked really scared and said he was going to transfer out of Materials – I saw him during exam week, sitting our exams, and am pleased that I didn’t actually scare him away. I’m really sorry about that, but I hate maths, and tend to get a bit over-exuberant when talking about it. Anyway, the test really isn’t that difficult. It’s multiple choice, and is just a way of them making sure you know what level you are expected to have. If you fail (yes, I did), you resit it two weeks later, and are expected to go to a refresher course in the meantime.

You will also do a lunch with your tutor, where you will meet all of their other tutees (mine is Prof Molly Stevens – if you have her, you are very lucky for two reasons! A), you get to meet me, and B), Molly is the most amazing academic you can ever wish to have assigned to look after you for 3/4 years. She is severely inspirational, and my personal hero.) In the Buddie’s Lunch, an older student gets assigned to you and answers any questions you may have. Of course, you won’t have any questions that haven’t been answered, because you have me. But, free lunch! (You might get assigned Coranda Berry as your Buddy. I’ll give you a clue: she is AWESOME)

You get given a LOT of information about how to access all the files you might require on the IC Servers, how to read your timetable, how to hand in coursework, how to write coursework. It’s hard to pay attention to everything, but it is important, so try do so. This year, there will be an added bonus, where one fourth year student will be teaching everyone how to use a referencing programme. (Hint: it’s me.)

Apart from anything else, this is a really good time to get to know people on the course before you have pressure. Second week is where the fun really starts – they don’t ease you in gently. It’s a bit of a baptism of fire. But Welcome Week is plenty of free lunch, lots of time to spare (even if the starter timetable doesn’t look like it) and a really good way to get used to the department.

If anybody has any more specific questions, please do ask. Like I say, I’m incredibly busy – a brief rundown of my life for the next month includes an 8,000 word piece of coursework, a 20 minute presentation to prepare for, hospital appointments (hayfever sucks), a week in Portugal, the end of my internship, a weekend-long celebration for Tom’s birthday, preparation for tutorials I’m giving…you get the picture!

I’m trying to get some more specific info about my clubs and societies up, I’m sorry it’s taking so long. I will try sit down tonight and do it. The good news for everyone is that I signed up for another year of blogging…so you all get to find out exactly how I’m going to juggle all my commitments while trying to find a PhD, earn some extra money, and enjoy my last year as well!

I don’t know when I will next blog. If you want to follow me on Twitter, you will get a slightly better idea of what I’m doing, and I’m generally very good at answering questions on there cos I get them on my phone and it’s a bit like a text message. So if you have urgent stuff, you know what to do. (And if you don’t have Twitter, get it. It will replace Facebook for you.)

Ciao for now!

AveryrushedCorrie