Now that my blog is all set up and ready to go, I thought I’d probably better start off by telling anyone who is actually bothering to read it, a little bit about me.

Well, my name is Dawn and I come from near Reading, in Berkshire. I was born there but haven’t lived there all my life, I grew up in a few different places around the world, but I’ve been back in England since just before going to secondary school. I’ve got a little sister back home (well not so little, she’s in 6^th form now) and a golden retriever. He’s a bit of a canine dustbin (literally, he will eat anything, including dishcloths!) and although I miss having him around apparently he’s indifferent to me having left home…

I guess I should tell you a bit about why I came here. At first I actually had no intention of applying to any London universities. I’ve lived in big cities before, and it wasn’t really my thing. However when I saw the course here at Imperial on their website, my Mum persuaded me to give it a chance and come for a visit- if nothing else I got a day off school and a visit to London.

Coming here for the open day totally changed my mind. The college itself was awesome and even though it is in the middle of London, you’ve got huge green spaces like Hyde Park just a few minutes’ walk away. Not to forget my course and department, which I thought were the best I’d seen.

Now I’ve got here I still love it!  Before I came I was slightly nervous however, when I told people I was coming to Imperial, their first reaction tended to be – ‘Wow, that’ll be a lot of hard work!’. This slightly worried me, as I wasn’t by any means a particularly hard working person at school – I really hated being told to learn to a syllabus, and how everything was about passing my exams. Luckily, I would definitely say I get on better with the more independent style of learning at university, and how we’re encouraged to follow our interests!

Outside of boring worky stuff, I love anything outdoorsy and generally being a fairly active person! I’m loving the free swimming we get, and I’ve already been walking in the Lake District since I came – and I’m going iceskating next weekend hopefully J. (pictures to follow!)

It seems hard to believe that it was only 2 weeks ago that I was sitting in my bedroom at home, packing up my stuff and getting ready to start here at Imperial! Not only was it a nightmare choosing what to bring, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little bit nervous! All I knew was that I was coming to study something a bit like geology that was called Environmental Geoscience and that I’d be staying in a shared room in Southwell Hall, which was somewhere in London. My three (very real) fears were that

• I’d have nothing to eat except ready meals
• Being put  in a tiny room with a roommate who hated my guts
• Hating my course and being the most unprepared person there

…and to be honest, I’m not sure which idea terrified me the most!

Luckily however, none of those fears have come anywhere near close to happening! Firstly I am staying in an absolutely huge room with a lovely roommate called Sally. We get on so well and within the first few days we were baking cakes together and going out shopping!  That’s not to say I haven’t heard a couple of horror stories here and there from people in shared rooms not getting on, but luckily it hasn’t happened to me!

Secondly, I’ve not yet come close to starvation – in fact far from it (although Mum if you’re reading this, then yes, I would like some of your homemade lasagne to eat when I come home to visit). In my kitchen, we discovered within the first week that it was far easier to cook for lots of people once a week or so than to cook for yourself each evening. We’ve now got things so organised that there’s a cooking rota and menu on the wall – you just sign up for the meals you want!

And lastly, I love my course; it was definitely the right one to choose! I’ll admit that before I came I was a bit scared that everyone else would have spent the summer with their noses in books while I had just lazed around and gone out with friends! Luckily, I’ve met plenty of people who definitely do other things than work! There seems to be a huge emphasis from the College and department on being well rounded students and doing things other than work – to really enjoy the whole university experience!

One of the best things about the whole Fresher’s Week experience was how busy our hall kept us. Every night there was a different activity on, so you didn’t get left sitting in your room wondering what to do. At first, we all felt a bit like tourists in London, sort of like being on a school trip but getting left behind with the wrong school, in amongst a bunch of strangers. But soon enough I got to know people and was out seeing all the sights London has to offer.

So yes, from my point of view I’ve had an amazing first few weeks and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the year is going to turn out! I can’t believe that at the time of writing this I’ve only been here 10 days- it feels like so much longer. However, I’m not going to completely deny the Imperial College stereotype – we ate dinner last night watching someone write a computer programme to find all of the prime numbers…then moved onto discuss the science behind non-stick frying pans!