Hey there, I’m Richard, an Information Systems Engineering student from Leicester.

Having spent the summer doing an Internship in “not-so-sunny” Guildford away from the hustle and bustle of London student life I’ve been looking forward to coming back to Imperial for some time – hopefully this “Welcome Fortnight” post will help to show that I’ve made the most of being back in London at Imperial!

The start of Welcome Week was an absolute blast! I spent Saturday and Sunday working at the union as a steward for both the Mingles, yes I’m one of the guys in the “lovely” baby blue T-shirts with “Customer Safety Officer” on them, aka “The Fun Police”! I spent both evenings greeting freshers at the front gate – it was great to see all the fresh, new faces coming in to the union! As far as I could tell, from my post on the front gate, both Mingles went down a treat – with everyone mingling in every sense of the word!

After 2 very late nights in a row it would have made sense for me to have a lie in on Monday morning; however I had better things to do! I spent Monday morning welcoming freshers into the EEE department, handing out welcome packs, and guiding them to the Rectors talk. The afternoon was spent giving tours of Imperial to my group of ISE Freshers and trying to give them some tips and tricks to help them survive the next 4 years! The tour was rounded off with a cheeky early-afternoon pint with the freshers in the union!

The rest of welcome week was pretty relaxed for me – I spent time setting up my room in my house in Hammersmith and catching up with friends I hadn’t seen over the summer – luckily lectures didn’t start properly until after Welcome Week! However at the end of the week I attended the EESoc Freshers party to catch up with some of my freshers and course-mates. After that I went to work at the Union – it was a great night as lots of people recognised me from the Fresher’s Facebook groups where I had been helping people out for the past few months before they arrived at Imperial – it was great to finally meet them in person!

To round off what was a great start to the term I went to a friend’s house party for a great chance to meet lots of people I hadn’t seen in months and play a bit of beer pong (which it turns out I am very bad at!).

As the second week of term began, I was quickly reminded that Imperial, unfortunately, isn’t all about freshers events, and I had a lovely 9-6 set of lectures on Monday and Tuesday to break me in “slowly”!  However I managed to let off some steam on Tuesday night with the RCSU ball [even though I’m an engineer!] and had an awesome night out with a really well organised and good value event – credit to the RCSU committee!

After all this fun, it’s probably time to get down to some proper work – and complete some problem sheets – though I have quite a few entertaining and interesting things planned for this blog – such as a student’s guide to going out in London, from clubbing to eating to shopping. The excitement of Brick Lane and its curries, Camden and its amazing market, the smells of Borough market and the quirky Spitalfields market! I may even show you some of my secret favourite places to go in London – such as the best place for Ice Cream in South Kensington at Midnight and the pub with the best view of the Thames which is in the most unlikely of locations! However I’m getting ahead of myself already – so I’ll sign off now and  post again soon!