It’s tradition in the UK for the University’s (Uni’s as the locals call it) to hold a big welcome week for the incoming freshman class. At the University of Kent the week is dubbed Fresher’s week, and as new students we also participated in the festivities. With the drinking age being 18 in the UK, the social culture at the uni’s is very much centered around bars, pubs and clubs. There are six bars and one club on Kent’s campus! Throughout the week the Uni hosted campus pub-crawls, club nights, and themed dance parties. The other UC kids and I all got a kick out of the fact that we were actually going on campus to enjoy a night out. As a matter a fact, one of my lecture halls is directly above the K bar, one of our new favorite hangout spots!
One of the nights of Freshers week was a back-to-school disco theme and we were all surprised to find we were the only ones not dressed in some sort of school uniform. We forgot that everyone in the UK has to wear uniforms in high school, regardless of whether it’s a public or private school, so they were all well equipped for this theme. Guess we missed that memo, whoops!
Fresher’s Week was a really great way to get a feel for the campus and meet new people. They had a huge welcome fair in which you could sign up for hundreds of different clubs and societies. In an effort to branch out and try something new while I’m abroad, I signed up for archery, kickboxing, the tea society, and the magic club. So far so good, hopefully I’ll be an expert kickboxing, tea sipping, magical archer by the time I’m home…
This week we finally started classes! Studying abroad is awesome because I am somehow getting twice as many credits as I would at UCSB but I am only taking 2 classes. This means I only have class Mondays and Thursday (lots of travelling time!) I’m taking an Art History class and a Environmental class, both of which seem really interesting so far! To top it all off, the weather here has been AMAZINGLY warm. I’ve been wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals everyday! It’s great to have a little California sunshine before winter sets in! Because of this “heat wave” as everyone’s calling it, were off to the beach town of Brighton for the weekend…can’t wait!
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| School Disco night at Mungos Bar |
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| Waiting in the queue! No open container rules in the UK |
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| Seeing Nero at The Venue |
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| New Hobby... |
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| Beautiful day outside Parkwood, where I live! |
