For those of you who haven't come across me before, I'm a fresher¹ at the University of York in the UK, reading history. I thought some of the hootoo community might be interested to hear what life's like here, whether for nostalgia or any other reason. So read on...

Let's see, what have I been up to? I got an essay on companionship in knights back. I got 68, which is a high 2:1 (the second highest class of degree), so I'm very happy with that. At the moment I'm writing another essay, this time on the English Reformation. The university fencing club, of which I am a member, has been holding a beginners' fencing competition, which I took part in. I was expecting us to be split into male and female groups for the pool rounds since men definitely have an advantage in terms of height and longer reach. When it became clear that we weren't going to be split, I quickly headed to a group that was coincidently all female — why disadvantage myself if I didn't have to? We all fenced each other — four matches in total, the winner being the first to four points. I won all my matches by a good score (not to sound incredibly conceited, but some of the competition wasn't up to much, I'm afraid, though I'm hardly great myself). They gave everyone a score based on the number of hits scored (maximum 16) minus the number of hits scored against that person (also maximum 16). I ended up with +14, a bit odd since I would have said I was hit more than twice, but I wasn't complaining. They will use these figures to work out seedings for next week's knock-out rounds. Unfortunately, this clashes with something else I've been doing (read on to find out what...).

In other news (who else has always wanted to say that?) I'm going to be the Women's Welfare Officer for my JCRC! 'What on earth is a JCRC?' I hear you cry. Well, York is, as I have said in a previous article, so you'd better have been paying attention, a collegiate university. The undergraduate affairs of each college are run by their JCRC, which stands for Junior Common Room Committee. (The Junior Common Room is an actual room, with a tv, pool tables and arcade games, and the JCRC meets there.) Anyway, they organise things like entertainment, recycling, charity events and also fight for things the college wants. My college, Vanbrugh, is the smallest in the university, and after I applied for the post I found out no-one else had applied for it; it is uncontested! Nice! Last night was the hustings, so I made a pitch based on a few things I want to improve. It was nerve-wracking, but I said everything I wanted to and it doesn't matter that much, since there's no competition. It was also a chance to see what the people who are standing for the heavily contested positions of Vice-Chair and Chair had to say. I think I know who I'm going to vote for.

The Welfare position involves offering support to all students, partly by offering drop-in sessions, and supporting university-wide welfare campaigns. It lasts until this time next year, at which point I could stand again or for another position, but at this stage I'm not planning to — it's easier to be a member of the JCRC in your first year because you have less work to do, and you live on campus so you don't have to trek for miles to get to the meetings. The problem is, the results are announced the same night as the final of the fencing competition. I think the JCRC results have to take priority, but it's very irritating.

The Sporadic Diary of a University Fresher Archive

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