h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I arrived at Hendrefoilan at about 5pm on Saturday, just as the Vice-Chancellor's tea was finishing. We got a free cuppa, Welsh cakes and bara brith and talked to one of the staff there for a couple of minutes (not the vice-chancellor himself, I think) before going off to the campus, where my hall is.

With help from my old folks, I got all my stuff up to my room on the fifth floor (there are ten floors in all, including the ground). Only two other people were in at this point. I said goodbye to my parents, and unpacked: clothes mostly, but plenty of kitchen utensils and some food. Got chatting with the other people on the floor, and the new people as they arrived. In the evening we went to a club in the Students' Union building called Diva's, which is very small but still very loud. Had a pint and a half of local bitter, enough to make me nice and sociable.

The next day... there was nothing to do. We just stayed in waiting for new people to arrive. At one point we decided to take a campus tour. I didn't learn much, except that Singleton Abbey never was an abbey, that the university was founded by a copper tycoon, and that everything was planned around Fulton House, which is why the campus is quite sensibly arranged physically.

In the evening we went to the pub, a place on the second floor of Fulton House called JC's. I asked for a White Russian (vodka, Tia Maria, and milk) but they didn't have any milk. The barman thought it was supposed to be made with lemonade, which I thought was very odd, but I had one anyway. It tasted VERY strange - not like a White Russian at all. And it looked like a half of lager, which is not white at all, so why would one call it that? (It's supposed to be very pale brown.)

Monday was when the term officially started. First thing in the morning (well, just after breakfast anyway) the Vice-Chancellor made a speech to all the freshers living in halls. I don't remember what he said. Later I went to the CS dept. to pick up an 'enrolment pack', consisting of several forms, and a course handbook. It turns out I have only one option in modules, which is for German. I've decided to take the course in translation to English.

By Monday I was really feeling groggy having caught my mum's cold. (No, a real cold, NOT fresher's flu! ) Despite this, I went with several people on my floor to a club in Swansea called Time, which (along with another club, Envy) was doing a special student night. It's a pretty big place, spread over two levels (though the dancefloor occupies only a fairly narrow strip on the bottom) and several bars. I didn't think masses of alcohol would be a good idea in my condition, so I got a bottle of fruit juice. Surprisingly, I eventually got on the dancefloor and started dancing, and even more surprisingly, I actually enjoyed it! Well, that is until my voice started getting hoarse from all the shouting

Tuesday was enrolment day. Went to the CS and German departments to get signatures from the professor there. Then I joined a queue of about 50 (quite short at the time) to hand in the forms. The administrators had thoughtfully put up a tent to hold the queue - mainly in case it started raining. Didn't feel up to going out so I stayed in and watched Coyote Ugly with most of the girls and one other bloke. Rating: chick flick. 'Nuff said.

Wednesday: Fresher's Fair. Lots of stalls for the various societies run by the Student's Union. I joined the Pool Society (because it's cheap and a flatmate said he joined), the Christian Union (who also provided a free lunch ), the LAN Society (or something like that), and asked about the chess, Go, airsofting and re-enactment societies. Airsofting is like paintballing except they use lots of kinds of guns - pistols, rifles, SMGs, machine guns. The bullets apparently hurt less than paintballs, and the action is more realistic. And of course re-enactment involves dressing up as a Viking and hitting people hard with a blunt axe, which sounds great fun

That evening we attempted the Mumbles Mile. This is a long-established pubb crawl route in Mumbles, a town on the southeastern spur of the Gower peninsula. We only got as far as the third pub when we got caught up in a karaoke night. I was surprised at how good the acts were... until the boys from Floor 5 took the stage to sing Bohemian Rhapsody Looks like Karaoke Night will be a regular fixture.

Today (Thursday) I finally managed to get onto the computer system (as you can see) and post this. I haven't got my NUS card yet as I didn't send them a passport photo in time. Seems a lot of people didn't, so I'll have to wait until next week for it Also got a free burger from the Christian Union barbecue. They're very generous people in Swansea

More updates later in the week.