{"id":2434,"date":"2017-09-28T11:27:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T11:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=2434"},"modified":"2023-03-22T12:40:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T12:40:29","slug":"freshers-week-a-look-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2017\/09\/28\/freshers-week-a-look-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshers’ Week – a look back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Enrolment Week (colloquially and infinitely better known as Freshers\u2019 Week) has been a fixture of University life for generations; a sleepless seven day period during which thousands of new entrants absorb the habits and rituals of the student.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many leaving home for the first time, Freshers\u2019 Week is a rite of passage \u2013 albeit one that has achieved such popularity that it has spawned a spin-off for veterans. Refreshers\u2019 Week is held at the start of spring semesters and second or third years, so we\u2019ve been told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But whilst the potent cocktail of nightlife and societal sign-ups will always remain at the heart of the original late summer ceremony, quite a lot has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardiff University\u2019s archives hold fascinating records of Septembers gone by, and amongst them we found a comprehensive Students\u2019 Union Handbook for 1983\/84.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publication opens with the sternest of warnings for those in attendance at the Students\u2019 Union: \u201cIF YOU SHOULD SIGN IN A PERSON WHO SUBSEQUENTLY CAUSES TROUBLE, YOU WILL BE LIABLE TO A FINE OF \u00a310\u2026\u201d<\/em> That\u2019s \u00a331 in today\u2019s terms, enough to make any student think twice about inviting a friend from out of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If a night on the Union tiles remains on the agenda, the in-house nightclub \u2013 the Hanging Gardens \u2013 claims to be \u201cthe \u2018in\u2019 place to be\u201d where \u201cyou don\u2019t have to listen to Madonna night after night\u201d. If not, the exhaustive guide of alternative watering holes might prove more interesting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Woodville (\u201cuncomfortably full of arty students\u201d), the Royal George (\u201cman selling packet seafood comes round on Friday night\u201d), the Mackintosh, the Four Elms, the Flora, the Cambrian (\u201cfor hardened drinkers only\u201d) and the Golden Cross (\u201ctry it once \u2013 it\u2019s an experience\u201d).*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*Please note that these highly subjective comments don\u2019t necessarily reflect the current status or clientele of these institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Handbook isn\u2019t entirely based around how best to spend your evenings\/early mornings. There\u2019s also a \u201cCheck List for New Comer\u2019s\u201d (their grammar, not ours), which contains pearls of student wisdom which haven\u2019t really stood the test of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of utmost importance is \u201cbring a few passport-size photos needed for Union Card, Rail Card, admirers etc.\u201d We would suggest that some if not all of these services are now available digitally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mindful, too, of the Madonna-based late night lifestyle that has been espoused in the previous pages, there is an exhaustive list of \u201ccoffee-making equipment\u201d \u2013 this comprises \u201cmugs, coffee powder and instant milk\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instant milk. That\u2019s how you know it was the eighties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enrolment Week (colloquially and infinitely better known as Freshers\u2019 Week) has been a fixture of University life for generations; a sleepless seven day period during which thousands of new entrants […]","protected":false},"author":1080,"featured_media":2438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiff-connect","category-events"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1080"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2434"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7290,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions\/7290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}