University of Aberdeen Blog

It is hard to believe, but Freshers’ Week is upon us once again. Soon the campus will be swarming again with students, new and returning. It is normally quite easy to spot new students; they will have a slightly lost and confused look to them. Thankfully for them, most of us old timers are quite happy to give directions and help out with any queries. On top of that there are lots of events during Freshers’ Week to help new students settle in and get to grips with being at university. The two most important ones are the Societies’ Faire on Tuesday and the Sports’ Faire on Wednesday, which allow students to join any of the 80+ student societies and 50+ sports teams.

I would highly recommend joining a society or sports team or two. I met most of my best friends through being involved in societies such as the Roleplaying Society, the History Society, the Debater, the Politics & IR Society, and it is how I continue to meet new and interesting people which is what Freshers’ Week and being at university are all about, really.

I have already bumped into a few people I gave campus tours to over the past year, which is always gratifying. Hopefully, they will enjoy being at Aberdeen as much as I do. As more my part I have successfully registered for the last leg of my PhD, now I just need to focus and concentrate to see it through to its end. But that can wait till after Freshers’ Week J

I am looking forward to meeting some of you during the coming days and weeks, and hope that you will all have a wonderful start. Until the next time, be well in all things.

David

It’s hard to believe that Freshers week is almost upon us. It seems like yesterday that classes were ending and people began to leave for the summer. However, friends have started to return, new students begin arriving on Saturday and before we know it, classes will have started!!

As a member of the Catholic Society committee, it’s quite a frantic time of year. This is made even harder by the fact that I am the only committee member in Aberdeen at the moment. This means that all of the tasks fall on me. As we have just been affiliated to the University, there has been a lot to set up. Including our website…. I am the least computer friendly person you will ever meet but I have been struggling hard to get the website completed and looking good. So far, my only critic has been my sister and that was merely light hearted banter. Maybe I should head for a career change!! Lol.

It’s not just society duties that are taking up time. My flatmate is going to be coming back on Tuesday. That means that all of the junk I have been storing in her room is going to have to find a permanent home…. Most probably somewhere on my floor! And the flat must be cleaned I suppose. So I have to also find time in my busy schedule for that.

I am also working at the airport doing meet and greet for new students. This really only involves standing at the airport with a sign and saying Hello – Welcome to Aberdeen. But a smiling, welcoming face makes a whole lot of difference when you have been travelling with enough stuff to last you for a year!

And if all that weren’t enough, I am also squeezing in a trip home this week. I didn’t really have the time for it, but it will probably be my last chance to get down before Christmas. It’s mostly to see my grandparents and wave my little sister off to University. It really is a flying visit with my arriving home at about 3pm on Wednesday and getting back on the train at about 3pm on the Friday. Considering the length of the journey it’s a very short time to be there… and I’m now not so sure about the 5:30am train I have to catch! But I’m sure I’ll be happy when I get home and see my family again!

But for now….. Enjoy Freshers Week and we hope to see you all soon!

Claire

First off let me introduce myself. Nooreen Akhtar is the name, and 3rd year Biomedical Sciences is the game, well actually more degree then a game but oh well. I actually applied to university through a slightly unorthadox route - Clearing. About 2 years I found myself staring down at a sheet of disappointing A-level grades, and had absolutely no idea what to do next. To distract myself from my misery I decided to surf the net and somehow ended up on an article about Clearing. Fast forward to 3 weeks later, and I was unpacking my suitcase in my new room, getting ready to start my first day as an Aberdeen University student. 2 years later I don’t regret a thing; my workload is pretty decent, I have an amazing group of friends, and I’ve fallen in love with the city (mostly the shops).  

So enough about what I used to. I’ve now been back in Aberdeen for just over month, having spent 7 weeks visiting family and friends, which was nice and relaxing and was made a lot easier by the fact that Aberdeen has its own airport. I also got a chance to do a bit of work experience, which even involved standing next to surgeon while he performed a live-donor kidney transplant J. This last month has basically invloved working hard for a few extra pennies, but I was lucky enough to get to work at the Open Day last week, which is always good fun. The weather was amazing which made the barbeque at Zeste even more enjoyable, and I got to meet a lot of prospective students planning to head down the same career path as me ( I want to be surgeon, imagine Dr House MD with a scalpel). I also got to give my first student life talk which was nerve-wrecking but ended up going really well.

This week should be pretty relaxed, quite a few of my friends are coming back up for the start of term, so plenty of catching up do. I’m also going to the cinema at some point to take advantage of Orange Wednesdays, I think this week we’re going to watch the new Hellboy film, which should be fun. Oh well I think I’ve been staring at my computer screen long enough, I’m off to find food, hmmm maybe a jacket potato.

Nooreen