Term 1, Year 2

I went back to University on 20th September, two days before rep training began and the fun started. Freshers arrived sometime after that, then it was Freshers' week, then it was the start of term, 10 lectures and four seminars down for each module down, three KitKat ChitChats (don't ask), one Pub Golf night, one trip to A&E and too many "on a scale of one to ten"'s. The first term has gone and there are five days left till Christmas and my bank balance is at an all time low. So instead of shopping in the ASOS sale I thought I would go through some of the best moments of the first term - in pictures. woohoo! 

Here we go...

Freshersss

We were christened Welfare Reps with our yellow t-shirts - me sporting a very deep tan. Sadly its faded, everyone else having "welfare bombs" consisting of red bull and coke - yum.

The reps got close at Pub Golf - involving downing pints of cider black, me downing a J2O as I can't have alcopops - drama and several TC's and far too many attempts at Zoolander - of which pictures cannot be put up, they are dreadful

The pub golf couples 

I just had to add this photo - Apols. 

Not as easy as you may think! it was rather cold 

Talks were in full swing with one couple about how many children to have. 2?

It was the first house party at the end of Freshers' week and it was safe to say everyone got rather too tipsy, to the point where it was normal to drink out of teapots and read books about "sexual fulfilment" - Natalie and I were far too busy hiding ducks and taking labels of tins to get involved with that. There definitely needs to be more house parties. 

Becca's house party was pretty amazing too. There needs to be a big house with lots of stairs to fit a lot of people in. Our flat party at the end of term got a little crowded with a capacity of only 25 people. 

"I promise you it is only water" 

"smooth drinking"

this picture sums up the sober-ness of everyone

Creeps

 CREEPS! HOW COULD I FORGET CREEPS. Nestled at one end of Middlesbrough is a bar called "Medicine Bar" and the medicine they serve is incredible (just the drinks, of course). Still a place that most people from Durham will refuse to go to because it involves mingling with Teeside University students - but everyone needs to try it once in their life. Natalie and I go as much as we can (that is, when there is a theme that I actually know, Arctic Monkeys sing "chasing cars" right?). We went twice this term, once it was Motown theme, which NEVER fails to disappoint (even with high expectations from February) and the time after that it was 90's theme? - actually I forget what theme but it is incredible, and the cocktails are amazing!

Before the Motown theme - something was funny. 

We always get bombed. 

The second creeps outing - always getting creeped on

Outside Trev's - looking like right tourists - which we were.

The "rep social" that turned into six of us (admittedly the President was ill and had to go home) on a Durham Colleges Bar Crawl - a very interesting night which involved us all trying very strange college drinks (and wishing we hadn't), running from bar to bar before they all shut, not telling anyone we were from Queen's Campus and spending far too long in Castle bar, because, lets be honest it is one of the best, apart from Chad's - that one was very interesting too. With a London Tube map turned into a map of Durham - très clever. 

Halloween

Halloween. Now that was an interesting night - cue me finding a Winnie the Pooh bear in a charity shop and pulling it to pieces, the poor thing. However, it was a great find because it was also a bag! (winning) So I really did look like a walking zombie, or at least something demented. This photo still scares me. Sarah and Natalie looking beautiful, me looking like something off The Purge. 

The Parents vist. 

With the Grandma during her visit. 

This is always a happy time. They take you shopping to buy food, they pay for you to have dinner at nice places and you get to stay in a nice hotel (thanks to my perks from work). We stayed two nights at the Marriott in Durham and got thoroughly spoilt by my mother and grandmother. This photo was taken at Gadd's Town House in Durham - probably the best restaurant there, its incredible (save the pennies to go though! Its not an everyday thing!) 

Winter Ball. 

It was 9pm on a Saturday evening and myself and Natalie had got a Dine in for 2 for £10 from M&S and were watching X Factor when the call came that helped us make our decision to go to the Winter Ball. We were too late to go to the drinks reception but we quickly got changed and went to pre's and had a pretty good night in Middlesbrough and what I was told by Ben was an old cinema... still not sure about that, it was more like a pub. But it had a pool table, a huge dance area and one of those photo booths... which some people didn't realise the photos would be made public the next day. Cue a Masquerade Summer Ball. 

"This used to be an old Cinema" 

The last few nights and turning 20. 

It was time for our first house party. Who am I kidding... we live in a tiny three-bedroom flat. What you can see from this photo is pretty much the extent of the flat. We invited 50 people, only expecting 25 and that was plenty, because after people turned up who we had no idea who they were (Thanks to the flat door being left open) it got quite warm and cosy in there. We had a DJ, Red Bull practically on tap and two of us turning 20. We were celebrating the end of term, the end of teens and the end of the year. 

I cannot believe how quickly this term has gone, or the year. It feels like yesterday that I was writing my candidate number of my Biology A Level exam and now its 18 months later and I'm nearly half way through year two. 

It has been a year of the unexpected and if there is anything I have learnt from Uni is that everyone who I know has left is very jealous. So enjoy it while it lasts! I'm planning my second degree already... or not. 

Now it is two days to Christmas, I'm sat here after taking four days to write this post, watching Christmas films, supposed to be wrapping my Grandma's presents (bird food... and other things, obviously), getting ready for work and praying I don't get blown away when I leave the house. Where is the snow?!

Anyway, I hope however you spend the last week or so of 2013 is pretty amazing and I hope you have a fabulous 2014. 

I will say that at least twice more before the end of the year! But you can't hear it enough!

Love

RHS x 

The Week #3

I really do not know where the weeks are going. This week sees my 5th lectures, my 2nd seminars and my 1st session back at Athletics (wish me luck). But back to this week, it was a chilled one with Rachel's birthday on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off, a night out on Wednesday and the arrival of my mother and grandma on Friday for the weekend in Durham. Ok its been quite a busy one. 

RACHEL SINCLAIR'S birthday meal  Here we are in 'Spoons after a yummy Chinese all you can eat (table service - a new way to do it) in Stockton, before a couple too many glasses of vino and missing MIC but so so worth it! Happy 20th hun!x 

Monday morning 5k run - I sometimes consider my sanity when I run this far (Especially as I'm still not 100% recovered) on a treadmill and in the time I did (happy girl). I did this run before 4 hours of lectures and Rachel's meal so I hit the bed hard that night (waking up to a day of on Tuesday made the tiredness worth it)

Durham Cathedral is ridiculously beautiful - It makes me want to become a nun and live there forever. This picture was taken in the Cloisters on Saturday - where parts of Harry Potter were filmed (I know you're impressed, myself and Daniel Radcliffe have shared the same paving - slight palpitations) 

GADDS TOWN HOUSE - DURHAM This is a five star hotel in Durham city where we ate on Saturday night, the food was incredible - shown by the roast cod with mussels, samphire and potato purée in the middle picture - delicious. We go to this restaurant every time I go to Durham with my parents and it never fails to impress. The interior is dark and purple (as you can tell by the photo) and there is about 10 tables in the restaurant, the service is great and the food is flawless. I highly recommend it. 

Me and mummy  at the Marriott Royal County Hotel - in our own private corridor (haha) - no really, it was about 3 times the length of this. We spent about half an hour taking photos in this corridor - some FAR too embarrassing to upload. 

This is me about to get fat - biscuits and sweets and chocolate are always good to have, especially when you are given them as a gift (thanks GMa). They are useful for many reasons, for example when you have to start your John Lewis internship application again because you missed the deadline for completing the tests (its happened to us all hun, hope your kitkat is nice x).

I look like a right jersey royal potato in this photo it was Hallowe'en eve, Durham, Loveshack (meh) and the night to dress up like you'd died and came back to life and unfortunately ran through a pool full of blood in the meantime and slapped yourself in your eyes with a Winnie the Pooh bear - who also went through hell and back, OR a dead cowboy, whatever. It was an average night, fuelled by a pitcher from Lloys and a 45 minute taxi ride home and what night would not be complete without an early lecture the next morning? - so far no nights out organised for this week... we'll see how long that lasts. 

Have a creative week! 

RHS x

p.s. Sope Peters (A Durham University student) has gone missing and hasn't been seen since Tuesday night - please keep your eyes open for any information - see here for more info and a picture. Ta x 

Happy Hallowe'en

Its officially Hallowe'en - I just prefer putting a " ' " in. I'm so tired right now I can't remember what they are called. 

It was a Durham University night out last night at the infamous Loveshack, a place I was yet to add to

Shrek, a.k.a. Tom Perkins

my clubbing portfolio till last night. Of course the theme was obvious. There were a lot of pumpkins, I was going to go as a pumpkin but the vest was very small - like the overweight hockey girl in school - you know what I mean. So instead I was a dead child (a zombie-esque-thing) - hopefully made obvious by the poor Winnie the Pooh rucksack I made into my clutch bag, whose ear was cut off and had several holes in it to look like it had been to hell and back. I can't put the photos up because they are scaring me. There was Shrek, sported by Tom who looked incredible in his ogre ears and green face and the shirt thing Shrek wears to go with it. He would shout at people "get out of my swamp!" if they were to pass through the group on the dance floor, then proceed to roar at them, brilliant. There was a Michael Jackson (Mark), well a dead MJ anyway (I'm guessing by the eye makeup) A champagne bottle (Greg), a clown (Andy), a fairy (Faye), a killer nurse (Kirsty), a skeleton (Sam), a cat (Rachel), a witch (Natalie) and several other crazily good costumes (boys in tutus was a weird observation I made - a popular choice). Sorry if I've forgotten your costume! 

There's a difference between Durham campus students and Queens campus students. Its official. I have done my own research. Both are Durham University, however the one further South (just outside Middlesborough) is the one which is looked down upon, even though this campus houses Accounting, Medicine and Psychology. hmm. Its official that the girls form Durham campus are slightly on the, shall we say, rude side. They just love annoying you, I thought my deathly stare through my sudocrem-ed face and black eyes would scare anyone but it just makes them more likely to stand on your foot another several times or push past you in the queue for the toilet or just be generally rude and bitchy. Ouch. I don't know about the boys, but boys from Durham campus need to man up and meet the girls from Queens campus and the girls from Durham just need to have lessons in appropriate behaviour. I'm sure there are a few exceptions. Interesting study. 

So back to All Hallows' Eve! did you know its a time (from 31st October to 2nd November) to remember the dead, hence the death costumes (tomorrow its All Saints' Day). I won't go into the different days or what they all symbolise, you are all capable of getting onto Wikipedia. But what is Hallowe'en without a few jokes! (I'm awful at jokes by the way, I find the most unfunny things hilarious)

what do you get when you cross Bambi with a ghost?

Bamboo! (hohoho)

why do ghosts like to ride in elevators?

It lifts their spirits (ooooh)

what's a vampire's favourite fruit?

A NECKtarine (ahh, haha)

ok, ok, last one. I'll make it good. 

I used to be a werewolf but I'm alright nOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW

haha. 

No really, 

I am a werewolf 

November 17th - the next full moon. 

trick or treat! 

RHS x

p.s. it was a trick, I'm not really a werewolf, at least I don't think I am. 

p.s.s. I do however talk in my sleep - true say.
p.s.s.s. All of the views in this post are my own and are not those of Durham University - certainly not those at Durham campus. That's all x