Welcome Week : Daily Insight

We made it. Rain, hail and the absence of motorway service areas didn't facilitate our journey but after 10 hours of struggle, we finally made it. To be fair, seeing our fathers drive on the left side was quite amusing. Lancaster welcomed us nevertheless with open arms with its lovely weather (we heard it was unusual).

Let's overview this freaking amazing week that we've just experienced, moments that we won't ever forget. 

SUNDAY 2nd OCTOBER

10:00

Reps were waiting for us at Pendle College, there were very friendly and welcoming and Pendle seemed already like home. Once we had our keys and our fresher pack, we were invited to discover our respective room and flat. Unpacking and making goodbyes sum up our morning.

12:00

Here we go, discovering that big and full of surprises campus. We went past to the Management School, basketball courts and entered in what seemed like a tiny forest, with wood bubbles in it that are actually study rooms.

At first, we couldn't stop speaking french, because you know, it's nice to talk a language that no one can understand. We looked for the Subway for about 20 minutes because Google Maps is shitty and finally got food for only £3 <3 Also, we must say that 3 cookies for £1 is quite enjoyable.

16:30-17:30

We were invited to come to the Great Hall to receive a warm welcome from the Pendle staff. The only thing we remember about the Welcome Talk is that we shouldn't set our block on fire.

17:30

Pendle offered us free lasagnas and we couldn't be more grateful because we only live for free food. However what is wrong with you British people, eating at 17:30 ?! We were jetlagged but anyway we can't refuse food, especially when it's free.

 

19:00

Pre-drinks (again what the hell it's so early) ! Time to get to know our reps and our flatmates!

 Try fo find us ! (credit : Pendle college)

21:30

First impressions are essential. Pendle needed to hold a good first party to make a good start. And they did, the Basement Party was fantastic. We, third year frenchies, couldn't stop dancing in the middle of the freshers crowd, which resulted in having muscle soreness all week. But we made friends, and that's what freshers week is about.

MONDAY 3rd OCTOBER 

14:20

As you can see, we slept a lot. The only reason we opened our eyes was because of the registration we had to do at 14:20 at LICA. The queue was horrific so we decided to get acquainted with LICA's ducks.

 Christmas dinner, folks

17:30

Chilling under the sun with frenchies at Alexandre Square is the best way to enjoy your afternoon.

Also, we were invited to a welcome evening at the Management School at 17:30 and the coordinator specified "free food" in the invitation, which was exciting. 
However, there was not only free food, but also free drinks. The coordinator just kept bringing beers and bottles of white wine as if his ultimate goal in life was to get us tipsy (and he did). 

21:30

After this tormented meeting it was already time for pre-drinks and we had to get prepared for the glow party in town.

 (credit : Pendle college)

TUESDAY 4th OCTOBER

12:00

When you're struggling to get food from Sainsbury's (they don't take international credit card online) or to find a freacking saucepan, you just have to enjoy free food. So that's what we did, again. Thanks Pendle, your burgers were nice. 

20:00 

One of the best nights of the week : The big night out. We went to four bars in town (we had drinks at each one of them obviously) and we then went for the first time to Sugarhouse, Lancaster's famous nightclub.

WEDNESDAY 5th OCTOBER 

We didn't do much that day, just resting from the night before and reading the 500 pages book we needed to finish for week 1. Pendle also organised a freshtival all day.

21:00

We went to Pendle Rooms to play beer pong and tennis table upstairs. Noice.

 
THURSDAY 6th OCTOBER 

12:00 

Thursday was a little more eventful, it was the first Freshers fair of our lives. You know, the huge event where all societies are represented, where pole dancers are just doing their thing next to Lacrosse players and twenty people playing frisbee asking you to join. The fair where you feel like you're on a TV show, where you sign up for everything even if you know you won't be able to do all of it anyway.  

21:00 

Thursday was also the day of the Masquerade ball. This night was the perfect event to select our fanciest dress. To be honest, it was kind of hard to deal with the cold weather since evening dresses aren't the warmest clothes that exist on planet Earth. But you know, as they say, dress to impress !
After a couple of minutes of preparation, we went to "Apothecary", a bar where we danced and drank. Cheers !  Around 11pm, we finally went to Sugarhouse and danced until the end of the night.

 

FRIDAY 7th OCTOBER

12:00 

Fresher's fair continued on Friday with its second part. The University knows well how to perfectly attract us with its free food. Yes we know, we did it again ! We ate free slices of pizza and people were giving us free goodies (tote bags, toothpaste, discount coupons, candies, and so on). After that, we went to Spotify stand and took a 3D photo with our favourite Australian friend. Cheeeeeese.

14:00 

Clément had rugby trials so we went there to encourage him with Nicola and Maxime. After 30 minutes of quiet cheering we realised that the guy we were encouraging didn't seem to see us, we found out later that the guy was not Clément.

We then went to the Sport center and signed up for a membership.


20:00 

We had the opportunity to attend the Graduate Latin Party in the part of the campus where all the gratuated students are located. We called it the Big Night In. A friend of us went crazy as soon as she heard the first notes of latina songs. We found in her the biggest fan. She and another friend were looking for their target of the night. Raph definitely found one ! 

Fylde bar was our next stop to find our british friends and then Lonsdale bar. Oh, what a night.

SATURDAY 9th OCTOBER 

14:00

We didn't do much that day except having a coffee from Costa at Alexandra Square.

21:00

P FOR PENDLE night ! The concept was simple : dress with something starting with a P. Since Alex was sick, she dressep up as 'Pyjamas' but stayed in her bed. As for me, I rocked as Princess Leia !  

SUNDAY 10th OCTOBER

 14:00

Last chill day of the week before the storm of Week 1. We went to the Library to prepare ourselves but picked up a free cotton candy first.

20:30 

Pendle organises a Pub Quiz every week so we showed up to see what it looked like. The concept is really cool but at the end we felt really stupid as we couldn't answer any questions. Thank you college, you are very reassuring for next week.

 More stories to come !

Take care

A & M