So it has come to my attention that my audience may no longer be entirely American, and so when I can, I will attempt to compare American customs and culture difference to what I have experienced in England and may spend time explaining the differences in considerable detail.
Fresher's week is the 0 week of the term or week before term and is characterized by a week of endless orientations, meetings, and parties. It is a week in which the freshman and visiting students arrives and provides a crash course in getting to know the city, the college, and the university. The types of events which I will cover are the talks/meetings, Library inductions, the social events, and the Fresher's fair.
The week began with a tea with the dean and a few introductory talks and ended with more specialized meetings for specific majors. Rather than bore you with all the details, I will say that it was quite a lot of information and it became quickly clear as a third year visiting student that a lot of the information was not in any way tailored towards the information I needed. As a result, I took a very relaxed care to the coming week and often didn't attend events that I felt were a waste of time. The negative effect of this was that I didn't engage in Fresher's week probably as fully as I should have. I did have a meeting specifically for visiting students at Regent's and it was then that I felt I could determine which events would be important to attend and which were not.
One of the more common events during fresher's week is the library inductions. Given the seemingly endless amount of libraries at the university of Oxford, it was important for students to attend library inductions for the libraries that were specific to their subjects of study. For certain libraries the students needed to register, so that our IDs which doubled as our Bodlean library cards would open appropriate doors and allow us to check out books. I ultimately found that it wasn't important to go to the specifically scheduled time to register with the libraries and often went independently which was a much quicker process. The downside to this is that there were some resources that aren't apparently obvious that I feel were explained in the inductions that I missed.
Now all this talk and I haven't even mentioned interacting with anyone other than the administration. Fresher's week also featured many "get to know you" events such as meals and drinks at the JCR (Junior common room) bar. Additionally every night during fresher's week there was some kind of pub or club that the group went to. So as you have probably guessed a lot of drinking was on the menu for freshers week. Due to the sheer number of late nights, I didn't actually attend many of the events in which the fresher's and fresher's counsel went out; similarly, I didn't have the desire to spend most of my money on drinks, and thus, didn't actually participate in a lot of drinking.
Despite this, I did feel like I got to know quite a few of the Freshers at these events. Everyone was very kind and open to getting to know new people. I am often reminded of many awkward "getting to know you games" that we would play in the states at the start of school and at least in my experience, I found everyone to be very open and eager at at least say hi. Maybe one of the biggest differences that I have noticed is that as a broad generalization, English are quick to make acquaintances and slow to make friends.
One of the most drastic differences I noticed between British fresher's week and American freshman orientations was the way in which drinking affects the types of events. There was quite a lot of drinking and each morning you could note the sort of zombie like haze that each of the fresher's who had gone out the night before had. American freshmen orientations are largely informational and the number of events are less numerous. There are parties, but given that all the freshmen are under-age, they are often poorly attended and contain many different types of distractors such as video games, dancing, card games, and board games. Once again though, I must insist that even my own account of freshman orientation is through my own experience at such a small college in the united states. During Fresher's week, there were also events that if I could characterize them for Americans is most like stereotypical hazing. At the same time thought, it is easy to see that Fresher's week does foster a sense of community among the freshman class and the college in general, if not that then a sense of care-taking for one another as each person in turn gets to the point in which they can't handle their alcohol.
Now I realize that I have in many ways sounded like a prude through my assessment of English partying, as clubbing and partying seem to be a much more engrained cultural characteristic here than in America. Perhaps it is our puritan roots showing, but I did make an effort to enjoy many of the events during fresher's week and did have a lot of fun at the Bop or costume party that was held at the end.
Additionally, Regent's Park College does emphasize the support system that exist within the college and it was continually emphasized that if something was wrong, it was better to say something than to keep quiet.
An Aside: one of the things that I have really appreciated as a LARPer is the number of costume stores here in England. I always feel like, at least when it comes to where I am from, that it is difficult to find costumes and costume pieces if it isn't Halloween. People here seem to have a much more open acceptance towards costuming. Makes me look forward to putting together a costume for Gencon next year.
The final major event for Fresher's week is the Fresher's fair. As a university of a couple thousand students, the number of clubs is quite astounding. Towards the end of the week a line of freshman form outside the Exam college and are filtered in through a labyrinth of booths and people. The local community of business hand out free things and coupons and the clubs all compete, vying for the attention of every student they can get their hands on. It is a very overwhelming event. I approached the event with a certain amount of caution and was highly selective about what I put my name down for. I kind of regret doing this because it became clear in the next couple days that the best thing to do is sign up for a ridiculous amount of things and weed them out after. I still have plenty of things to do and I look forward to beginning some of the club events this week as well as begin my tutorials and lectures.
This next coming week is the first week of tutorials this term. The party atmosphere will likely slow down as the weight of academics begin to invade everyone's lives. There are plenty of people who already have assignments and papers. Lectures also begin in full swing and I have littered my calender with the dates and times. Unfortunately, I did have another bad luck moment this week. On Friday I found out that my tutor for my neurobiology tutorial was too busy this term to tutor me. The administration has begun their search of replacement tutor and hopefully I will have one soon.
Well I think I will leave you with all of this and have a new post later in the week about clubs. I am excited to begin term, even if I am missing one of my more important tutorials. More to come.
~KH
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