Eric Blog

Hello people! It’s been a crazy last couple of weeks since with Fresher’s, starting my second year, working and having a social life.

Fresher’s was amazing; just a really good laugh having a good time with good people, I really enjoyed it. It’s even better as a first year as you don’t have any of that introductory stuff in the first week, so you can actually get some sleep! The SU really pulled out all the stops this year with some amazing events, including the Fresher Fairs. I now have enough free stuff to last me for the year. There was also a big mobile rock climbing wall at both the fairs as well, which I was responsible for running as president of the Climbing Society.

Stuff has only recently actually start to settle down and slot into a regular flow of things, but saying that there always is new things and challenges every week. For example this week I've been hobbling on crutches…Hockey, foot, painful.  So that’s been a whole barrel of laughs, although crutches are quite useful to prod and hit people with.

Second year is strange; it’s quite difficult to adjust, just because it is so different. For one, this year does actually count! It’s going quite well though, well relatively so anyway. I just need to put more effort into doing the reading instead of catching up with my favourite American shows (Homeland, Sons of Anarchy, and The Walking Dead etc.).

In my blogs I always try to have a useful message (as opposed to me just rambling on and on and on...). In this blog I’m just going to give a quick word of advice about choosing courses. So people always say choose what you enjoy and I can’t stress that enough. Don’t choose a subject because you think you should do it, pick and study a subject because you want to do it and because you have a genuine interest in that field of study.  There is no point in paying £9,000 a year (in most cases) to study a course just because you've been told to study that course for whatever reason. It’s you who has to pay the tuition fees, you who have to study it; therefore it should be who you pick the course. So do your re-search, look at all the different courses offered, look into the units that course offers and then make a well informed and a right decision J

Also, this is Eric. He’s an avocado plant, and I've been made to blog about him by my good friend http://gre-denise.blogspot.co.uk/). Like most plants, Eric likes to do plant like things. He’s likes to chill out in the sun, soak up the rays, turn it into food and then eventually grow into an avocado. Eric lives in our office (The Enquiry Unit) and is a valued member of our team. We all love Eric and can’t wait to eat what he produces. Check back for regular updates!

Denise (

So yeah, that’s it for now. I will post another blog soon (he says) about life and stuff. Enjoy the weekend!

Halls!

Hello again my millions of readers (ha), this is just another quick blog about stuff.

I thought in this blog I would say a quick point about accommodation.  As I mentioned in my previous blog I am local to London and Greenwich is my local university, but I still decided to move away from home. Living at home while studying works for some people, some of my friends still live at home and they’re happy, but it’s just not for me and you yourself have to make that decision whether or not you want to move away from home. Halls has a lot of benefits but a few disadvantages (e.g. the cost!) but nevertheless it is a good university experience.

Staying on the topic of halls, I know a lot of new students have recently been placed at Avery Hill accommodation as opposed to their choices in Greenwich. While I’m probably supposed to be impartial, trust me when I say Avery Hill is good if not better than Greenwich. While you have to get a 20 minute shuttle bus to and from uni (which is what I do), Avery Hill has more students on site, a gym, tennis courts, fields, a pond and Sparrows(our SU nightclub). And the rent is a lot cheaper as well.  so for those of you who have been placed at Avery, chill out, it is better and don’t worry!

Now onto other things: I start second year in a few weeks and I still have so much stuff to do. I have to move out of my Mum’s house into halls, organise and sort out a load of stuff for Fresher’s Fair and the next rock climbing society (which I’m president of) open day as well as go out for my birthday next week (which will be very messy…I’m going to be 20! What a rubbish age to be, no longer a teenager but neither an adult) and then I have to say goodbye to all my friends who are going to uni away from London, no doubt that will be equally as messy. So lots and lots of stuff to do, but then again I’m the type of person who somewhat enjoys being ridiculously busy and a couple (several) beverages. But still, busy busy busy.

Oh and a quick note about sports teams and societies are a really good part of university, it’s an instant way to make friends and have a laugh, if you are interested in them check out our Student Union page!

Soo yeah, that’s another blog from me and some more senseless rambling for you to digest, all the links are below. Hope you have a nice weekend; I’m now off for end of work drinks, bye bye!

Accommodation- http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/accommodation

SUUG Fresher’s - http://www.suug.co.uk/freshers2013/

Climbing Society - http://www.suug.co.uk/societies/climbing/

My First Blog :)

Hello, my name is Carney and I have just completed my first year of my History degree at the University of Greenwich. This blog is just a general overview of what I get up to here at University.  In this entry I’m just going to cover a few things, like about me, accommodation, my course and SU Sports Teams & Societies and a little word about Fresher’s.

So a little bit more information about me first, I grew up in South East London and Greenwich has always been my local university. I went to Greenwich as it was my insurance choice and I failed to achieve a place and my first option. So even though Greenwich was my second option and my local university I have really enjoyed my first year here.

I still moved out into Halls, I live on Avery Hill campus (and will do so again next year) and I study on the Greenwich campus, so I take full advantage of the free shuttle bus service to and from class. I like living on Avery Hill as it’s cheaper, I don’t have to pay for an ensuite (as I wouldn’t want one), plus by living on Avery Hill you are able to meet a lot more people than you would by living there, just access to different networks, plus living at Avery means it’s a lot less distance to walk (crawl) home after a night out at Sparrows (our SU nightclub). I spent the year living in a flat with shared facilities and it was pretty decent.

So like I said I study History and I have enjoyed the course so far. In my first year we weren’t allowed to pick all History modules, we had to pick two other humanities electives. I liked this as I was able to do a Philosophy and a Sociology course as well, in addition to the two other history modules I did.  This mixed it up a bit and made it more interesting.  At first it was slightly weird adjusting to university life (academically), lectures and tutorials are different to that of sixth form classes. Depending on the lecturer, lectures can be really interesting and tutorials are always a laugh.  It’s a lot of work having force yourself to do your ‘homework’ when there are so many distractions, but I think I managed to get a pretty good balance between academic work and my social life, e.g. writing an essay in the pub. But I really like all the academics and get on with all the people on my course.

Another substantial thing to happen to me during my first year was joining a sports team and a society. When I first moved into my student accommodation, I was living with three other people, one who barely spoke any English, the other two who I just didn’t get on with at all (don’t worry, it’s unlucky that. That was why joining a sports team was such a good decision for me during Fresher’s Week. I joined Hockey at the Greenwich Fresher’s Fair and it was probably one of the best decisions I made this year. Straight away you meet so many different people, not only from your team but from all the other sports team as well. Whenever I have spoken to people about Sports teams and Societies, I’ve always compared them to American Fraternities and Sororities, just without the extravagance, as that seemed the easiest way to describe them. It’s also a really good way to keep fit and exercise.

All teams and societies are run by an elected student committee, so you can always get involved in the running of it as well! For example this year I also joined rock Climbing, which is a society, this is structured a little bit different to a sports team, but it is still really good and has the same advantages as a sports team. All sports teams and societies are mangled by SUUG and their web address if you wanted more information is www.suug.co.uk.

And finally just a quick word and about Fresher’s Fortnight, since this is my first blog and I suspect that the majority of people reading it (if anyone actually is) are those who are due to start in September, just a little bit of advice: don’t be afraid. Don’t be scared to talk to people, put yourself out there, everyone is in the same situation and you’ll be surprised at the awesome people you’ll meet.

Until next time, good bye! J