Everyone always says that you’ll make lots of new friends before starting University, and there’s no doubt you’ll end up with a friendship group of people from all over the place! In no other university is there such a strong balance between North and South, something which I personally think should be celebrated.
But what is really separating the North from the South besides geographical distance? What really makes us different?
Northerners
The Geordie
Geordies just love to party and can’t understand why all of their southern friends can’t hold their drink. The aim is to get smashed, so why are they all sipping their ciders and G&T’s like it’s a cup of tea? They also can’t understand why people wear coats to walk to the clubs and don’t have the stamina, even when drunk, to bear the cold in a tiny dress or sparkly shorts. Coat Room? What is this, the 1920s?
Scouser
The scousers love to complain about the poor nightlife and the ridiculously early club closing times. They just want to dance until dawn, leave the club when it’s light outside and get a Maccies breakfast before staggering home with the early work commuters. The girls always have their eyebrows on point and won’t go anywhere without their rollers. The boys love Stevie G and have the most insulting banter around. Your scouse friend is the person to go to for an excellent brew.
People from Wigan
Those poor lost souls.
They have battled their way through educational colleges taught ‘en mass’, normally in classes of about 600. They are also often fed a diet consisting mainly of pies. The poor things are often so excited to have a bit of a laugh and some decent grub that they throw themselves full throttle into university life. They tend to tone down the traditional fashions of their youth in order to fit in with their new posh mates, but they have definitely owned mutli-coloured Doc Martins at some point in their life. The accent is always a give-away if you can’t spot them and the drunker they are, the stronger it gets.
Southerners
The Country and Coastal Toffs
Toffs can be hard to spot if you are a Northerner, as they are normally pretty scruffy with untucked shirts, mismatching socks and heavy woollen jumpers. They also smoke like chimneys. Take a closer look, however and their clothes are well-made expensive brands, or stash from their sailing, horse riding or yatching clubs. Otherwise they are quick to explain their entire outfit is from charity shops, bought for 0.003p. They love breaking the rules, disregarding the system and wild nights out. As long as mummy doesn’t find out what they’ve been up to. That said, the combo of an easy going, fun-loving nature and good manners, can be strangely charming. And anyway, they are far too cool to care whether you like them or not. FTM.
The Urban Royalty
These well-cultured socialites from inner London just larrrvee an outing to a museum or gallery, darling. If they haven’t been to Eaton, Harrow, or some other extortionate single-gender private or boarding school, then they consider themselves the ‘new’ generation. Their mother might be an art dealer and their father a diplomat, but they are totally into the new modern way of thinking: pacifist, vegetarian, you name it. Embracing new ideas and cultures is what they are all about, as they’re so liberal. Going out for them is about being on the social scene, looking effortlessly on trend and popular as they watch in disgust at the drunken Northerners rolling around legless. However, the urbans often have an absolute alcohol catastrophe early on in Uni life, not being used to the low prices of drink. They soon realise there are entirely new levels of boozed, which they have never come across before.
The Midlands
And now we come to the grey area, the over-lappers. They are always adamant that they are not from the North, or the South, they are from the Midlands. Does anyone actually know where that is?
So is the North and South Divide real? In accent, style and habit maybe, but Durham does its best to make everyone feel involved and accepted.
What’s not to love about having mates all over England, even all over the world? And you might not even have met them, if it weren’t for Durham.