So, over the last week I haven’t had time to do much else other than get up early and attend the needs of nervous Freshers. Being a Week One Rep for Raleigh Park has literally been the most exhausting yet amazing experience. There are multiple reasons for this assessment of my time in this position, so now let me take you through all of the extreme highs and lows. Seatbelts fastened? Let the journey begin!
Thursday 18th September/Friday 19th September
So, although the Freshers hadn’t arrived yet, our ordeal was about to begin already. On the Thursday and the Friday we went through training for the coming week, which involved the usual safety precautions/general procedures/contract signing (basically all the administrative stuff). Dull and boring it may seem, but this wasn’t always the case. One of the highlights was learning the ‘Week One Rep Dance’ which was a stylish looking routine to the tune of ‘Gecko Overdrive’. Hearing the start of that song now is like a warning call across the plains of the clubbing Savannah – fellow reps will perk up their little heads, find each other and proceed to dance like idiots as a way of warning off others from even thinking about intruding upon this tradition. If any of you spot me across campus/around Lenton don’t hesitate to whack on ‘Gecko’ as I don’t think I’ll be able to help myself.
Of course, training wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory socials after each session. I tend to wander about a lot when I’m in my drunken state (the more common form of Bradley Deas) and with this I was able to get on my way with trying to conquer the challenge of getting to know the 100+ reps from the other halls, as well as the handful of execs.
Saturday 20th September/Sunday 21st September
Being a rep for the best hall at the University (Raleigh Park, off-campus) meant we had an extra day of ‘work’ in comparison to those reps from on-campus halls. We were up nice and early on the Saturday morning in order to greet the latest influx of Freshers. The day was warm and relatively busy and we were kept on our toes with the impossible and extremely awkward task of clicking on the Fresher’s bands for each individual (we know the majority of you won’t give them away and ask for more but protocol is protocol!). Eventually things began to die down and we all hung about until as late as possibly to try and see how people were getting on and of course to instigate those all-important ‘non-alcoholic’ flat parties. Me and my fellow rep Charlotte Kincaid stayed until 10:30pm and managed to get a busy gathering going in the famous Block 2 of Madison Court. Sunday was much of the same, albeit slightly slower and quieter in terms of people arriving; however, this was the first day that we had to attend the dreaded 8:30am briefing in the Week One Office on campus. Again this was another night of parties, parties, parties. Most of us tried to get to sleep as quick as possible before the officially organised chaos would begin the next day; I managed to battle on to go on a night out at Oceana (with good reason- a get-together for friends who were leaving for a study year abroad in the following days).
Monday 22nd September
8:30am to 2/3am the next day – the first time our day had lasted this long so far during our Week One Rep experience. The briefing at 8:30am allowed us to all get focused for the day and week ahead-afterwards we proceeded to rush back to Raleigh Park for 9:00am to sell those fabled Fresher’s event tickets. Tonight’s night event would be ‘Walkabout’.
Last year we had to queue for hours to get tickets to the evening events, with lines wiggling all around Sillitoe Court; however, for some reason, there didn’t seem to be as much hype this year. The tickets sold, but very slowly and late in the day, and so as reps we weren’t filled with hope for how these Freshers would be on their nights out. How wrong could we have been? Amongst the chaos of an ambulance arriving people throwing up, those inside went hard-fully embracing the club culture of dancing (some like lunatics, some extremely stylishly with their shuffling and other dancing things which – you may be able to tell- are foreign to a guy who dances like a dad) and generally having a good time.
Tuesday 23rd September/Wednesday 24th September/Thursday 25th September
These days provided much of the same in terms of how the day ran-collect tickets, try to sell tickets, sit around with remaining tickets, eat lots of food, some of us take breaks, return for 7ish to accompany the Freshers onto the buses to their events. Each night we would have half of our team as ‘anchormen’ who couldn’t drink a drop of alcohol and then half who were given two drinks tokens. Tuesday night was the famous ‘Toga Party’ at Rock City; Wednesday presented us with ‘Services’ at Forum; Thursday was another anticipated event with ‘Baywatch’ at Ocean.
There were individual incidents that occurred each night – far too many to mention all of them – but Thursday night (the night at Ocean) was the night I had to take my first Fresher home. Let’s just say the experience was extremely traumatic and I was more relieved than I ever could have been to return to the Big O after what had occurred over the past hour. Many of us had to deal with situations like this, which just highlights how being a Week One Rep isn’t all fun and games.
Friday 26th September
Friday gave us the opportunity for the reps and Freshers of all halls to come together and have a ball at the ‘Silent Disco UV Party’ on campus. I must say that this event was more fun as a rep than it was as a Fresher and I particularly enjoyed the system me and James Hewitt had set up for checking the ‘broken’ headphones that people were returning every 5 seconds. James as the main hander-outter and me as the lead battery checker, using the fold on the bottom of my shorts as a clever battery holder.
As usual this strange yet wonderful event proved a success and we all decided to celebrate as a team by visiting Ocean afterwards. The bus journey there was fun to say the least and the after party – again – has too much to comment on.
Saturday 27th September
Not much to say here really, other than this was a form of rest day for us. Today was the ‘Love Your Halls’ event and the JCR of each halls were supposed to organise flat parties amongst over events for the halls. My day included dropping into Raleigh Park for a short while, followed by attending a few parties in Lenton.
Sunday 28th September
Today was the big day – the day of the Finale and more importantly for us reps, the day of WOFAP (Week One Finale After Party). The whole week had been leading up to this day. Thousands of Freshers in one large arena with live events and very expensive alcohol. The atmosphere was buzzing to say the least and all of us got involved from the start to the finish, including another opportunity to show off our ‘Gecko’ dance. As the night faded, the thought of WOFAP suddenly crept across the minds of the reps and all those lucky people who had been invited along with us (told early in the day via a number of scenarios, including the ‘you’ve been caught on CCTV’ invitation).
We arrived at Market Bar for around 2/3am and those of us who were hard-core enough, partied hard ‘til around 7/8am. It speak volumes that when we left the club our after night out McDonalds was from the Breakfast Menu; not the normal menu. Again, many interesting and hilarious incidents occurred, the stand out one being at the end of the night when one guy (I won’t mention names just in case) decided to fling his full body on top of a taxi. Simply brilliant. We could all tell our brilliant experience was sadly coming to an end and those that were even more hard-core decided to carry on to WOFAPAP (Week One Finale After Party, After Party) but I’d already been falling asleep in the club so it just wasn’t for me. My week was officially over and what a brilliant week it had been!
Lessons Learnt/Best Bits
-Meeting new people
-Sleep is a vital part of life and you can’t just tell yourself ‘ahhh I’ll stay awake all week’ #energydrinks
-Drunk people are actually quite embarrassing
-I won’t be able to listen to ‘Gecko Overdrive’ in the same way again
Edited by Harriet Dunlea.