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Fresher's First Week: Day 4

As I staggered out of bed I felt sore, tired, sick and my head was thumping. Let me just list the symptoms of meningitis:

• Vomiting
• Fever
• Headache
• Stiff neck
• Light aversion
• Drowsiness
• Joint pain
• Fitting

Exhibiting four out of the possible eight symptoms of this rather nasty disease was not encouraging. However hunger overrode all feelings of illness and I hauled myself off to breakfast.

Sadly, by the time I arrived at the food hall breakfast was no longer being served. This was just too much for me so it was back to bed in an attempt to try and recover from my worsening headache.

A few hours later, my neighbours knocked on the door asking where I had been. I said I was in bed taking the day off. They then started talking about all of the freebies which were on offer at the Fresher's fair. "Hurry up!" they said, "There won't be any freebies left by the time you get there!".

They were right. By the time I got there the only people still giving stuff out were BT and Sainsbury's. Most of the societies were still touting for members (and their money) though.

After carefully picking my way around the numerous flyers (and even joining a few societies) I pushed off back to my room.

The highlight of the day turned out to be what I term the "Welsh Band Phenomenon". Whilst idly lying back in bed listening to Radio 1 with the window open a Stereophonics song came on. Suddenly I could hear the same song being played from every room across the floor. Upon opening my door the music was even louder. Just as well I like that song really...

All the time spent lounging around my room was revealing a few flaws. The worst turned out to be the fact that my curtains don't draw all the way across. This wasn't a problem until today when I foolishly pierced myself on the safety pins which someone had (un)thoughtfully provided.

There were other annoyances such as the smell of urine from under the bed (no it wasn't me), the awkward-to-close-so-that-there-isn't-a-draft window, the stone cold radiator and the wardrobe door that wouldn't close.

Then there was the phone system. Over the summer, a communications company called NTL installed a phone system across campus and the Student Village. The main lure is that phone calls to other NTL phones are absolutely free. However, when one of my neighbours decided to test this out by phoning me up he ended with a girl in a completely different block (I don't think he minded though).

After spending so many hours trapped inside my room with only orange juice to drink and keep me calm I decided on a course of action which I had never embarked upon before. I was actually going to try taking care of myself. Trembling, I opened a paracetamol box and actually took a tablet at my own free will. Half an hour later and no headache, I was ready to explore campus again.

I was overjoyed to find that Natwest had a cashpoint on Campus since this would save inconvenient trips into the city centre or incurring a one pound charge for withdrawing money from a Lloyds cashpoint. Sadly it seems that this is the most popular cashpoint on campus since it had run out of money when I came to use it. Natwest, if you are reading this, please put more money in your Swansea Campus cashpoint (especially £10 notes)!

As I returned to my room it occurred to me that the security tag door system which had been employed to keep the halls of residence safe hadn't been working for the past few days. When I asked what had happened to it I was informed that someone had kicked it and it had broken. This raises two points:

1. Shouldn't a system which is going to be around students be more robust?
2. If a thief wants to break into the halls of residence all they have to do is kick the security box.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Days 6 & 7