My student ID
Finally today, five frantic, bewildering, exhausting, confusing, amusing, frustrating, exciting and even inspiring days have come to an end and I’m a fully-fledged, card-carrying ‘Is-raddedig / Undergraduate’ at Bangor University.
I started the week planning to read Welsh History and Archaeology and finally settled on Welsh History with History (it makes sense even if it looks odd!) with an intermediate level Welsh language module. I’ve experienced the student frustration of hanging about between sessions killing an hour here and there and concentrated on finding all the places I could sit comfortably and get a coffee.
My personal tutor is a Welshman and we hit it off straight away. He helped me change my course and sorted out the problems with my login which still wanted to look at my IT courses I did in the Spring rather than my brand-new shiny School of History ones. We were told in our school induction that we have to look for information in our email inbox, on Blackboard (the University course info board), notice boards in a dimly-lit corridor, in our pigeon holes and I suspect, in true Harry Potter fashion, brought by owls. If you’ve seen our building, it does put you in mind of Hogwarts but with marginally fewer towers. I’m sure I shall miss vital information in all that lot!
The Module Fair was a complete scrum, everybody attempting to get to desks of harassed lecturers and administrators, staggering around looking dazed and confused. My form with a changed course as some false starts would have presented a major problem in interpretation but somehow seemed to have worked.
By the end of day two, all of us were bonding rapidly. This was mainly because information overload meant we could only survive by piecing the information together from the scraps we individually retained, that had managed to penetrate our ears which felt like they were bleeding from overuse!
The main event of day three was Serendipity (the Freshers’ Fair) which my sons (both ’90s graduates) had encouraged me to attend and, “Join everything Dad, you’ll love it. And you’ll get a free Pot Noodle and a tin of baked beans!” Well, I spent over two hours there and I have to be honest and say that like the Curate’s Egg, it was ‘good in parts’. (Google ‘Curate’s Egg’ if that reference baffles you.) My problem was that at 61 years old I simply didn’t look like a student and many people didn’t know whether to speak to me or not. I am sure nobody was intentionally discourteous and eventually I started to speak to people when they handed leaflets to students preceding and following me. Two people thought I wasn’t a student and another said they thought I wouldn’t be interested (but I was), and two others simply apologised and gave me literature. It’s going to mean positive choices on my part to fit in: I’m three times older than most students and I live off-campus in Deiniolen (8 miles from Bangor).
I did join a few societies: the Welsh Learners’ Society, Seren, the African-Caribbean Society (because they were the friendliest people at Serendipity), the Christian Union, Unity (the LGBT society to support my son) and a few others. I got some dry instant noodles from the Lidl stand in their goodie bag but no baked beans! I also got a year’s supply of pens and pencils, no less than five (!) bottle openers, a mug, a torch, a mouse mat, some notepads and far too many sweets, all of which I gave away immediately!
The final hurdle was Registration (that capital ‘R’ is appropriate as it’s the culmination of the week) which took place on day 4. The day was complicated for me as doctor’s visit for my wife resulted in a very rapid appointment at Ysbyty Gwynedd and I dropped her at the hospital and drove on the mile or so to the University to register. I was about the join the 700 yard queue when my phone went with a text. Christine had texted me, “Had scan now waiting for op”. I went white as a sheet – straight into the operating theatre? One of the organisers of the event (I suspect the head man because of the way all the staff deferred to him) asked me if I was OK. I explained I was there to register but I’d dropped my wife at the hospital and I was concerned to get back. He immediately said for me to come back tomorrow to register if I could. I asked him if it would be possible to jump the queue and he took me up to collect my magic green form and I was through registration in 10 minutes!
I texted Christine and asked her to call me as soon as she could. The phone rang almost immediately in response. I blurted out anxiously to Christine, “So what’s this about you going in for an immediate operation, you said you were waiting for an op?” A puzzled silence followed, then through helpless laughter she responded, “No, not an operation, I’m waiting for out-patients!” I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or to kill her.
And so all I have on my agenda today is a social for mature students over a pint tonight. I’m not sure whether I want to make a strong association with mature students or not. I see myself as a student who lives off-campus and want to make friends with my fellow students of all ages. Later in the semester, I plan to invite some home for Christine’s home cooked meals and to use our house to relax.
I’ve worked out my timetable for lectures and seminars and can’t wait for week 1, semester 1, year 1 of my course at Bangor University to start on Monday.
