What to pack
A realistic Guide to life at UCLan - written by students!
Francesca Dent, aged 18, BA (Hons) Journalism, 1st year
So you have been accepted for your course at UCLan (yay!) and it’s only a few weeks till you fly the nest and gain your independence from your parents (whoop!). So what do you need to bring with you? Well this is a rough outline of the things that I wish I had packed as well as some of the things I did. Hope you find it useful, I know I would have if I was in your position right now!
1) Your mobile and your charger – Set a day and time you will ring home, you might not be feeling that homesick but you leaving has left a void in your parents life so make sure you give them a ring. Once a week at least should do it, it keeps them happy and you won’t feel like they are interfering. Of course you can phone them more often if you want to!~
2) Condoms – You will get a lot of free things during your time at university, especially during fresher’s week but don’t let a sexually transmitted disease or an unexpected pregnancy be one of them. If the person you’re with refuses to wear them then refuse to go any further with them, simple as. Look after and respect yourselves. Ok, lecture over!
3) A laptop – Essential for checking your Facebook, MSN, Twitter, MySpace accounts and keeping in touch with friends back home and making new friends on your course. If you don’t already have a Facebook account, get yourself on there and try to meet people before you arrive; it makes starting uni easier if you already know someone. Oh and laptops are useful for essays and research projects you will get from lecturers.
4) Food and housekeeping – Over the few weeks before you move to uni, every time your mum goes shopping, get her to buy a couple extra things for you, things like biscuits, pasta , tinned veg, toilet and shower cleaners, soaps and shower gel, toothpaste - all the things she buys for home. Chances are you will need to use these things at uni. Getting them while at home saves you some money and gives you a bit extra time to spend with all your new friends.
5) Photos – Chances are that during your first few weeks you will get home sick. Get some photos of your mates and family from back home printed off ready to go up in your new flat at uni. Looking at all their ugly mugs will make you thankful you left them behind! Or make you feel more at home, one of the two.
6) Clothes suitable for fancy dress – Bring some fancy dress stuff with you, students are big on dressing up when going out; you don’t want to be the odd one out or the one running into town spending a load of money to buy stuff to fit the theme. (Don’t forget your everyday clothes too though; you might get a few strange looks walking through Preston dressed as Superman!)
7) Games – Twister is a good one, it will really get you and all your flat mates involved, will help you get to know each other that little bit better. A pack of cards is another idea, helps you play drinking games. Of course when I say drinking I mean things like lemonade and coke.......
8) Alarm clock – You don’t want to miss out on any important lectures. While university is all about having fun, must lecturers do like it when their students turn up to lectures and seminars!
9) An open mind – This is probably the most important one. University is a great chance to try loads of new things. There are so many clubs and societies here at UCLan that you probably won’t be able to join them all. Don’t worry about that though: you have three years to try as many as you can. Try new things, you never know you just might like it!
Parents will try to make you take loads more things and some will be ridiculous. Leave the toaster, the travel iron, the hot water bottle, the health grill, the kettle, the kitchen sink. If you’re moving into halls there are 5 other people who may all bring a kettle or toaster. If no one takes one then chip in a couple of quid and buy one together from Wilkinson’s or Argos.
So now you have a better idea of what to pack – get to it before the parents pack that health grill!
