This is what happens when I find out I have work due on Thursday

Ok I admit I have now reached the point of actively avoiding work despite ever encroaching deadlines. It is funny how the realities of university study creep up on you like my ever increasing girth (slowly and without any warning till you look down and scream), and thus it feels like the honey moon period has now officially come to a close.

I am studying law and for the first four weeks I was consistently surprised and slightly put off every time I told someone that because they would always make the same surprised look of pain like I had told them I love clubbing baby seals while stealing money from the elderly. However, now with my slightly wiser outlook on life I can see that they were at least partially right about my rather unique choice of torture methods. Half my modules make absolutely no sense and the best bit is that I know it would be very easy to learn to understand my modules by doing the mandatory reading... WHICH IS EVEN WORSE THAN LISTENING TO MY LECTURER TALK WITH HIS EYES SHUT FOR AN HOUR. And thus my specific rocky and rather hard place was constructed from the decaying carcas of what was my enjoyment of law.

Ok that is rather melodramatic and slightly hyperbolic (just a tad) but I think I am making a point that is resonated by most students which is why in the world do they put us in a place with an almost unlimited variety of activities and interesting people to talk to and think it will be beneficial to our study. Nothing is a better example of this than freshers week a time with so much possibility, like a flower about to bloom. The events fair suggested that I had the ability to be a lacross playing, kung foo master who is in four different versions of hamlet and does a bit of stand up at the same time. I am under no illusion that it would be very possible to pass all your university career without actually participatin in any learning because there is the slight feeling that I might currently be going down that path despite my best efforts to not join anything and thus leave a reasonable amount of time for studying.

Side note: Uni is presented as this place where people try to re-brand themselves as one thing or another and as great as that sounds for me at least it is an attempt at the futile. Everyone seems to have already solidified into their own person (as evidenced from groups forming of like minded people from the first day). I am sure that for some people coming to Durham has allowed them to finally express the previously inexpressible but for those who already know me you can guess that it just brought out more Stephane. The essence of what is Stephane will probably fascinate anthropologists and historians alike for centuries to come (or minutes if they have the time in between real work to consider the mundane). The snarky mix of off handed rather insulting and occasionally nice behaviour leaves me sitting comfortably without clasification much like any young adult novel about to try and convince teens that they are somehow special (that is a story for another day). Nevertheless I am thankful that some people have taken it upon themselves to save the rest of the world from me by adopting me into their confidence.

Well, wasn't that a rather weird and very pointless bit of rant. Earlier today I tried to write a blog post about something thematic or actually nice and it brought the truth of this as at best a form of catharsis allowing me to rise above the procrastination and actually tackle my work or at worst the vain attempt to draw attention to myself. While tonight I will probably repeat the very logical form of work avoidance which is sitting for as long as possible in one place to use up all the productive work time I wouldn't trade the guillotine of work over my head for anything because it reminds me why everyone here is so great, because we all have goals in life and will occasionally stop socialising to try and achieve them.

The analysis of my perpetual cough.

When I got off the train for and viewed Durham for the first time in my life knowing that I had subjected myself to studying there for at least three years without even looking up the place on google maps (I know that is a serious level of laziness) I was delighted when my first impression was not that of a massive dump. With the cathedral dominating the landscape and my position up on the train station giving me a view of all of Durham I was filled with a sense of possibility, which was quickly stifled when the taxi journey simply kept on climbing, and climbing, and climbing.

St Aidan's.... The rainbow college or even lovingly called the reject college has to the best of my knowledge a 4% application rate amongst the people who go there giving it a claim to fame no other college has or probably wants. To be fair it is completely understandable when you see the lovingly crafted dirty exposed brickwork facade that I am sure took an architect many many years to design. However it turns out that everything that seems to present Aidans as lacking in the class department actually makes it great and I would not change for castle or Hatfield (which I embarrassingly remembered that I applied to on the third night), mainly because they seem incredibly stuck up.

So Aidanites are separated into categories through the very small but surprisingly effective questionnaire that we filled out before venturing into the unknown. There are the B curves who are aptly named because with the amount of alcohol consumed there in a single night no one could be expected to walk in a straight line. So far my experience of this magical kingdom of booze and destruction has involved covering myself in the most nu-luminous UV paint in the world and getting absolutely shit-faced off another's alcohol. I have a feeling that he felt bad for me after I had sat there for an hour with nothing enjoying my exploration of the true nature of student hood.... poverty.

And thus I will take a small detour to describe my current pain which is the very small thing in my trousers, my wallet. I don't think anyone really understood the amount of money one can burn through in the persuit of living the same lifestyle as when we were financed by the bank of daddy (technical term though I feel it necessary to mention that my mother brings in the cash). With the prices of textbooks almost amounting to that of an ipod and my desire for a light weight travel bag causing me to rebuy items that are sitting with impunity on my desk at home I am starting to feel the strain. No that isn't right, I am basically broke. Not in the fun way though were you actually have no money but in the painful way that in a month living costs will be deducted from my account and I am not sure how Susane Frenk would feel about my account bouncing, though I am sure that none of us would understand it anyway but it will be deep and profound I am sure.

Anyway back to the important stuff like insulting large groups of people with no real basis. It is one of the constant joys of life to remind people of the factual existence of the A straight corridor which is lovingly situated underground to better accommodate the hermits that take up residence in its embrace. Unlike many I have drawn upon the strength of my ancestors and ventured into those deep halls and experienced such wonders as the assassin society and guitar singalongs. It turns out that while you can make some judgements about each corridor or house (yes I didn't forget you guys) the strong diversity of Aidan's is what makes it the best college in Durham.

Finally I feel it is necessary to address the title of this piece of procrastination which is something that everyone in Uni's across the country will sympathise with, The Freshers Flu. When everyone around the world is fretting over Ebola I feel that they have missed a much more diverse (If less deadly) phenomenon. The freshers flu has a plethora of interesting symptoms some of which are kind of funny in hindsight. It seems that the most common symptom of the flu is the belief that you have finally caught the flu. After 4 days straight partying in town and enjoying wonderful the way that the see through curtains granted my unadjusted body a wonderful amount of 3 hours sleep per night, I was absolutely sure that I was in possession of the flu. However I have reverted to that horrible state a total of three times so far in my university career making the flu more of an enigma. Probably rather than being sick it is simply our bodies kicking us for the rapid change in curcumstances from watching netflix on the couch all day during the holidays to walking back at 3 in the morning with no shirt on ( wooo toga-party). Never the less it is a bonding experience allowing all of our new friends, associates and people we pretend to like only to their face to bond over not only the good times but the more unpleasant ones.

While there is so much more about the first few weeks of university that can be explored and my personal choices to fail to join any societies can be ridiculed I will leave it there. Now I can go back to my favourite past time which has been easily revived from the glory days of old, doing literally anything other than work because first year doesn't count, am I right?