Student Blog – Freshers’ Week at the RNCM
Are you joining the RNCM community in September 2017? Want to know what to expect at Freshers’ Week? Second year violinist Alice Flannery shares her experiences of her first week as an RNCM student.
The dreaded move away from home flew around and before I knew it, I’d packed the car to the brim with my belongings and I was on the M1, heading north to Manchester.
Greeted on arrival by lots of smiley faces from people in red tops (who I now know as the kind student volunteers), the move into my room was so much easier than I had anticipated. We had everything loaded into big trollies, and in and out of the lifts, into my lovely new room within five minutes, much to the relief of my parents.
As the afternoon passed in a blur, I met some of my flatmates and we began preparations for the first night ahead, the ‘Sir Charles Groves Hall Move-in Party’. This proved to be a super fun night, meeting new people – something that was surprisingly easy to do, and not awkward! When nobody knows anybody, you’ll find that everyone is very keen to immediately start forming friendships and – given that we all have a favourite hobby in common – the ice-breakers came easily allowing conversation to flow… along with the flow of drinks and pizza!!
After a night of fun, I awoke apprehensive for the days ahead. However, I was put at ease straight away as I headed to one of many welcome talks given throughout that week, leaving us well informed whilst opening more opportunities to meet others every day.
Each night brought a different RNCM event, something for everyone, ranging from ‘Ping Pong and Pizza Night’ to a ‘Pirate Treasure Hunt’ (scavenger hunt and pub crawl) followed by the ‘Pirate Party’. I enjoyed every night, however, I must admit my favourite night had to be the Ceilidh – having never been to one before, I expected to feel like a fish out of water, however, I soon realised there’s no need for any inhibitions at the RNCM, it’s all just a lot of fun with plenty of laughs.
This spirit was upheld brilliantly by the Student Union this year, as they brought us plenty of other fun events every term, such as for Halloween, Christmas and St Paddy’s day to name a few!
Being a violinist, aside from the partying, another part of Fresher’s Week I loved was the chamber music workshop we took part in on the Wednesday morning. Under the impression this was essentially an audition, we were all relieved to find it was just an opportunity to play with different first years and further our friendships. This led to the allocation of particular chamber groups, however, us keen beans had already had so much fun setting up our own prior to this!
All in all, Freshers’ Week was fast and action-packed, for all the right reasons, and I can’t wait to bring on another fab week of welcoming in the new students, setting us up for another fantastic year ahead.
18 August 2017
