The ABC of university life (2019/20 cohort) - Will NewModelArmyMayhem18 forgive me?

[MrKlaw]

previous thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3701968-The-ABC-of-university-life-2019-20-cohort-settling-in-we-hope

Hope you don't mind - people have pent up comments about cheese graters and traffic cones to get out of their system!

Re GPs - Cardiff were signing them up as soon as they picked up their keys. DD has already been to arrange her meningitis jab so she knows where it is (about 5 minutes away!) if she needs to go again. I figure it’s more important to have a GP on hand at uni because they’re are on their own iyswim. At home you are there to sort stuff out I needs be. I like the fact that if she has any concerns she can quickly pop in and sort it out on the spot - one less thing to feel anxious about.

I know @Ginfordinner. DD seemed to have her lots of ills before age 7(appendicitis with op at 4 then later pneumonia) so I reckon that gave her immune system a boost!

Went to see DD today. We didn't spend long with her as she was suffering from a hangover. She has made loads of friends, thank goodness. She says that everyone in the flat is lovely still, even though they don't all socialise with each other.

When we went in to the kitchen I commented on how clean and tidy it was. Apparently one of the lads was fed up with the mess and stayed in last night to clean up!

I'm pleased that DD has made quite a few friends from different ethnic backgrounds as where we live has a very low ethnic minority. When she was out with them one of her friends leaned over and asked what it was like to be the only white person there.

For Halloween she is going on a "Crawling Dead" pub crawl on the 30th and having a Halloween flat party on Halloween itself.

I am just happy that she has a social life.

That’s great @Gin

@Ginfordinner, that sounds really good! Remind me again where she is?

Newcastle

That's great - I didn't realise it was so mixed!

Sorry to be such a quiet lurker all the time but delurking now to ask the York mums if their dcs are going down with a lurgy? Everyone in dd’s house in Halifax college sounds to have flu like symptoms and a terrible cough. Dd is bringing up muck. Anyone had a dc who’s gone through it and come out the other side already? I’d like an idea of the course it takes and how long it might be until she recovers as I’m itching to helicopter in to check on her. So far she’s said no.

I don’t think there’s single one in the house who’s capable of keeping an eye on the others and they’ve been a very sociable lot so far, doing things together up til now. Which is why, of course, they’ve all got it. She did register with the health centre online yesterday, but I’m told there’s usually a 3 week wait. I’m an ex GP, so I could at least listen to her chest and check her temperature to see how bad it is, if I go. Maybe stock her up with probiotic drinks and smoothies with high Vit C/zinc content, plus paracetamol supplies.

@Dunlurking my DD has a barking cough, pink eyes and a runny nose. I was pestering her a bit but was told to back off, that she had checked her temperature using the first aid kit I sent her with and that it was normal. Luckily she’s rarely ill but I know what you mean about just wanting to check hence my worry about her not knowing who her GP is.
I hear she played lacrosse yesterday so I’ve decided she can’t be that bad. Hope yours is ok too but if she’s not worried I think you have to take your cue from that.

Sorry, not at York.

DS2 has come home from Bristol this weekend with a shocking cough and hoarse voice so it's clearly everywhere! He seems fine in himself though and has always been fairly robust.

Thanks Benjispruce Have messaged her now so will see what she has to say when she’s awake. She missed softball on Wednesday so I know it must be bad in her eyes anyway! Hope your dd recovers soon.

Thanks SoupDragon. Glad your ds is still functioning okay. Hope it clears soon.

He's now been asleep for 12 hours. I don't think the 5am end to a night out followed by an 8am start to watch the rugby has done him any favours at all! 😂

I hope your DD starts to feel better soon.

Soupdragon 😂

Thanks for the good wishes.

Dd has come home from Newcastle with a very sore throat and cough. Her cough was so bad she was sick at 2am after coughing from midnight. She missed a lecture on Friday as she has been having 4 hours sleep every night from coughing so much at night.

She didn’t have a high temp. Tonsils up, glands up on neck but not extreme. Very red and lumpy throat but not yellow. Chest hurts from pulled muscles coughing but doesn’t seem rattling (to the ear) or hurt inside. Her voice was hoarse but she can speak now.

Love to get medical advice on her chest but it does just sound like a very nasty throat virus.

I wish she’d given me her flatmates numbers last week as it is a bit of a worry when they say they can’t breathe then you can’t get hold of them because they have finally got to sleep!

Oh no Zanda. I hope she recovers soon . DD and her flatmates had this a couple of weeks ago, but everyone seems OK for now. It sounds like a bit of TLC from you will do her the world of good.

DD's course is so very full on I dread her becoming too ill to keep up with her work.

Sorry that some DC have come down with the lurgy :-(. It's that time of the year. DS seems to be okay so far but it may catch up with him later on in the term (hopefully not over the Christmas vac). It sounds like the same one DD got (and was off school with for a couple of days) - she had real tightness in her bronchus but thankfully alleviated by lots of hot honey and lemon drinks and Vick inhalations.

I'm plopping into this thread with a slight derail, so apologies, but I really need advice about accommodation choices because DD2 is having a gap year and uni and course confirmed for 2020, Nottingham Trent.
With DD1 we put in choices of halls she liked, she was allocated a flat in one, she checked out her new flat mates on Facebook and it all went smoothly, no problem.

This time, the system is quite different at Nottingham Trent. At the open day they explained they open the accommodation allocation at a certain time on a certain day (I have to check the details) and you choose the room/flat that you want. A bit like choosing your seat for a flight.
I'm really worried about this - what's the point of choosing a particular room if you don't know who's going to be in the flat with you? Maybe it works where groups of friends choose to share together but she hasn't got a group of friends going there. Even then, what if they all go online to book their room and someone else gets there first so one of the group is left out?
Walking around the accommodation blocks, it was clear from the outside that some flats had particular "themes" - some had decorated the kitchen window with piles of beer cans etc, some were quite homey with plants and arty bits and pieces on display for instance.
How do we go about her making contact with others going there in 2020 and make an accommodation choice plan?

Anyone here at Nottingham Trent for 2020 or experience of this way of organising accommodation?

"I'm really worried about this - what's the point of choosing a particular room if you don't know who's going to be in the flat with you?"

You don't know who you are going to be sharing with at most universities. It is a bit of a lottery. DD is at Newcastle, and you can put preferences down, but there are no guarantees. They email the students in July with their halls/room allocations, but the students don't tend to contact each other on Facebook until after results day.

All I know about NTU is that the accommodation in the city goes absurdly quickly. I think they opened the booking in feb last year and it filled in a week or something crazy

Just pick the halls she likes and don't choose the ground floor then its a lottery.

@Dunlurking dd is York (Vanbrugh) and no complaints about being poorly.

Just early morning photos of what she is trying out for her breakfast.

Shared kitchen is not the tidiest but not terrible either.

Dunlurkin York here. Langwith. DD had it last week for a few days. Almost no voice too. Paracetamol, fresh orange and vitamins tablets taken and it passed quickly. Think it's working through each college systematically.

My experience of NTU is
a) the accommodation is quite expensive
b) it goes within hours of opening for booking (Or at least the popular places)

It's a mad scramble. Mostly, students are picking rooms on floor. This is especially important in the one that is over the SU nightclub...

Some halls have a party reputation, others less so. I have never heard of groups of people conspiring to room together...