Cambridge and Oxford - ongoing chat for those with a student currently studying there

[DadDadDad]

Some of us have found these threads helpful, so I'm starting a new one to take us through

...end-of-year exams (and parties)

...homecoming for the vacation (and hibernation aestivation for this thread?)

...return in the autumn (and more normal college life?)

Posters old and new welcome to join the discussion. Any tips for finding a summer job?

Oh, and for reference, I have a DS just completing his first year in a small humanity in a tiny college.

Same here, @Ironoaks. DS is only on FB for communications around uni organisations, and the rather varied series of events we see that he is interested in intrigues - and occasionally alarms - me and DW....

He went to the OU Conservatives Association Port and Policy event at the weekend - he was there (he said) only for the port. He said the event was in a church and people went up into the pulpit to shout out things he couldn't hear (policy, presumably). There we were, worried about his alcohol consumption, little did we suspect the full horror that it's a gateway substance to becoming a.... Tory!

Nice to hear that most DC seem to be doing well despite fresher's flu! Ds says he is the only one in his house not to have it - we think he had it a couple of weeks before going, when he had horrible never ending sinusy cold!

I don't know much about what he is doing, but he went to an in person lecture today (it was the 4th one - I don't know why he didn't go to any others!) He has his first tute tomorrow, and has taken advantage of the maths department offer of paying for a language course and has signed up for Russian! I hope he is leaving the house every day to get some sun, especially as he has a basement room, but who knows! I did send him with vit D tablets!

That's funny @DadDadDad! DS's FB isn't showing that he's interested in anything (I have checked) so I am hoping that he has joined some societies. He is social sec for maths soc at his college and messaged DD for some advice - he hadn't realised how much he would have to talk to people as social sec!

According to Facebook, DS has recently been to (or intended to go to):

• an outdoor performance of a Shakespeare play
• a lecture on geometric phases
• a science society social event
• a lecture on Chemistry for sustainability

If Facebook tells me that he is planning to go clubbing, I'll assume that he has been hacked.

@DadDadDad when I was a student, we worked out that port offered the most alcohol per £ so we drank quite a lot of it. That was at a redbrick northern one, definitely not Tory and I've never voted that way in my life.

DD's boat club is on FB so I occasionally see photos of her on there. She also posts or replies on Camfess - bonkers but fairly harmless.

DD does acrobatic dance and represented Cambridge at an inter-uni event in Blackpool in February 2020. If Oxford had been there, she would have won a blue. Sadly they weren't, but Manchester sent a team, one of whom had been in her Pointe class for her last couple of years in Devon!

Hello all Lovely to hear all your updates!

My DD (Oxford, 2nd year) is living in college-owned halls (not in her college itself, but still fairly central) with four of her best friends and as a result, her experience has been so much more positive than this time last year (first term of first year in a household of people who were very different to her, with tight Covid restrictions). Lots of clubbing under her belt already but hopefully she'll tone it down a bit. She met her tutors in person for the first time ever last week, and has her first in person lecture next week - very exciting! She's joined the college frisbee club and wants to join the orchestra but doesn't currently have a working instrument with her (long saga, expensive and delicate instrument which seems to defy repair...).

Even though she's happy and surrounded by friends, I still fret at times. She had the Freshers' Flu last weekend and I only found out afterwards that she was more unwell than she's ever been in her life. I'm a medic with overprotective tendencies, and am used to being able to check her over/monitor her condition if she's ill. It's probably a good thing that I was unaware - I would have been fighting the urge to get on the next train to Oxford to do a clinical assessment....

I quite fancy joining a frisbee club. There's something very wholesome sounding about frisbee club.

Sounds great miss jellybeans! I feel so bad for last year's freshers. Get the need to know they are well!

It's amazing how we slowly let go. Im so much more relaxed now. And DD equally feels less need of me. Still speak most days though! Maybe only through text. 🙈

Hi. My DS is a first year at Oxford.
He is not, and never has been, a big talker/sharer.
I gather he has had freshers flu, but seems quite happy. He's been punting, to a club, and met his tutors.

I'll ask him if he's joined the Frisbee club

welcome houselikeashed :) It's great that your ds is happy, despite the inevitable germs.

DD arrived brewing a cold, suffered for the first week, had two days of relative health and now has full-on Freshers Flu, but she says 'At least I know where to buy paracetamol this time.'

Snap @FlyingSquid. My dd also has a full-on dose of freshers’ flu, along with nearly every other student she’s met! Feeling unwell and trying to get to grips with the huge volume of work has definitely been a challenge, but made easier by having made some friends and being lucky enough to have a very nice room in her college. to your dd for a quick recovery.

Well, we had a phone call on Saturday night! S2 texted earlier to ask if he could ring, which of course meant H spent the entire afternoon in a low-level worry that there was something wrong. There wasn't, it was just for a chat

He decided not to do the work for his first supervision until after the first lecture, and discovered that was the wrong decision . But it all got done (at the expense of first meeting of D&D Soc).

Put Fisher Building in his calendar without checking, and turned up at the right time to discover that there are two colleges with a Fisher Building and he'd gone to the wrong one... so ended up doing an on-line submission for the orchestra. Didn't get in but isn't too bothered and has joined brass band instead.

Has apparently been cooking (largely "chuck veg in saucepan, add protein, add rice, add sauce from a jar").

@merryhouse - is he at Cambridge? If it's the D&D group run by CURTS then DS is a core member! The society kept going online throughout the pandemic and also do Thursday evening pub nights.

I spoke to DS today. He "got married" at the weekend!!!

House just wait til they have kids...

Ironoaks Cambridge yes. S2 did say he had something on a Thursday but I think it was band.

Hi everyone - I've dipped in & out a bit - lovely to see the o/c maternity still going strong! DS has returned for final year after year abroad (languages) at Oxford - well, kind of year abroad as much as they could!! He & best mate got great rooms beside each other and he says they feel like 'extras in someone else's play' watching freshers week as they don't know last years' freshers either yet & feel a bit removed! He's v glad to be back though & think he felt a bit lost last year with all the uncertainty travelling about France & Germany when able & glad to get back into routine!! He's considering applying for work for Oxford Uni next year as year out & save up for Masters - anyone got any tips?

DD (fourth year, O) is still struggling with "freshers flu".
She came home last week on doctors orders following a persistently high temperature. Her symptoms got worse over the weekend (high heart rate, sickness) and she was admitted to the local hospital with dehydration. She is now back home on antibiotics, anti-sickness tablets and still feeling very unwell. She is negative for Covid and the assumption is that she had a 'flu virus - but not the one she was vaccinated against - and now has a tracheal infection.
Her college is aware and is keeping in touch with the rest of her house who all have or have had 'flu symptoms.

Dd too has had a dreadful germ. Negative for covid but she spent two days in bed with a temperature, aching and burning throat. She must be really ill to be missing out on things! She said the amount of coughing, spluttering and sneezing everywhere in the college and university would send me into hysterics - eek!

Can I join? DD has just started her first year at Cambridge, reading Economics. I was worried she might stay in her room and not engage with the social side of University and College life. But, fear not, she has joined Assassination Society... Yes, really. Oh dear. I dare say she is going to take this very seriously.

Bloody hell, @ofteninaspin, that sounds awful. What a start to the term.
DD has only had a mild version of one of the lurgies floating around Oxford so far, which hasn't restricted her too badly. Tested negative for Covid, and she's playing it safe by only attending larger gatherings if they were compulsory. Which I suspect might have been her preference in any event.
I remember that feeling as a fourth year languages student myself, @wannabebetter. It's very disconcerting to be back in a place you know, yet find most people have moved on and left strangers in their place.

DD has lurgy too, but not enough to prevent her from rowing at 6.30 this morning for making a guest appearance in a W2 uni sports team later today. She's asked for her old A level maths text books after a "I can't differentiate anymore" whatsapp. Second year econ has more maths, apparently.

I hope those who are unwell feel better soon.