Transcript of Premium Bonus 58 - Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to the British English Podcast. In today's episode, we're going to be experiencing Freshers Week through the eyes of my youngest cousin, who is in her first year of university. So the memory of Freshers Week is hopefully still fresh in her mind. If you didn't know, this week called Freshers Week is the first week of university for first-year students or as they say in the UK, a fresher. You are a fresher in your first year. In the US they are a freshman but we are freshers. So yes, here's how freshers week in 2024 went down for my cousin Tilly. Hello, Tilly.

Tilly:
Hello.

Charlie:
How are you?

Tilly:
I'm good thanks. How are you?

Charlie:
I'm very well. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this.

Tilly:
No worries.

Charlie:
You're no longer at your university right now. You're. Where are you in the world?

Tilly:
I'm in Guildford, at my home.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie:
So I've come to your your family home, and we're going to have a conversation about your experience up in Sheffield University. You're still a fresher. But you you're not in freshers Week. Have you recovered from freshers week?

Tilly:
I have recovered, yeah. Finally. Took a while but yeah.

Charlie:
Are you sad that freshers week is over?

Tilly:
Yeah I am actually I do miss freshers week but then at the same time it was going to have to end at some point. [Yes] it was not healthy.

Charlie:
Yes.

Charlie:
All good things come to an end. Yeah. Certainly not. Okay. Um, but let's go back to before freshers week. Were you assuming that you would go to university before?

Tilly:
Um, I wasn't going to uni until, I think a couple of months before I changed my mind, like really late last minute. So I was going to have a year out, but then I was like, no, I'll just go now. So yeah, it was a bit of a like a quick decision, but definitely the right decision for me.

Charlie:
I remember that, yeah, that was quite a pivot, wasn't it, because you were were you going to do some diving in Australia?

Tilly:
That was one of my plans at one point. And then I was planning on going to London and training in London, and then I changed my mind probably like five times like in the day. Um, but I'm very indecisive, but ended up with Sheffield Hallam because there's a good diving pool in Sheffield.

Charlie:
Right. And we should clarify, you do more than just a hobby of diving. You've competed since you were six, is that right?

Tilly:
Yeah.

Tilly:
Well I started when I was six.

Charlie:
You started? Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie:
You weren't on the podium at six. But you've been on the podium multiple times, right? Yeah. Winning first, second or third. Yeah.

Tilly:
Yeah, you could say that.

Charlie:
And how many medals do you own?

Tilly:
Oh I don't know. Like a lot of, like medals that don't really have much meaning but like important medals probably like 5 to 10.

Charlie:
5 to 10. Wow. I was thinking you would say fewer.

Tilly:
Probably five, actually. But like, I have, like a big bag of, like, loads of medals. Most of them are all like, small competitions.

Charlie:
are they like real metals? Like, are some of them actually made of gold?

Tilly:
Well no. Obviously not.

Charlie:
No?

Tilly:
I don't think so.

Charlie:
But the Olympics. They bite into the medal. [Yeah] To, like, indicate that it's real gold. I have no idea.

Tilly:
I don't know, actually, it's a good question to ask. I don't think they're actually gold. Surely not.

Charlie:
How rude would it be if they gave you it? And you're like, what this isn't real gold? Like if you bit into it and it broke or something. Um, but yeah. So diving, so diving into a swimming pool, doing all these flips and somersaults, that's kind of the same word, isn't it? {and twists} And twists. Yes. Okay. What got you into diving?

Tilly:
My older brother and sister, really. [Yes] So they were doing holiday courses and I was too young to do the holiday course. And obviously I want to do exactly what they're doing. [Yeah] So then finally when I turned six, I was able to do a holiday course. [Yeah] and then they were like, do you want to come into a squad? And I was like, yeah, sure.

Charlie:
And then you did it longer than your brother and sister. Yeah, yeah.

Tilly:
That was my aim to get better than Alfie and I've achieved that so I can quit now. [Yeah] Jokes, no but.

Charlie:
Did you ever have that in your mind? Like I want to be better than my family members. Was that. [Yeah] that was. Oh, that was genuine motivation.

Tilly:
Not like that wasn't like the main aim. But it got to that point where it got to, like, I could become better than Alfie. I was like, well, that's what I want to do!

Charlie:
Yeah, it makes sense. [Yeah] And it's interesting to have that ability as the youngest one to have that, okay, they've set the mark now I can excel because Alfie didn't have that. Well Abby, I suppose..

Tilly:
Abby wasn't really,,,

Charlie:
Yeah. No, she wasn't. Okay. Sorry. Abby.

Tilly:
Hope she's not listening. [Yeah]

Charlie:
Anyway. Okay, so, um, you're a diver. You found a degree that has diving or a good diving facility nearby kind of thing. So then you decided you're going to go to university. Let's talk about your emotions going towards freshers week. How did you feel?

Tilly:
I was definitely very scared. Not for freshers week but just scared for moving away from home. Like, I remember I cried a lot that last like couple weeks, like when I was saying goodbye to all my friends and stuff. That was really sad and thinking about like not living at home. That was definitely sad.

Charlie:
Why was that sad? Was that not exciting?

Tilly:
I remember I was, I was I'm getting on to that.

Charlie:
Okay, okay.

Tilly:
Sorry, but I was really sad. Like I was also leaving my family holiday earlier. So I was sad about that. But um, yeah, I was definitely sad, but very excited as well. I knew, I knew as soon as I got there I wouldn't be sad, but, I, like.. running up to it. I was definitely sad yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay, okay. Oh, interesting. I wasn't sad.

Tilly:
Really?

Charlie:
No.

Tilly:
I think mainly because I was like moving away from my friends and like we were. And that was just like, really sad to think about because, like, we spend every day together and then, then not anymore. And my mum and dad obviously.

Charlie:
And your mum and dad and your brother and sister.

Tilly:
Well they had already gone so that wasn't that.

Charlie:
Yeah. So you can't be sad for that. Yeah. Okay. I mean most humans will probably agree with you I. Yeah. So fair enough. So, um, sad but excited. Um, and then I think a very memorable moment is the drive up.

Tilly:
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I remember. I've got like loads of pictures on my Snapchat, like ahh going to Sheffield now, like with like all my stuff in the back.

Charlie:
Yeah, you have a lot to take, don't you?

Tilly:
I had way too much as well. And I got there a day late because I was coming from my holiday. So then, like, I met my flatmates when I got there and they were helping me, and it was very scary, that whole thing. And like, think, like saying goodbye to my mum was sad. But then literally as soon [what about your dad?]. Well, my dad wasn't there. I'd already said goodbye to my dad. [Okay] But yeah, the drive I remember, I think I was probably talking a lot to my mum because I was like trying not to think about it. Um, but yeah, it was scary.

Charlie:
What were your initial thoughts of Sheffield? Did you get to drive through?

Tilly:
I'd been to Sheffield quite a few times for diving competitions, but it's not the nicest of places. Like, it's not pretty, really. There's.. there's a lot of nice places in it. Um, but like, your first impression is like. Oh, it's a bit of a shithole, like. But, um..

Charlie:
Bit of a shithole, but you live in a very leafy part of the country. I was driving here today and going through very narrow lanes.

Tilly:
Yeah, countryside.

Charlie:
It's very farmy.

Tilly:
Very different. Yeah. And then going to a city. So. Yeah. It is different, but..

Charlie:
Big change. And then. So you were a day. They were. They all got there a day before you. [Yeah] So you got in there a little bit late. You probably had a good tan. Yeah. That probably helped your confidence a bit.

Tilly:
Definitely.

Charlie:
Yeah. Um all right. So how did you prepare for freshers Week? Were there any particular pieces of advice you received or things you did to get ready other than get a good tan?

Tilly:
That was definitely a big part. Um, I think I remember, like my whole TikTok for you page was filled with what to do for freshers week, like advice and stuff. So I definitely like watched a lot of TikToks on it. Also had my sister saying like what to do and everything.

Charlie:
Yeah, what what kind of things?

Tilly:
Telling you what to pack. Like telling you like not to get freshers freshers wristband and like all of that stuff.

Charlie:
What trying to stand, uh, sort of lean away from that mainstream kind of.

Tilly:
Yeah. Because apparently the freshers wristbands aren't worth it. I don't think they are, because, like, you never know where you're going to go. No one had the freshers wristband.

Charlie:
Really?

Tilly:
No.

Charlie:
So freshers is the first week of going to university, listeners. And this is a very exciting moment in in the UK typically for people who like to socialise and binge drink because yeah, you just get to have fun with lots of new people that you're probably going to spend three years with. Did you meet some of your friends that you still have now?

Tilly:
Yeah, I met two of my closest friends that I'm friends with now in freshers week. I knew one of them kind of from home. So then I met her and she was friends with this other girl, and now we're really close. So that was from freshers week. [Yeah] But I think Freshers week is definitely the place to make friends. Like everyone's in the same position, everyone's got no friends and is like in a new place that everyone's wanting to get friends.

Charlie:
Yeah. Was that a goal for you? Were you like, I've got to make a friend!

Tilly:
Well, yeah, I think I didn't want to be a loner, did I?

Charlie:
Yeah, but freshers week is the first week.

Tilly:
Yeah, but that's the week where, like, everyone's out every night, you know everyone's going to be out.

Charlie:
So did you have a pressure on yourself to be like, okay, I need to make a friend; like halfway through the night you're like, oh, I haven't made enough friends yet.

Tilly:
I don't think, I don't think that's what went through my mind.

Charlie:
Went to the toilet, like, okay, I've made three friends, need to make five by the night.

Tilly:
I don't think that's how it went. But I remember, like, I don't know, you just it's way easier to make friends than I thought it was going to be, to be honest. Because everyone's like, not in a group yet.

Charlie:
Yeah, everyone's looking desperate, [Yeah, exactly] as desperate as you to make a friend.

Tilly:
But please be friends with me. But, yeah.

Charlie:
I remember my mum packed way too much vegetables for me. Did you take any food?

Tilly:
I didn't take any, like, cooking food. I took salt and pepper and.

Charlie:
That's it?

Tilly:
No. Maybe some pasta. But that first week I did not eat very good. Like.

Charlie:
Yeah, I can imagine. What. What were your..?

Tilly:
Like, pot noodles?

Tilly:
A lot of pot noodles. A lot of like plain pasta. I don't think I introduced vegetables for like the next month, like, took me a while to cook vegetables.

Charlie:
Living like a pirate. Yeah, you could have got scurvy, but I didn't because I had lots of vegetables. That's good. That made me sort of stand out when I was picking up all the veg and putting it from the car into the room, I was like, who is this veg boy?

Tilly:
Everyone was like, I don't wanna be friends with him! He's got vegetables!

Charlie:
Errrr, vegetables. So no specific goals other than to make friends?

Tilly:
Yeah, I think, just to make friends. Like do as much as I could, see as, like meet as many new people.

Charlie:
Yeah. You've, um, you've told or you've, uh. I don't know if you've told me, but I've somehow found out that you're quite a heavy drinker.

Tilly:
What the hell? That's my mum saying that, she's so dramatic, though, because I'm literally not like.

Charlie:
But within your group, maybe at home. Would you say you're the biggest drinker? No.

Tilly:
No, I don't think so, actually. I think when I'm going out, I'm going out. Yeah, but like, because I have to sometimes miss going out for training and stuff. That's why I make it like a good night when I'm going out.

Charlie:
I'm out, guys, we got to go big. So you go big?

Tilly:
Not well, that sounds bad, but I just I just hate it when it gets to the point when I'm, like, in a club and I'm like, sober and I'm like, oh, I want to go home straight away. [right] So I just have to stay drinking. Oh my God, why have I got this name? What the hell?

Charlie:
And my question to that was, did you feel like you needed to prepare for Freshers week to have more of a tolerance to alcohol, or not at all?

Tilly:
I think. I didn't prepare. Probably should have prepared a bit more because I drank a lot more than I ever have before in freshers week. Like I've never gone out that much.

Charlie:
And this was off the back of a summer that you had two, maybe three.

Tilly:
Yeah, I had two girls. Wait, are you talking about girls' holidays? Yeah, to be fair, they were like.

Charlie:
And those are drinking holidays.

Tilly:
But freshers week is like, I don't know, it's a whole week. The others were like five days i went on for the girls holidays. But a whole week. And it's like you're pressured to go out like with new people. So you have to be drunk to make friends, really. Like that sounds bad, but like, it's so much easier to make friends when you're drunk. [Yeah] Not like drunk drunk. [Yeah obviously not] I'm proving the point now, aren't I?

Charlie:
No, I think it's it's good to be intoxicated in freshers week. I think you've got to be. Okay. So that was goals. Did you join any clubs?

Tilly:
Um, I joined cheerleading society.

Charlie:
Oh did you?

Tilly:
I did actually want to do cheerleading, but I can't do it like alongside diving, I didn't have any time, but. Yeah. Um, yeah, I did want to do cheerleading. So I'm.

Charlie:
You'd be good at cheerleading, being able to do your twists and turns.

Tilly:
Yeah, I did the tryouts and I got in, but then I was like, I can't do it because. but two of my, like, the two friends I made in freshers were doing that. And then I made some other friends through that, through cheerleading society. So that's good.

Charlie:
And just to pause on this cultural aspect, would you agree that this has bled over from America? Right. Cheerleading.

Tilly:
Yeah. Cheerleading. Yeah.

Charlie:
It's it's a thing from America from like American football. They have the big cheerleading with the pom poms. [Yeah] But in it is pom poms, isn't it?

Tilly:
There is one group that's pom pom, but most of them aren't.

Charlie:
Okay.

Charlie:
But we didn't really ever have that. It's a newer age thing. My generation maybe, and then your generation because your generation Z, Z, Gen Z, your Gen Z, do you like being Gen Z?

Tilly:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. I mean, you don't have a choice.

Tilly:
No.

Charlie:
Um, have you heard what other generations think of Gen Z?

Tilly:
We're very lazy, I think.

Charlie:
Lazy. [which is fair enough] Do you think you're lazy?

Tilly:
Yeah, probably. But, like, not lazy in a bad way. Just like using our energy for, like, better things.

Charlie:
I think each generation is before that generation is the one to blame. Like, yeah, we're all making the next generation, so we're all making life easier..

Tilly:
The next generation is going to be the worst generation.

Charlie:
You could look at it like that. But then again, I think it's kind of like an older sibling kind of thing. Like, oh, they're the youngest. They're the silliest generation maybe. Are they called Gen Alpha now?

Tilly:
Yeah I think they are.

Charlie:
Yeah. Do you have any Gen Alpha friends or are they all babies? When when were Gen Alpha born? 2010 onwards. When were you born?

Tilly:
2005.

Charlie:
Right. So five years younger than you is Gen Alpha, apparently.

Tilly:
Yeah, that's quite a lot younger.

Charlie:
So how does Freshers Week fit into your understanding of British university culture?

Tilly:
Yeah, definitely.

Charlie:
Yeah. It's I think it's why you go.

Tilly:
Exactly. It's like just to have a piss-up with your friends really isn't it?

Charlie:
Was it quite sad to finish freshers week?

Tilly:
Yeah.

Tilly:
I think at that point I was like, I'm glad it's over because I can't do another night and you just restrict it down to like a couple of days of the week instead.

Charlie:
Yes, yes. Wise. Very wise. Um, well let's talk about the actual experience in freshers week. So, um, can you walk us through your first day of freshers week and what stood out to you?

Tilly:
Okay. I arrived on a Sunday.

Charlie:
Yeah. Did you go out that night?

Tilly:
Just went to Spoons with my flat.

Charlie:
With your flat? That's quite cute. [Well, yeah] So the fresher reps did you have fresher reps?

Tilly:
I don't think so.

Charlie:
No? Because my university was quite well established for freshers week and they had loads of like, yeah, reps going around the halls.

Tilly:
Oh yeah. Actually now I think about it, we had freebie fairs and they were giving like loads of like free shots and free entry and stuff.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay. [Yes]

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Did you, were you in, are you in um halls?

Tilly:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah okay. And did people come round and encourage you to go to certain places throughout the city on certain nights of freshers week?

Tilly:
They didn't come round to us. [No?] But like you could see it through like Instagram. If you followed the right Instagrams, then they'd say like, this is the good night for this place and stuff.

Charlie:
Okay, okay. So they didn't encourage you in the halls, so you went out for a nice little meal with your friends at the Spoons or just [no just drink] just drinks?

Tilly:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Just drinks. Did you eat at all that day?

Tilly:
My mum probably made me have some pasta before I went out, I'm sure.

Charlie:
Good.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay. So that was a quiet start.

Tilly:
Yeah.

Tilly:
Monday was when it actually started, so I'm pretty sure there was a freebie fair. I don't know if that was on the Monday, but there's definitely during the freshers week.

Charlie:
Freebie fair sounds a bit like actually thinking about your education.

Tilly:
No, it was like it was during the day. So it wasn't at night. It was. You just went to this random building and there was loads of like stalls like free Amazon Prime subscription for six months and stuff free, um, like Domino's Slice or Domino's. Um, and then they just sign you up to all their emails and then you just get loads of emails from them.

Charlie:
Oh, fun. And they never stop. Yeah. Did you sign up to Domino's?

Tilly:
Yeah, obviously. Obviously I think we did a pres at our flat. So we put on like the group chat for our whole accommodation like pres at our flat - flat 69 like kind of iconic.

Charlie:
Oh God.

Tilly:
And then so everyone came.

Charlie:
You need to explain that.

Tilly:
No!

Charlie:
I'll do it in the resources. Um, so pres means pre-drinks. So you're having drinks before your drinks. [Yeah] Yeah. Drinks before you go out to a public place to pay for drinks. [Yeah] So you bring your own drinks. Did you provide any drinks for them?

Tilly:
No.

Charlie:
No, it's a BYO pre-drinks.

Tilly:
Yeah, yeah.

Tilly:
Bring your own.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tilly:
Definitely.

Charlie:
And what kind of drinks are you consuming in that environment?

Tilly:
I think I had a lot of vodka squash, vodka, squash, vodka, squash and water.

Charlie:
Oh, okay. God.

Tilly:
Yeah. It's so good though, because it keeps you hydrated as well. Less of a hangover the next day.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah, I suppose that's quite good.

Tilly:
I kind of got sick of that quite quick. So I went to just like a bottle of rosé.

Charlie:
a Bottle of rosé.

Tilly:
£3.75 from Tesco.

Charlie:
And good quality?

Tilly:
I don't care - 11%.

Charlie:
Yeah, this takes me back. So we used to buy two bottles of white wine for £5 and they were the strongest percent. And that's what you cared about, wasn't it? It is what you care about. Um, the guys do they drink a lot of the two litre cider bottles? Did they bring that at all?

Tilly:
Yeah, they had a lot of cider. I think, also vodka, but they more stick to like the ciders and the beer.

Charlie:
Okay. Rosé for you. Yeah.

Tilly:
And vodka squash.

Charlie:
And what do you think that says about you to have a bottle of rosé? Are you..

Tilly:
Everyone was drinking that.

Charlie:
Have you got a glass?

Tilly:
No. [Ha!] No. I just wanted to get it down as quick as I could before I got out.

Charlie:
Yeah. So you're just going around your dorm holding the neck of a rosé bottle and swigging it again like a pirate?

Tilly:
Yeah, you could say that.

Charlie:
Yeah. What do you think the people think of you?

Tilly:
I think they think I'm a normal uni student.

Charlie:
Yeah, [Yeah] yeah. Oh, look. Yeah, she's got a rose. Normal. No glass, no need. Okay, so you had pres at yours. Did that go down well?

Tilly:
It went well.

Charlie:
Made any friends there?

Tilly:
Uh, I didn't really make that many friends from my accommodation. Like, it's weird because it's, like, really out of the centre. [Yeah] So I chose it because it's, like, literally five minute walk from the diving pool, [Ah I see] and all the other accommodations are more like closer to the centre, like on the other side of Sheffield. But this one's like quite out.

Charlie:
So you made a logical decision to choose this accommodation, and the other people around you didn't logically think about the reason why, aka weirdos.

Tilly:
Yeah.

Charlie:
So that's good though that your flat are all right.

Tilly:
We actually got quite lucky with our flat.

Charlie:
Um, because that can be a real problem for a lot of people.

Tilly:
Yeah. Not many people. I thought that would be where most people make their friends, like through their flat. But most like all of my friends in my, like, closer group now don't get on with their flat, really. Like, not that they like have fallen out. They just like, don't really talk to them, [Yeah] which is kind of sad.

Charlie:
Yeah, that is sad. I had quite a good group, but there was one girl that really wasn't into the whole freshers week kind of thing, and I brought a guitar, an electric guitar and an amp and I used to come home and play it.

Tilly:
Oh my gosh. You're that guy.

Charlie:
She would, she would come through and just slam my door shut because I thought I was doing a service to the flat for entertaining them.

Tilly:
At like 4 a.m. I love that, Charlie's back!

Tilly:
Listen to this Guns and Roses. Um, and then she was very protective over her kitchenware. Like, she was like, do not use my pan. I mean, that's fair enough, isn't it? It was a good pan. Still used it [really good pan]. Yeah. Okay. So that was day one. What were some of the key events or activities you participated in during the week, and which did you enjoy the most?

Tilly:
I'm pretty sure my my favourite thing during freshers week was Bongo's Bingo. Have you ever done Bongo's Bingo?

Charlie:
No you.

Tilly:
Haven't.

Charlie:
Bongo's bingo.

Tilly:
Oh my God, it's so good. Basically, I'm pretty sure that was on the Wednesday. Basically, you stand like loads of, like tables. You sit down on tables and then you have your bingo sheet, and then they call out the numbers and everything. And then in between, like every round, like everyone gets up and dances and sings and like if like a I don't know, like if 33 is red, like they'll play the Irish song and everyone gets up and dances [in 33].

Charlie:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Just because..

Tilly:
33 (in Irish accent). [Okay] And um, there was like two men dressed as, like girls like on the stage, like in skirts and like, braids and like, it's just really weird, but, like, so fun. And then there's, like, prizes if you win and if, if you, like, say you got bingo, but you didn't get bingo, everyone boos you. So it's like, oh my God, it's a big deal. I can't believe I've never done Bongo's Bingo.

Charlie:
No no no no. We yeah. Bingo wasn't a thing. I took Stacey to a gala bingo night. The first date we had.

Tilly:
Really?

Charlie:
That was our first date.

Tilly:
Was it like, filled with old grannies?

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah, it was a very strange decision. And it didn't lead to success. The second date was better, but, um. Bongo's Bingo. You highly recommend this?

Tilly:
Highly recommend. Like. I want to go back.

Charlie:
Yeah. Could you not go on a weekly basis?

Tilly:
No, it was only there like that week. They go. They go like on tours I think. [Oh] So they've released their tour dates actually recently. But there's no Sheffield on it.

Charlie:
Oh no.

Charlie:
Could you go to like Nottingham?

Tilly:
Yeah, probably.

Charlie:
Travel for Bongo's Bingo.

Tilly:
I would travel, I would travel far.

Charlie:
I can tell.

Tilly:
Honestly. It's so fun.

Charlie:
Um, can we talk about the games that you play around drinking? Because that's very specific to British culture.

Tilly:
Yeah. You play Ring of Fire.

Charlie:
Yeah, that's still a thing. Nice. Okay, so what is Ring of Fire?

Tilly:
Basically, you have all your cards like a deck of cards in a circle.

Charlie:
And what's the aim of the game of all of these drinking games? What's the aim?

Tilly:
There's not really an aim. It's just to not drink, I guess. But then everyone wants to drink.

Charlie:
Yeah. So the aim is to get intoxicated quickly in a fun way.

Tilly:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Um, and to avoid losing, I guess, at the same time.

Tilly:
Yeah. Because there is a loser and.

Charlie:
Yes, yes in Ring of Fire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that person gets very drunk. So you kind of got to get a bit involved but not be the loser. [Yeah] Okay. So Ring of Fire, you get a pack of cards.

Tilly:
So they're all like face down in a circle. And all the different numbers like mean something different. So like, for example, King means pour a bit of your drink into the middle.

Charlie:
And the middle is there's [a cup] usually you put like a cup or if you're adventurous, you put a boot or a kettle.

Tilly:
You could. Yeah.

Charlie:
Or something disgusting.

Tilly:
Yeah. And then like it ends up filling with like wine, beer, vodka. Someone has some.

Charlie:
Rosé.

Tilly:
Yeah, yeah that's wine isn't it.

Charlie:
Yes, yes. It's true. You got me.

Tilly:
And then the last person to pull the last king has to drink that. So then, that's rough.

Charlie:
Yes. That's, that's horrible. [Yeah] Uh, have you had that? Have you had to do that?

Tilly:
I have once. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. Did you go home early?

Tilly:
No. [No?] Because I'm a soldier.

Charlie:
Yeah. You're one of the biggest drinkers of your group. Proof! We have come to the end of part one, so feel free to take a break from your listening practice, but if you're happy to keep going, then we're now moving on to part two of this episode. Thanks so much for being a premium or Academy member and enjoy the rest of the show. So that's Ring of Fire.

Charlie:
Others?

Tilly:
There's like games you can get on your phone now that like are drinking games. So it's like 'who's most likely to' you could do. But like that's not very good at the beginning.

Charlie:
'Who's the most likely' oh you're trying to guess within the group [Yeah] to agree on who's the most chatty or who's the most annoying. [Yeah] And you vote. Yeah okay. That makes sense. But yes. Not good for freshers week.

Tilly:
No. Because you don't know anyone.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tilly:
Um, another one is called like, Ride the Bus. I don't know if you've ever done that?

Charlie:
Maybe.

Tilly:
It's basically just one person and you like. I don't really know how to describe it. You lay out four cards and then four, four, four, and then you have to say one number. And then if that number gets turned over or if it's a royal, you have to drink and then it keeps going back, but you basically just drinking a lot like.

Charlie:
Okay, um, so it's a card game again. Ring of fire. We said one of the card rules, but there's actually, I suppose, [for all of them, yeah] Yeah. 13 different mini-games within the big game. [Yeah] One of them I really liked was Snake Eyes. Is that still a thing?

Tilly:
I've never heard of that one.

Charlie:
That was if you get it then you have the ability to make anyone drink if they look at you in the eye.

Tilly:
Oh that's good. Everyone plays it differently, but we play it like ace is. Make a rule so you can make that rule as one of the rules. [Yes] Or you can make any other rule. And then if they do it you drink.

Charlie:
And is the other one that I liked 'arrogance' a thing? That's where you name a category like a car brand or something. And then you say, I can name two car brands and then three, four, five, six. It goes around the circle and then finally the person before you says 'challenge' if they.. If you don't think they can name 12 and it [that sounds good], if they can't then they down it. [Yeah] So that's not been part of your.

Tilly:
No I've never had that okay.

Charlie:
But yeah lots of mini games. Yeah yeah okay. One more game. It's American but do you play flip cup? Flip cup is the one on the edge.

Tilly:
Oh yeah I've never played that at uni.

Charlie:
Oh that's good. Oh you've played it.

Tilly:
I played it. Yeah. But like that's not like our go-to I feel, I feel like there's not really like cups because everyone just like you see what people are drinking [you've just got a bottle] like you just. Yeah. Either they're drinking out the bottle or they take someone's, like mug from their cupboard. [Yeah] Like so.

Charlie:
Yeah. No one's got money to buy red cups from a supermarket. Is everyone feeling broke at this stage?

Tilly:
No. Everyone's, like, high on life. Like you don't think about the money yet.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tilly:
And then it hits you and it's like, oh.

Charlie:
Has it hit you?

Tilly:
Uh, yeah, a couple times, but like, sometimes it's not that bad. It's all right.

Charlie:
Sometimes I ring mummy.

Tilly:
Yeah. I actually haven't asked my mum for money.

Charlie:
She just telepathically knows. Yeah. It's my birthday soon. Um, okay. Did you face any challenges or moments of discomfort during freshers week and how did you manage them?

Tilly:
We talked about like cooking for our own for myself, that was rough during freshers week. Like you actually have to cook for yourself, look after yourself when you're not feeling very good.

Charlie:
Would you say that you were quite independent before going?

Tilly:
Uh, yeah, I was, but I also definitely relied on my mum and dad. Like a lot.

Charlie:
Um, because you're the youngest. Alfie's a very good cook. Are you good at cooking?

Tilly:
Um, I definitely wasn't before uni. I've gotten better, but I wouldn't say I'm a good cook, but I just can cook some things.

Charlie:
If you had to impress somebody, what would be your..?

Tilly:
I'd do like a chilli con carne. [Okay] I've really been into chilli con carne recently.

Charlie:
Or fajitas. Uh, yeah. Lovely. Yeah. Fair enough. Um, okay, so it was a challenge to look after yourself at uni cooking-wise.

Tilly:
Especially during freshers week, because it's like you're hungover, like you don't want to get out of bed. You just. But then you need to eat. You're hungry. But..

Charlie:
Um, some non-natives listening to this might think that you go to university in this week of the first week of university, but, um, from my understanding, from my memory as well, there was absolutely no..

Tilly:
Well, I thought there was going to be nothing. But during my freshers week, we had to go in for like induction things, which really surprised me because I wasn't expecting to go into uni at all. But then we had to go in for like, uh, like you go in and you meet your course leader and your course mates and everything. So, um, we did that during freshers week.

Charlie:
so there's no real learning, but it's getting to know who's going to teach you.

Tilly:
Yeah. And you get told, like what you're going to get taught.

Charlie:
Yeah. And what are you doing?

Tilly:
Marketing with psychology.

Charlie:
Marketing with psychology. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Feeling good about it so far?

Tilly:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Nice. Nice.

Tilly:
At the moment. I'll probably change.

Charlie:
Yeah. I'll ask you in a year. How did Freshers Week help you start to integrate into the university community? Are there moments or events that significantly contributed to feeling more at home at university?

Tilly:
I think during freshers week I didn't really have time to think about missing home, so I basically just felt at home straight away because.

Charlie:
Oh..

Tilly:
Don't know, you don't have time to think like I'm missing home. Yeah, because you're just caught up in it all, you know? [Yeah] Um, uh, what was the beginning of the question?

Charlie:
How did it help you start to integrate into university community?

Tilly:
Well, there was this thing we had this app called unify, which basically, like connects you with all of your coursemates, your flatmates, like everyone in your accommodation.

Charlie:
Oh that's good. So a bit like because we use Facebook groups I think.

Tilly:
Yeah. Then it was there was a lot on Facebook as well. But it always took you to this app and it was really good. I remember I was literally obsessed with it at the beginning. I was like, I need to find everyone in my flat and everyone in my course. Um, it did help, definitely, because I found all my flatmates through that, um, before, so we could all, like, chat before we actually.

Charlie:
Oh that's good.

Tilly:
Met and same with my coursemates. So I did meet up with a couple of my coursemates before we actually started at uni. So yeah, that was good.

Charlie:
Okay, so you feel like you've got a good community already.

Tilly:
Yeah, I'd say yeah.

Charlie:
Nice. Nice. Do you miss home much when you're there? Like not in freshers week later on.

Tilly:
It gets, it goes through phases like you go through I don't know it just like every couple of months you're like hit with it like oh I really wish I was at home. Like I really miss the dogs and my mum and dad.

Charlie:
Oh. Do you Sookie and Ruby, they don't strike me as like cuddling on the sofa kind of dogs.

Tilly:
See, they would be if my mum let them on the sofa.

Charlie:
Ah yeah.

Tilly:
But Ruby does sometimes. But then she'll get told off if she's up there.

Charlie:
Um, it sounds quite rude, but what do you miss about them?

Tilly:
What do you mean? I just miss, like, coming home and there being doggies that are [yapping] happy to see you.

Tilly:
Yeah, yeah, but they don't yap that much when it's me. They just. Because it's you.

Charlie:
Yeah. Stranger, stranger danger.

Tilly:
Like I missed, like throwing the ball for Ruby. Like. That's so cute.

Charlie:
Yeah. That's fun. Yeah, but you don't get to cuddle them.

Tilly:
But we do.

Charlie:
You do? Where do you cuddle... like out in the garden?

Tilly:
No. Like when they're in their beds. I will sometimes just, like, go in.

Charlie:
You'll go in their bed?

Tilly:
Yeah. I will shower after. Look at her. How can you possibly say..?

Charlie:
I'm not saying they're not cute. I'm just saying that I'm new to owning dogs. And we've got, uh, Poppy the sausage dog, and she's a little one that you can have on your lap.

Tilly:
Yeah. Well, Suki likes to go on a lap, like, if I if I went back now and I asked her to come up, she would just come and sit on my lap.

Charlie:
Oh, that's quite cute.

Tilly:
But, um, they're not that cuddly. Ruby is more cuddly than Suki, but it's more just like. Like, I don't know, just them being around. It's just having dogs it's just makes life [companions] so much better.

Charlie:
Yeah. So you miss the dogs from time to time in Sheffield, but diving is a big part of your life there. When did that kind of start to kick in?

Tilly:
It started on the first week, to be honest.

Charlie:
Oh. What? Freshers?

Tilly:
Yeah, well, the pool was shut at that point, so we were just doing like dry land and I was doing it with like.

Charlie:
What does that mean?

Tilly:
Sorry. Um, basically just like conditioning stuff, like a lot of cardio, which I was not used to. And having like a night out before doing, like, a lot of running was hard. Um, and like trampoline and boards onto, like, mats and stuff like that.

Charlie:
Oh, okay. What about the, uh, gymnastic, uh, foam pits? Do you use them?

Tilly:
We don't have one in Sheffield. Some clubs have them. They're not that common. They're not really that useful.

Charlie:
Are they not useful?

Tilly:
Well they are, but like, it's like quite similar to just going into the pool isn't it?

Charlie:
Oh I see.

Tilly:
And also my actual coach wasn't there, so that was quite good. So I could kind of go a bit easier. And then it started kicking in I think like two weeks after I got there, that's when my squad got back. And then I was training like full time in the pool as well. Um.

Charlie:
You've got a full-on schedule from this point onwards?

Tilly:
Yeah, but I quite liked it.

Charlie:
We have come to the end of part two now. So again, feel free to pause the episode, to take a break from your listening practice and come back to the last part when you're ready. All right. So moving on to part three now, enjoy!

Charlie:
Yeah, because we were chatting over Easter and you said that you've got nine lectures a week, roughly.

Tilly:
Nine hours.

Charlie:
Nine hours of lectures. [6 actualy things] Or 9 hours. Yeah. [Nine hours yeah] okay. Yeah. In university. And I think that was similar for me. So just, um, commenting on what to expect if people were coming to UK for university. You'd have typically that many hours of lectures in the first year.

Tilly:
But that changes a lot for like different courses, I feel [okay]. The harder courses are a lot more hours.

Charlie:
What's a harder course in your opinion?

Tilly:
My friend Leon, who did mechanical engineering. That was like, [that sounds hard a lot]a lot more like maybe like 15 to 20 hours or something.

Charlie:
Oh yeah. Yes. That's true. Yeah yeah, yeah. But the marketing psychology, those kind of things, most people didn't go to all of them. And how many how many do you go to?

Tilly:
You didn't need to bring this up again, did you?

Charlie:
It's for the audience. It's not for your mum.

Tilly:
I was quite good at the first semester, I went [oh we're talking that bit] to quite a lot. Yeah, and now not so much..

Charlie:
It's okay. You're busy with diving. You've got an excuse.

Tilly:
Exactly, it's not like I'm just at home.

Charlie:
No, um.

Tilly:
And I could catch up so easily. So. But yeah, at the beginning I was quite a lot.

Charlie:
How many now?

Tilly:
Now?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tilly:
Really?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tilly:
Are you asking that?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tilly:
Um, well, I didn't go to any last week. [Any?] No. Um, the week before I went to about, probably like three hours out of the nine.

Charlie:
Three hours of the nine. Yeah. So I would I would sometimes do similar kind of things. And I'm saying that because it's it may be interesting for people who are coming to the UK to understand that Brits don't really go to their lectures that much.

Tilly:
Especially first year.

Charlie:
Especially first year. Um, you only need to pass your first year. It doesn't carry on to the grade at the end. So just as long as you don't fail, that's all you need to do. Um, obviously parents don't like hearing this, so you try to avoid telling your parents, I'll be sure to send this...

Tilly:
But then they have 'Find My iPhone' on so they can see!

Charlie:
Oh, oh, is that an agreed upon situation for you? I would not accept that. I don't think at uni. I mean, I'm not.

Tilly:
There's nothing that bad, like I don't.

Charlie:
Yeah, but you're at home. Like, could they not be like why aren't you at uni?

Tilly:
Yeah. They still have it on. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. That's why I would not like that.

Tilly:
But they're not gonna like do anything about it are they?

Charlie:
What are you gonna do?

Tilly:
Literally. Also they don't know what my timetable is.

Charlie:
Oh I see, yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. 'Darling, you haven't moved for 17 hours.

Tilly:
She keeps asking me please send me my timetable. I'm like wait to the end of time now. There's no point.

Charlie:
Okay, so let's go on to reflections and looking forward. Um, reflecting on freshers week, what do you think was your biggest takeaway or lesson learned from the experience?

Tilly:
I think it's hard to from my opinion, it's hard to make friends if you're not going out in freshers week. It's like the people who I saw who like didn't go out as much now don't really have many friends. Like it's where you make your friends really. And I think yeah, that just helps a lot going out in freshers week.

Charlie:
Yes. Do you think going through the chaos of the socialising with alcohol helps you bond with people because you've seen them in their worst and they've seen you at your worst? [Yeah also] And so you already know what the worst of that person is.

Tilly:
Yeah, true. Also like you're just way more it's so easy to talk to someone you don't know when you've had a bit of a drink. It's actually sounding like I'm an alcoholic.

Charlie:
No this show is just like 'drink alcohol!'.

Tilly:
No, you don't have to drink alcohol even. [Good] But like, just like going out and like and being around people who have drunk alcohol will make you, like, feel like you have basically. And then you can make friends.

Charlie:
Yeah. And there's 0% drinks now that I think give you the placebo enough to make you feel like you're drinking.

Tilly:
Oh, actually, if I was given a drink, a 0% wine, I don't know if I'd.. it would be interesting.

Charlie:
I can tell the difference! Give me my real rosé. So your biggest takeaway is to dig deep in freshers and make some friends?

Tilly:
Yeah, just go to everything. Like. Say yes to everything. Definitely.

Charlie:
Uh, is there anything you wish you had known before Freshers Week began or something you would have done differently?

Tilly:
Um, probably. To be fair, I could have gone out with different people during freshers week. Like, I think once I found like some friends I liked, I just stuck with them. [Yes.] And I could have definitely like branched out a bit more. But then at the end of the day, like I knew I liked those girls, I don't know why I would. Mhm. I don't know, I probably could have like gone out with different people.

Charlie:
Have you, have you made a quite a strong clique within that group of girls. [Yeah] Does it, do they stand out within, was it halls or year or?

Tilly:
Um well one of them I met cos I already knew from home kind of. But I never really spoken to her. And then she had friends then. And then I also went out my flat quite a lot, which was good. But I didn't like that as much as going out with the girls that I'd met. So I just like, gradually just went to them.

Charlie:
Yeah, but you're still friends with your flatmates.

Tilly:
Yeah, yeah. Go with different groups, go with different rather than just sticking to the same.

Charlie:
That's good advice. Yeah, that's really good advice. Yeah. Go with different groups even though you feel like you've found your comfort zone. Branch out early on and then you can go to what you like. Yeah. Nice.

Tilly:
Another thing would be like look out for people because when you're in that first week, like you don't have, like you don't necessarily have someone to look after you to like get home and stuff.

Charlie:
Right.

Tilly:
But, you know, like, if I was going out in home, I'd like if I saw someone on the road, I'd just expect them to just have someone waiting for them. Whereas if I'm at uni, especially during freshers week, they probably don't have anyone to like because like the amount of people I saw, like on the side of the road, like by the end of the night and like had no one to like get them home or anything and they were like black out. So we had like one time we had to actually, uh, walk this boy all the way back to his accommodation, even though it was like the opposite direction to us, because he was just on his own and we were like, we can't just really let him. So yeah, I'd say like.

Charlie:
I can't remember what we called them. I think something angels of the night. But people were paid to go out and look after people like, like fresher reps kind of thing. [Yeah] And they had angels on their.

Tilly:
That's nice.

Charlie:
Not real angel wings like the just the t shirt said Angel, bit less...

Tilly:
Would have been better if they had wings..

Charlie:
Yeah, it would have been.

Charlie:
Uh, so you were an angel for that that one guy.

Tilly:
I was an angel.

Charlie:
Nice, nice. Did you have to have that [No] reciprocated?

Tilly:
No, because I always stuck with someone who I knew I was going home with. I wasn't silly.

Charlie:
You're my blackout bitch.

Tilly:
Yeah, literally. It's like, just in case. Like you will walking home with me.

Charlie:
Very good. Okay. Well, that's. Yeah, that's the end of the list of questions. Anything else that you'd like to add about your university experience so far? Not necessarily freshers.

Tilly:
Um, I think it dies down. Like the drinking dies down a bit. Like everyone gets a bit bored of it.

Charlie:
Yeah, ride the wave while you can, if you want that.

Tilly:
Make the most of it. But then I say that and people still go out a lot, like, just throughout the whole of first year. But I definitely stopped a lot, like. [Yeah?] yeah.

Charlie:
How often are you going out now?

Tilly:
Only like once a week now.

Charlie:
Once a week? [Yeah] okay.

Tilly:
Just on like a Saturday because every morning I have training the next day and it's like I can't really be going out.

Charlie:
Yeah. That's hard. How many hours are you doing diving [training] now? Yeah training.

Tilly:
27.

Charlie:
Jesus.

Tilly:
Yeah, it's quite a lot.

Charlie:
Yeah, it's a lot. What's the aim? Olympics?

Tilly:
Yeah, I'd say that's. Yeah. That would be my goal.

Charlie:
Which is the which is what year are we in for the Olympics?

Tilly:
It's an Olympic year now [Okay] which is in Paris. And then the next one is in LA I think.

Charlie:
Oh is that your target? LA Olympics?

Tilly:
Yeah I'd say!

Charlie:
Here we come. What do people do after winning the Olympics?

Tilly:
Well actually that's quite a big thing. Like everyone gets quite depressed after going to the Olympics. [Really?] Because especially if you've, like, trained your whole life to go to the Olympics. And a lot of people don't do university or any college and stuff, so they don't really have anything else. And obviously diving is not going to get you that far. It doesn't pay you well. It doesn't really get you like much of a big name. So other than like Tom Daley. Um, so yeah, once people quit, a lot of people have said like they get really depressed and don't know what to do.

Charlie:
Is that the plan?

Tilly:
Well, that's why I'm at uni. That's literally why I've gone to uni to avoid that.

Charlie:
Good idea. Good idea. Yeah.

Charlie:
But yeah. Okay. La Olympics.

Tilly:
God.

Charlie:
Best of luck. See you in 2028! I'll come out for that.

Tilly:
Really? [Yeah, yeah] Oh, thanks.

Charlie:
Yeah, that'll be good.

Charlie:
All right. Thank you very much, Tilly. [no worries] Thank you very much, guys, for listening to the end of this. See you soon on the British English Podcast. Bye bye, Tilly. See ya. There we go. The end of part three. Meaning the end of the episode. Well done for getting through the entirety of it. Make sure you use all of the resources available to you in your membership. Thanks once again for supporting the show and I look forward to seeing you next time on the British English Podcast.