The view from the other side…

It’s strange coming back to Cardiff and seeing Freshers’ Week from the other side, in particular the stuff that the Christian Union and Navigators are putting on. I’ve begun to realise the blood, sweat and tears that goes into a fortnight of activities!

Last week I was helping with the events put on for International Students – helping to carry their bags, handing out flyers, helping with social events in the evening. When I arrived in Cardiff this was my first contact with the Christian Union, so it was strange to realise that I’m now exactly one year on from that point. A lot has changed, not least all the friendships that have formed from that point of knowing nobody.

At the weekend, I went away on the Navigators weekend away up to a bunkhouse near Brecon. (Amusingly, the Students’ Union thought that the Navs are an orienteering group, and so rather than giving us the standard budget for religious societies regardless of size in the name of “fairness”, we got a bit more than the Christian Union despite being much smaller!) We had a great time looking at the Bible together, discussing the year ahead and just chatting and enjoying each other’s company. Unfortunately, I lost my mobile phone, probably while on the walk up in the hills. As we were leaving, Phil was saying that it still might turn up, to which Dean replied “Oooh yes, a friendly squirrel is going to come along and hand it in!” So I’m not holding much hope for it turning up! But amazingly, just last week I copied all the numbers in my phone into a notebook for safe-keeping. Blimey, I must be becoming organised or something. Wait, no, a brief glance at my room puts paid to that idea!

It’s been great returning to Mackintosh Evangelical Church and receiving a warm welcome there, and renewing the friendships I have in that fellowship. I really enjoyed the harvest thanksgiving evening service on Sunday evening. It was a great time of sharing what we are thankful for, and I found Philip Fayer’s talk, looking at principles of thanksgiving from the Old Testament law, interesting and helpful. And it was fun chatting about stuff like “why aren’t there any British superheroes?” in Shot in the Dark café afterwards with Philip, Claire, Dave, Peter and whatshername (apologies! Her name has slipped my mind).

My main contribution to the CU’s proceedings has been designing, editing and writing the Christian Union Freshers’ Magazine. I’ve spent many an hour chasing various CUites for information on their plans for Freshers’ Week and beyond and for their contributions to the publication, and writing material myself and putting it all together in Microsoft Publisher. But finally my work paid off, as the finished product rolled off the presses on Monday afternoon! (Or at least, off the university photocopiers). I’m pleased with the finished product, apart from a few typos and a few bits of information I haven’t been able to get, most notably details of the Welsh CU’s meetings this year. The other thing I was slightly disappointed about was the prohibitive cost of having the cover printed in colour, and so having to have it in black and white on coloured paper. But the finished item looks pretty smart, even if I do say so myself, and I think that design-wise is a definite improvement on last year’s version. If you want to have a look at it, you can download a compressed PDF version of the magazine, though it is still a fairly large file at almost 700kb.

I’ve also been settling in to my new home with my housemates, all of whom have now moved in, and doing social stuff like going to Bev’s birthday party and going out in to Lloyd’s bar with my housemates, and other fun stuff… Tomorrow I’ll be on the Freshers’ Stalls of both Navigators and the CU at different points, as well as going up to Tal-y-Bont to enroll. And I’m trying to get hold of the Debating Society to discuss some of my ideas about doing some of the “big questions” stuff under the umbrella of the Debating society activities.

So I’ve been, and continue to be, pretty busy. Have I started getting ready for my studies yet? Hahahahahahaha.