Move in day-YOUR experiances

In my experience it was a mixture of extreme excitement about leaving home, meeting new people, having my independence etc. But I was also so nervous about whether I'd get on with my flatmates, would I like my course, would I make friends, could I look after myself, would I be ok away from my friends/family etc. All the basic university worries.

In my University I lived in the on campus student village. There were 15 blocks of apartments each housing abour 50-60 students and lined along the main university road. Like a village. I wasn't allowed to move in until 3pm in the afternoon so I had all morning to get worked up and nervous.
Luckily I had met all 5 of my housemates online through the University facebook page and a flat mate finder which the University had set up. So I wasn't as nervous as some people, as I at least knew a bit about my flatmates and had talked to some of them for a while.

When I arrived I was given my keys and headed up to my apartment. My legs were like jelly! I was quickly greeted by an over friendly family and one of my flatmates. I think the whole day is so daunting that meeting them for the first time isn't that scary. At least you have moving in and your parents there for a bit of a distraction. (If the conversation got awkward you could just pretend to go and help your parents with something. )

We hauled everything up the stairs and they helped me unpack. All the while I was greeting more flatmate parents and having awkward quick conversations with my new flatmates. To make matters worse one of them was incredibly attractive and his mum kept making jokes about candle lit dinners to me etc. I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed. (He is now my 'best friend' though, so all's good.) By the time our parents had left we all decided to sit in the corridor and bond. It was really nice and we all found that we had a lot in common. Some people love it when their parents leave, others freak out a tad. Just take a bit of time to relax and then go and have fun!

We cooked our own individual teas and being such a fantastic cook I set the fire alarm off. Although it was a good way to meet the neighbours and we were known as the 'fire starters', everyone knew of our flat thereafter, even if we did get a bit of a beating from the security guards.

Then the alcohol was brought out as was the music and we all started to loosen up.
We pulled out a game of twister (I advise people to bring this to university, it's amazing.) and had lots of drunken laughs and many tangled limbs. We had decide earlier that evening to not go out clubbing and stay in and get to know each other..But me being me and drunk, at 11.30pm I suggested that we should be good freshers and go out. So we did. At 12.30pm we arrived at a club, all sticking together like glue and looking like startled rabbits. The drink flowed and soon we were all breaking out our best dance moves on the floor. You get to learn a lot about your flatmates in such a short time. It was quite a drunken blur involving a lot of men grinding against you (yes they take advantage of freshers) lots of cheap alcohol, and many laughs. We also attempted to steal a duck on the way home.. The next day we all lounged in the living area and made jokes about the night before and the antics that occurred.

The next night the flat opposite us invited us over and we all went out together. A big pack of 26 of us, who are all now still friends and go out 3 times a week with each other.

I love my flatmates and I am living with all of them again for my second year. They are like my second family!

All I can advise you freshers to do is to just make the most of it. Be yourself and talk to as many people as possible. Sure you may never speak to them again after freshers, or on the other hand they might become your best friends. Bonding and inviting over other hall mates is a great way to make friends. I found a couple of people on my course in the flat opposite so I had someone to go to all of the induction things with. We're best friends now.
It's an amazing experience, although daunting. Make sure you leave you door open so that you're welcoming people in. I know some people will feel like hiding under their bed and never appearing, however freshers and the first day is all about making impressions. You have to drop your safety barriers and branch out.

Don't forget everyone is in the same boat as you and just make sure you enjoy yourself and take lots of photos.

Okay I'm gonna be honest here, and I'm sorry if people won't like it.

Getting my keys, finding my flat etc were fine. There were plenty of people around to help me.

Then I met my flatmates and their initial reaction to me was *weird look - back away slowly*. I knew it was me and not their nerves because they greeted the others differently. it was obvious they weren't my kind of people and I wasn't theirs, which was fine. Then I decided it wasn't fine and burst into tears, giving me a reputation of someone who's emotional and not fun to be around. My flatmates were even more awkward around me after that. Later on we all got drunk, of course, and we had a relatively good time. After a certain level of drunkenness they were even quite nice to me, but it was still obvious I didn't connect with any of them. I maybe got on all right with one of them but he wanted to stick with the popular people more which is fair enough, I suppose.

So all in all, my first day sucked. And it didn't get much better actually until the second term, when I started to find brilliant friends and have all the amazing experiences I'd heard about. Now I'm the happiest I've ever been and also a much stronger person because of it.

Basically, what I'm saying is - most people have a great first day, and a great fresher's week, and make friends with the first people they meet. But I wish someone had told me that it's not like that for everyone, so that I'd be prepared for it and it wouldn't be such a shock to the system when that didn't happen for me. And I wish someone had told me that pretty much EVERYONE makes friends at uni, and have a great time in the end, but it takes some people longer than others.

EDIT: I'm not saying expect the worst. I'm saying, don't go in there expecting the best immediately, go in with an open mind, and remember that if things do go wrong it won't be forever

*subscribes*

At first nobody really talked to each other except saying hi and introducing themselves, everyone and their parents was just moving their stuff in (trying not to get it too wet in the rain!) and I fixed the heating (no idea how) and brought a cake out for everyone. One of my flatmates had the same idea but no one really ate either of the cakes, or the sweets that someone else had brought.

Wow it sounds like you had a pretty good experiance compared to some people on your first day and its brilliant that your so close to your flat mates still as by the sounds of it most people dont remain good friends with theres..
iv also found my flat mates on a facebook page for the uni (all except one) so iv had a chance to chat to them beforehand and weve even been arranging who should bring what so we dont end up with 6 toasters etc!
Im very excited to move out and get my independance as i currently live in a tiny little house with 6 people and 3 of them are younger than me so itl be nice to have space and be able to fend for myself haha! I hope my day goes as well as yours did sounds like you had a brill time

my course starts really early so i'll be moving on the 26th of august (ahhhh!!), so i'll make a proper post here soon.

The day I moved into halls wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. When we parked the car we went to the reception and got my keys as well as a guide to show me where my block was and show my around the communal area and stuff. After that we unpacked the car and put everything in my room. It was a pain in the arse getting my suitcases up to my flat as I was on the 4th floor of my block and we had no lift. While unpacking I met a flatmate and said hello, asked what course he was on (which turned out to be the same as mine), and then after finishing packing I had lunch with my aunty and mam at a pub nearby and afterwards went to B&M to get a few bits and pieces I'd forgotten.

When they left there was three of my flatmates in the flat so we gathered in the kitchen and made small talk, so just basically introduced ourselves, what course we're on, and other stuff. After that two of them left and went home (didn't return until the weekend) then later that night me and the remaining flatmate just chilled in the dining area then headed to the communal room and met a few people there. As the evening got later more people arrived in the communal area and we all ended up getting some beer and chatting.

It was a pretty good first day. I was very nervous about meeting people but that eased off a bit after the initial meeting with my flatmates in the kitchen. As the night was coming to an end I'd found myself chatting away to a few people on a sofa in the communal area without even noticing the time going by. It was all good.

I think the best advice I can give you is be friendly, introduce yourself to your flatmates when you get there, keep your door propped open at times so people know you're in, and just have fun. I'm shy and quite reserved but even so I managed to scrape through the first day with ease and woke up the next day feeling good.