Throwing yourself completely into university life must, to some people, be a bit like diving head first into in to a snake pit. I felt a bit like this whilst touring around the fresher’s fair in search of some sociable activities to take part in. Unfortunately there was very little that appealed to me. Frankly, I didn’t feel that dressing up as a pirate and getting ‘jolly’ on rum or some other pirate brew was really for me. I ended up deciding that I liked the people I lived with enough not to bother meeting anyone else.
As a fully fledged resident of the East Slope ‘slums’ I have found myself integrated into quite a substantial community. The doors of many flats remain constantly open for any wandering travellers to roam in for a bowl of rice or shelter from the storm outside. It is a very friendly place. However, we in the slums have to deal with a lot of snobbery from other residences. People have literally looked down their nose at me when I informed them I lived on the East Slope. Little do they realise that whilst residents of Swanbourgh get a 24 hour security patrol, the slums are left to the mobsters and vigilantes as well as the extreme partying types. It is therefore important to form relationships with different flats and remember that we’re all in this together. This for me has been the most successful way of meeting people. My main body of friends now consists of the people living with and around me. Our main activities include ‘bop it’ (which my flatmate picked up for the bargain price of £14.99, well worth the money) and Scrabble, with bonus points for swear words and offensive terms for genitalia.
There are also many other sociably beneficial elements to the East Slope ‘slums’. The other main element is the relentless partying. Every night one can roam around the lanes of the slums and find something going on that they will be more than welcome to join in with. More than often this ‘something going on’ will be an onslaught of drum and bass or dub step, i.e. a party.
So if anyone out there is doing a little too much work or finds their ears glazing over with boredom from hearing the same few flatmates nag about the dishes or recycling then befriend an ‘East slummian’ and get partying up on the slope. Believe me, you’ll soon be pleased that you didn’t stick your name down for wine tasting or amateur dramatics.
