Looking back at Freshers week in the UK is a strange experience. We were mostly a bunch of 18 year olds getting heinously drunk and making fools of ourselves. This debauchery was conducive to intense friendship forging as well as an abundance of drama. Freshers week consists largely of people going out to the city for nights outand then somehow making it to 9am induction lectures (which we were to paranoid to consider missing in those early days). I assumed that freshers week in Canada would be a similar experience, which was exciting as the potential for socialising would be ripe. However, I like to think that I have grown a little bit since those freshers days and wasn’t so much looking forward to such an experience again, as well as having to socialise with a load of freshers.
The freshers experience in Canada, however, is completely different, bizzare, and great fun if you throw yourself into it. The main differences are that, in Canada, students begin their studies at 17 and do a 4 year course. The drinking age in most of Canada is 19, which means that their freshers week, or 0 week, as they call it, is a ‘dry’ experience. Secondly most of the events happen on Campus and not in bars or clubs in the city. If you’re now wondering what it was like to be 21 and surrounded by all these 17 year-olds,
then you’ll be delighted to know that I stayed in an upper year residence building, which was home to about 2/3 international exchange students. This meant that I had an instant social network to loads of people in the same boat and in the same age category as myself!
0 week a the UWO began with my purchasing the 0 week wristband, which gave me access to all the 0 week events. The week can largely be described as a festival style experience, with all the events of the week taking place on a big hill and field on campus. It was a great experience with a real American-esque vibe! Marching bands, cheerleaders, and brass bands and house performances usually kicked off the evenings. Some of the events that took place that week were a live hypnotism show, a silent disco, a BBQ and a day of volunteering in the community. It truly was remarkably different to UK but fostered a real sense of school spirit. The plethora of activities also meant I had plenty of opportunity to bond with the friends I had made in my halls, meaning I got the bonding of the UK freshers but with dorky, immersive, yet surprisingly lovely Canadian twist.
