Day 3 of 800 (apparently).
Second day of induction at university. It is interesting, to say the least. Living on campus, the aged 31 year old man amongst a sea of 18-20 years old (who have all been very kind to this aged fellow). Had my second induction thing this morning, which was about picking our options for Year 1.
For the first semester, I have just a single compulsory module - ‘Rethinking History’, which I feel goes hand-in-hand with the book ‘Why History Matters’ by John Tosh (a damned good read, even if you’re not a history-orientated person). Out of all the options I had, from Medieval England (covering 12th-15th centuries) up to more mordern 20th century history and all sorts globally inbetween. I plumped for the Renaissance to Reformation, Torture to Terror (1492-1789/92) & Game of Thrones: The Hundred Years War - rather more Medieval/Early Modern choices than I’d expected to make. For the second semester there are no compulsory modules, so making a decision became a damned sight harder. The two options I immediately went for involve History, Heritage & Interpretation, which is about how museums & similar institutions present & portray history, and The Material World, which covers physical historical evidence (clothing, architecture, art etc). This left me with two choices across a whole raft of choices - did I want to look at smaller communities/identities globally? America from 1763-1970? The War(s) of the Roses? I felt rather trapped making my choices, unsure which two modules to take. Picking The Tudors felt like a good choice, which left me with a single option to decide on. I thought I might choose the War(s) of the Roses, or the Black Death, maybe Hollywood & how it portrays national ideas & myths through film (as that is something that annoys me, I thought it might be fun to get rather angry about it!), but my final choice surprised me as I made it: The Mediterranean World. This last option effectively covers the Mediterranean powers from the Fall of Constatinople, the rise of trade, wealth & power amongst the Mediterranean countries and then their decline in the 18th century. Sometimes you just have to pick something that might not appeal at first but could prove to be thoroughly interesting! Regarding university in general, I’m having a fun time. Sunday was spent moving in (feel as though I had too much stuff), meeting the other chaps living in this section of the building (4 of us in our corridor, all lovely people), and an evening at the student bar, where my combination of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy t-shirt & pipe ensured that I made many new friends over the course of the evening - sadly, I managed to get rather drunk on just 3 bottles of fruity cider and ended up having a fitful nights sleep with a horrible headache. Monday was very relaxed, introduction to the course and it’s aims/ethics, and a damp historical tour around Chichester, which is a beautiful little place jampacked with history for me to explore. Hurrah! All-in-all a cracking start. More please!












