My first day at QMU was a scary one, as I’m sure it was for everyone. Having only just moved from Glasgow, the distance from home was really quite insignificant in comparison to the miles some students had travelled. The nerves soon started kicking in though when it hit me that my family and friends would no longer be within walking distance from me and I would have to start thinking about things such as cooking, washing and managing money.
However, within the first few days of Freshers' Week, I already felt like I was starting to settle in. Making friends was one of my biggest worries about starting uni, but luckily my flatmates and I all instantly clicked. We all love living together as it’s so much fun and we became incredibly good friends in such a short period of time. We also realised we were all just as anxious about meeting each other for the first time and as it turned out, there was really nothing for us to worry about at all! Finding our way around Musselburgh and Edinburgh became relatively easy as we spent a lot of the first week travelling around on foot or by buses and trains to places such as Edinburgh City Centre, Portobello beach, Arthur’s Seat and Tesco’s for food shopping.
I am also really enjoying staying in halls and being more independent. I have one of the double rooms at QMU which once I had personalised a bit, made it feel just like a home from home. In terms of the actual university campus, at first I wasn’t sure how I felt about the halls being situated right at the doorstep of the rest of the entire academic building, especially as every other uni I visited had off-site accommodation. Although I’ve now come to realise that this is definitely a good thing – I’m sure having to travel into uni every day would get frustrating after a while and plus, it means I can have a bit of a longer lie-in on those days when I start classes early. The actual facilities at the uni are proving to be extremely useful too. The Learning Resource Centre at QMU is a good place to study and focus on group work for my course. There is also the option of using the QMU's gym, which I find really helps me relax, or going to Maggie’s, QMU’s Students' Union, where the food is very good and very affordable.
I'm studying at Public Relations, Marketing and Events at QMU and so far I've found it very interesting. During Freshers' Week we had an introduction to all the individual modules of the course for semester one.
This gave us a brief insight to the course so we would know what to expect when classes actually begun. For me, the course is exactly what I was looking for. I have never been certain on what I want to do, but through work experience and what I enjoyed at school, I was leaning towards media and event planning. The schedule for my course is not too challenging as I only have classes three days a week. However, the work load has gradually been increasing and I always have plenty to do - I am very grateful for the two extra days where (or when?) I have time to do my studying! The Events module in my course is proving to be the most interesting for me at the moment, but I am very glad I am learning the other aspects of the course. This way, I gain a much broader understanding of the world of media and communications which I know will benefit me a lot when it comes to looking for jobs.
Although I’ve only been at QMU for just over a month, I am really enjoying being here, and I’m sure this enjoyment will continue throughout the year!
