Iron Man suits and racing overalls

Although it is my fourth year, the Bunfight is still one of the highlights of the first semester for me. There’s just something exciting about the organised chaos that arises whilst every society, sports team and club is trying to sign up new members. However, on Wednesday’s Bunfight, unlike previous year’s, I spent the day on the other side of the tables; playing the role of a recruiter.

The process begins in the evening of the night before the Bunfight. Members of all the different committees queue up inside the Student’s Union building to register their society for the event. Once registered, each society receives a stall along the winding route that takes students through both Sports Halls, The Cube and a marquee outside, which they can decorate and accessorise to their heart’s content.

 A sea of students winding their way through the different stalls 

As President of the Fancy Dress Society, I went along with our social secretary to set up the stall, where we laid out the various hats and masks we had acquired over our time at university, in the hope that Freshers would try them on and discover a passion for dressing up!

On the day of the Bunfight every stall has to be completely ready by nine o’clock, so that the event can be run as smoothly as possible when the Freshers enter the one-way system at ten o’clock. To ensure we caught the eye of the Freshers, I took on the form of Iron Man, whilst my fellow committee member was adorned in a Spider-man morph suit. Unfortunately, due to the heat and the number of people in the hall, our disguises had to be slowly removed as the day progressed, but we still managed to impress ourselves with the number of sign-ups we received!

Spider-Man taking a break from saving New York City 

For second, third and fourth years alike, Freshers’ Week provides a good chance to organise a day trip or an activity with a group of friends. On Tuesday it was my housemate’s birthday, so taking advantage of everyone’s free schedules, we organised a trip to nearby Eastleigh, where we made use of the go-karting track opposite the train station.

The calm before the storm 

Regular readers will know that I love my Formula One, so it will come as no surprise that I was as excited as a child opening their presents on Christmas Day beforehand. After slipping into racing overalls and listening to the safety debriefing, we were able to go racing. In my first stint I drove relatively cautiously, but I still managed to spin a few times whilst trying to get to grips with the go-kart’s inherent oversteer. On my second outing I was much more aggressive, drifting through corners and pushing for overtakes, which, for a small period of time, made me believe I was the next Lewis Hamilton!

Ready to race!

After the session we received timing sheets, showing our pace, times and positions throughout the race. I was pleased with my results; I had the fourth fastest lap time (out of twelve people) and fastest average lap time – perhaps there is still hope for my career as a racing driver yet!

Despite this being my fourth Freshers’ Week in Southampton, there has still been many things for me to do. SUSU always provides many great activities, but often the best parts of the week come from your own ideas. On top of the Bunfight and go-karting, I have gone shopping in West Quay, been on a few nights out, met up with friends for pub lunches and even started a ‘Come Dine With Me’ competition amongst my housemates. It’s sad to think this is my last Fresher’s Week, but I have thoroughly enjoyed it and now I’m ready for Semester One to begin in earnest.

James