Too Many Pies

One of the main things that I promised myself about my travels abroad was that I would make a solid effort to make Newcastle my home, and not just a place where I sleep when not adventuring around Europe. This was one of my primary motivations for choosing to study abroad for the entire year as opposed to a single semester and I cannot even put into words how crucial this decision was. Currently the fall semester students are busy booking trips all over the world for every weekend from now until December 19th (granted, I've done the same) but my weekends have also been filled with a few unexpected surprises. For example, I was always going to see Dublin or Edinburgh in a way that only a touristy American can, but no one, including myself, expected to hear that I would be visiting Liverpool as a member of the Newcastle University Ultimate Frisbee team. 

First off, I want to address the fact that in my last post I resolved to never seek out any other activity that would classify me as a "fresher" again- when that's exactly what I did this weekend. I've always been an athletic person (shout out to Dad for ensuring that his daughter was playing soccer, unicycling, and competitively bike racing by the age of five) but aside from all of those bizarre activities, I have never actually played ultimate frisbee other than messing around with Tommy. In fact, when I told him that I had joined the team his non-surprising comment was "wow Jess that's awesome!... I'm just kinda shocked they let you join". Filled with positive support from my loving brother, I went to a few of the trainings and it was blatantly obvious to me that this was going to quickly become one of my favorite parts of my time abroad. It also didn't hurt that I convinced two of my closest from Loyola to join the team as well and that most of the trainings ended at a local pub for pints and free pizza. Welcomed in the friendliest way possible by the experienced players on the team, I accepted my role as a frisbee fresher and my dream of becoming a college athlete finally came true. 

The club has men's, women's and mixed teams that compete at different tournaments throughout the country and for both indoor and outdoor seasons. The name- Too Many Pies- is still a complete mystery to me (and most people on the team to be honest) but it also allows for a million little puns and traditions, such as our freshers uniforms for the weekend- navy shirts that have "pie's the limit" ironed onto them in times new roman font- and the compulsory pie eating contest after the final game of the weekend. My team was a co-ed group of eight freshers and two experienced players, who could be relied on to both give inspirational pep-talks and not laugh when we lost almost every game. We did end up winning a few though, including our final game in the tensest sudden death overtime a fresher frisbee game could warrant. One of the best parts was that even though our experienced teams at the tournament had their own games to play they always managed to watch ours, and likewise we were always there to cheer on our fellow pies. I've found that while extremely competitive, the sport itself is one of the most respectful and accepting that I've ever played. I guess this is expected in an environment in which the players are also the referees, but other little things like "spirit circles"- in which the teams that just played each other go outside and talk over their strengths and weaknesses- just further solidified my obsession with the sport. When it was all said and done, our women's team ended up winning their tournament! ... and as for our freshers team, we even managed to grab our own trophy for "most spirited team" (tough to tell whether it was the shirts or the love we had for each other). 

Now, you would think that four games a day would warrant an early, good night's sleep, but as I would soon find out, the exhaustion was just as integral a part in the team dynamic as the actual frisbee playing. The whole team- 25 of us in total- set up camp in a "scout hut" for the night (which for my American friends is just a boy scout hall) by rolling out our sleeping bags and huddling for warmth on the cement floor. Luckily, by that point we were all perfectly comfortable enough with each other to sit around eating 15 Domino's pizzas shamelessly and engaging in drinking games of which the boy scouts probably wouldn't have approved. Later, dressed in outfits from 90's blockbusters, we ventured out into Liverpool with all of the teams we had faced earlier that day in two of the best team-building exercises you could imagine: fancy dress and awful dancing- proving that the only true way to ensure that you're not more hungover than the competition in the morning is to party with them the night before. 

So after two and a half days of road tripping, frisbee playing, barely sleeping, friend-making, and laughing harder than I have in my life, I can only say that becoming a frisbee fresher is one of the best decisions I've made in my adventures abroad thus far. It's a strange feeling to know that in a year this team will have new freshers to induct and I'll be back in Baltimore, but a much better feeling knowing that I still have an entire year to make the most of it. Though I'm so jealous of all of the new friends that I've made who still have years ahead of them to make their mark on the team, for now I'm just honored to have been allowed to be a part of it. 

Take that Tommy- I'm an Ultimate Frisbee player and I have the shirt (and appropriate amount of bruises) to prove it. 

Let's go pies!!

Freshers Flu

One of the very first reactions I would get from people familiar with Newcastle (or who had at least heard of it) was about its famous reputation for "Freshers Week". This was a very foreign concept to me because back at Loyola, "Freshers Week" consisted of 3 days of icebreakers and orientations that concluded with midnight breakfast or an early bedtime. In the toon, however, this weeklong initiation of the freshman class not only includes the standard welcome lectures, but comes with its own gift bag, handbook, and wristband that for £65 gets you unlimited adventures and drunkenness. Keep in mind that by the time this week rolled around we had already been in England for a week and a half and participated in "International Welcome Week" (slightly less thrilling), so we were a pretty exhausted and overwhelmed group of Americans. That being said, I have never been more tired than I was at the conclusion of this crazy whirlwind of a week. Once again, Newcastle never fails to live up to reputation.

Day One: Welcome to the Jungle*
*(I do not claim the creativity to come up with these titles, they are stolen from the very official Freshers handbook) 

This was perhaps one of the greatest days of Freshers simply because I finally got flatmates to share my very empty, beautiful flat with! - 9 flatmates to be exact. This means there are 5 boys and 5 girls that share a common room and kitchen, and so move-in day was both very hectic and overwhelming as everyone got settled in and had to ask people their names 4 or 5 times before actually remembering them (eventually I just got post-it notes and wrote everyone's names on the doors). Thankfully, by dinner time we had all grown pretty comfortable with each other as one of my lovely flatmates insisted that we all gather for icebreakers that consisted of sitting in a circle and saying interesting things about ourselves before we all went out. A quick summary of the group: 3 Scots, 1 German, 1 American, 5 Brits, a future doctor, a talented musician, an electrical engineer, a world traveller, a Newcastle native, 9 of the friendliest people I have ever met. We joke now that our flat is a bit of a social experiment, having so many different types of people trying to share the same little space for a year (we could probably put the Real World to shame with all of the laughs we've had already), but I think so far we've passed the test. The funniest part to me is that the majority of them are 18 and at university for the first time, therefore making me the oldest, most "experienced" one in the flat. I'm sure that's what they think every time I go to bed at 10pm.

Day Two: Off the Rails

The second day was actually the first day in terms of activities that you could sign-up for, which meant that although the sign-up window began at 8am and went all day long, it was pretty much required that you get there at 8am to beat the queues. So my friends and I woke up at 7:45am and managed to get free tickets for a tour of St. James Park, the home stadium of Newcastle United. As a fake fan of Newcastle United I was super excited about this, and even more so when we actually got to see not only the field but all of the locker rooms and VIP boxes. Even cooler was the fact that they were in the process of transforming the football pitch into a rugby pitch for the upcoming world cup match between Scotland and South Africa. The best part, though, was the beginning of the tour when the guide asked for a show of hands of who were actual Newcastle fans... and not a single hand went up. He just nodded and said, "To be honest, we are a bit shit." Gotta love the toon army.

Later that night was a "traditional European bar crawl" that took us all over the city to different venues and ended at a bar with a beer hall underneath it in which everyone was dressed and dancing as if we had just stepped off the train into Germany. I may not have made the actual trip this year, but at least I can say I experienced my own little Freshers Oktoberfest in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Day Three: The American Road Trip

The third day was the last time we were going to wake up at 8am to sign up for an activity but I'm so glad we did because it meant that we got to go on a day trip to Durham, a city like 35 minutes from Newcastle. Unlike Newcastle, which is a mix of traditional and modern buildings, Durham still has that classic British feel to it and we spent the whole afternoon walking around the cathedral, the castle, and all of the shops on cobblestone streets along the river. It was nice to be reminded of the fact that we are actually in the middle of the English countryside and not just a large, commercial city. Sometimes you need a 30 minute coach ride through fields of grazing sheep and rolling hills to remind you that you're not in America anymore.

That being said, later that night following our own little road trip was of course "The American Road Trip", which ironically just furthered the above fact. According to the Freshers handbook, this night promised "red cups, American anthems, popcorn vendors, cheerleaders, and much more!" (if you're American and you didn't laugh out loud at that/ feel slightly offended then there is something very wrong with our country). With one flatmate dressed as a cheerleader and one wearing a 50 cent t-shirt, they put me to shame with their "American-ness" and had me wondering if perhaps I've always been more British than I thought.

Day Four: Pandamonium

This was the biggest night of the week because the university reserved the entire Rugby World Cup Official Fan Zone- complete with amusement park rides, food vendors, and an enormous glow-in-the-dark tent- to host all 5000 freshers at one time. My university at home doesn't even have 5000 students, let alone the resources to rent an entire fairground, so this was really wild. Needless to say, sporting the official t-shirts that came in our Freshers gift bags, my friends and flatmates took on all of the rides we could stomach and then shamelessly covered ourselves head-to-toe in neon paint for an evening I'll most likely never forget.

Day Five: ReFresh 

I honestly couldn't tell you, I was sleeping. 

Day Six: Fresh Start*

*(actually mine) 

So in the end, I survived my second round of freshmen activities and my very first Newcastle Freshers Week. Looking back on it, I honestly have no idea how we fit so many things into one week but I can say that it was the craziest and most exhausting week of my life. Never again in my life will I meet so many new people from all over the world in such a short period of time, or cover myself in neon paint and ride an upside-down ferris wheel in the middle of the night, or get the opportunity to start over and try as many new things as my heart desires. In fact, during that week I signed up for the Royal Blues mixed a cappella group, the Catholic society, the running society, and the co-ed Ultimate Frisbee team (for which I am already traveling to Liverpool this weekend for a tournament!). I guess I should have expected my "easy" year was always going to be anything but.

And so now I have begun classes again for the first time in six months and it's back to reality. There's a joke in Newcastle about "Fresher's flu", which is hardly a joke at all because every person I know is currently dying from the contagious after-effects of a week of partying. I'm no exception to this of course, but I like to think I have Fresher's flu in a positive way as well. Never again do I want to re-live freshman year and all of the antics that come with it, but I am exceptionally proud to be a Newcastle University fresher.