Week 2: Noise vs Sleep

Someone please let everyone know Freshers Week (Welcome Week, officially) is over. Since Monday I've wanted to go to sleep at about 10.30pm, which I regard as an early night compared to most nights being somewhere between midnight and 1am. Monday, I forgot it was my flatmate's birthday this week so we planned to go out to Gatecrasher. I engaged in the pre-games but then realised how tired I was and slipped away to my room when everyone had gone. No 10.30 sleep. Tuesday night was probably my fault because I just stayed up on Facebook and Youtube, browsing nothingness. Wednesday was a certain in my head because I planned out everything I needed to do and was ready to go to sleep at half 10. The problem was, one of my flatmates decided to hold pre-games for her tennis team's night out. They left at about 11.30pm, leaving a lovely mess I briefly tidied then proceeded to sleep at just gone midnight. Thursday didn't happen because I went out for a meal with my boyfriend and we stayed up a bit longer playing Articulate (best game in the world ever) and I eventually fell asleep at about half past midnight. Last night I was determined! I would finally get my 10.30pm sleep. It didn't happen. Due to an extremely busy and stressful week, my eyes grew heavy at about 8pm. Deciding there was no point browsing nothingness or getting any work done, I got ready for bed and shut my eyes at about 10 past. At quarter past, just when I had drifted into near-sleep-state, one of my flatmates made a loud noise. This wasn't intentionally to wake me up, it just happened that there was a bunch of them in the kitchen waiting to go down to the Hub, I assume to play a game or two of pool. Then my phone rang. Then I got a text. I rebelled and stayed up past midnight again. Bad times.

The moral of that story is: you should probably come to University armed with earplugs or if you end up with considerate flatmates, appreciate it like its the last thing on earth you'll receive.

Another thing to warn aspiring Uni folk is about the noise around halls. It's common sense that if you live in a densely populated area it's going to have some kind of noise. TC (Tennis Court) has noise in the form of large groups of boys chanting various songs about either TC or Mason (our rivals across the road) and several (and I mean the LOTS kind of several) groups of people waiting for taxis in the car park outside the window. They don't wait quietly, for sure. Last week, when the snow was still abundant, I had to shut my window with a little bit of anger as I had just drifted off to sleep when a snowball hit the glass with some force, waking me up. They got the message. Unfortunately, people who 'get the message' are few and far between in halls. It generally works on a majority vote. If one person is going to sleep, that person is insignificant. Obviously this isn't a valid general rule. I most definitely take into consideration if one of my flatmates wants an early night and I'm still awake. It's just basic politeness.