From Tollbar to Imperial

January 20th, 2006

As I’m just beginning the second term of my first year at Imperial College London, it’s time to reflect on a fantastic first term away from home.

Fortunately, I live in the most social hall of the college and this made for a very interesting fresher’s week. It was a barrel of fun, meeting all sorts of crazy new friends, finding out who your lecturers are and after that, spending the rest of the time discovering what central London has to offer!

In the first week we went to a fantastic club in Covent Garden and then to the Ministry Of Sound (where I came across Stuart Ventham, also from Tollbar, who is at LSE - that was a nice surprise!).

There were lots of other daytime activities, with rewards of copious amounts of alcohol from the bar (though that’s not my cup of tea exactly!). An example of this was the ‘getting to know your way around’ race, where we grouped into teams and had to find a certain piece of information of some very local landmarks, including the Royal Albert Hall, Hyde Park and Harrods (all within a 10 minute walk).

Unfortunately, we got hungry and stopped off to get some food, which resulted in us failing completely, but we still had loads of fun!

However, we did come here to work and to find out a little more about my chosen subject, Chemistry. The new material has been very enlightening, explaining lots about certain phenomena we were told about at school but never the reason why. Practical work has also been lots of fun with an already long suffering lab partner.
When not poring over a lab report that’s due in the next day, there’s lots of fun to be had in London, and it’s not too expensive if you know where to look. For example, we’ve been out on Hall events to plenty of clubs, formal dinners, and even a trip to Brugges, which were all heavily subsidised by our Hall!

There’s never been a dull moment, socially and academically. Now that our mid term exams are over, I can look forward to some more fun filled events, and perhaps a bit more Chemistry too!

Helen Gray, ex Tollbar Sixth Former