Moving Out (705 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.22 on 17 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by matnotharry <mattreallysmells.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2006-10-09 09:35:29 EDT
The following posts have been lifted from the university forum that I visited for several weeks before arriving here at Warwick. Hope you can find some resonance with my experiences (part 3 and 4 will follow if there is the interest). Enjoy.
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Have you done the big shop?
I've been told that generally students fall into two categories when preparing for university, those who pack weeks before they're due to leave and those who leave it more or less to the last minute (a pal of mine personified this when he thought it best to get ready for leaving at 4am, two hours before he was due to go to Edinburgh).
Of course, you can't prepare if you have nothing to pack, hence the big shop. Even if you, or more likely, your mum has steadily collected bits and pieces for your ever-nearer departure ("Matt I got you some flip-flops for uni" - the fuck?), you will doubtless still find yourself borrowing a discount card, secretly pocketing a music player and piling into the car to go saucepan shopping.
Well that's how it turned out for me at least, and for a few youngsters who we found idling in the Home department at Tesco. Every situation was a variant of a basic set-up; preoccupied parent and apathetic youth. There were zealous dads with eyes only for the top of the range products next to mums checking out student deals and anything sans frills. There were mums who discussed animatedly the benefits of a 19cm frying pan over a 23cm one ("honestly mum, I don't care") and those, like mine, who assumed that their kid didn't know the difference/any better and decided in less time then it takes to severe one's veins with a pizza slice.
The implications of moving away hit home a little when the cheese grater was thrown in, along with my own soap dish and Tupperware set. The thought of me going for food and not having something as basic as a chopping board give me a small sense of being in at the deep end of the culinary pool. I drew the line at the idea of my own knife sharpener, on the grounds that it was unnecessary when I had a freshly acquired all purpose, no-nonsense/safety feature utility knife. Mum drew the line at the set of alphabet cookie cutters on the grounds that I was being stupid, Corrie was on in less than an hour and I already had a set of fridge magnets anyway.
Three isles and a whole lot of stationary later and I was being offered one set or two of reduced to clear towels ("May as well get two, I'll have to wash them once a month right...?" - "no matt, once a week...") and considering just going on the dole or diving under the wheels of the nearest trolley.
One metre long receipt and a car ride later I find myself in my room, surrounded by white plastic bags and countless Tesco value stickers. I make an inventory to avoid finding homes for my new utensils and then gave up and wrote this.
The big shop, it is coming. Be prepared.
Warwick had better be amazing
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Have you done the big clear out?
I imagine by now that you have accumulated a small wealth of Ikea/Tesco value Home range products designed to assist you in daily living. I also imagine you have deposited your new found cellophane wrapped inventory in a logical yet mildly inconvenient place that doesn't allow you to escape from it's garish appearance or aroma of new plastic.
Such a relentless in-your-face reminder that you are leaving home in five or six days (erk) can initiate the weary and tedious mission that is organising your clothes and other belongings into piles of what to take, what to leave and what is going to the dump. (Other reminders include welcome letters from our ( :s ) university and pointed one-liners from the madre).
Thus you may find yourself, hands on hips, surveying a closet or rack of shelves that potentially houses elements of your history dating back eighteen years or so; from your first masterpiece brought home from nursery to the signed shirt you wore on your last day of compulsory education. Or you find yourself simply finding neat stacks of clean clothes.
Regardless on the state of your belongings, I spent most of the day absent-mindedly plunging an arm into the dark recesses of various shelves, cupboards and crawlspaces and pulling out anything from 2001 Christmas cards to leaky batteries. Among the less mundane were a 2'x7' garden centre canvas banner alerting me to the savings I could make on compost, a small phallus with a built in pencil sharpener, karate pads, a picture of an ex-girlfriend with the eyes burnt out, a poem (?), a big yellow elephant teddy, a Steps album (don't laugh, you'll have a copy somewhere), a set of cut-throat razors, several lost FHMs, half a dozen cinema stubs and a rubber chicken (don't ask).
Ma walked in to witness a small tower of shoes topple out onto a stack of exercise books that I'd once thought sensible to hold on to, revealing a dusty stash of aforementioned FHMs and enough booze to drown a household pet (or to at least get absolutely mashed on the drive to Warwick). "This is going to get worse before it gets better" she said, then walked out.
She was right too. Until I sneakily dumped a load of meccano, books and a record player in the attic the room looked like a nuke had hit it. I finished as the sun was setting and I cast a weary depleted look over the room I am soon to give up to a younger sibling and realised I have a newfound hatred for all things very new or very old or covered in battery acid.
The big clear out is (probably) coming.
Warwick had better be amazing
User Reviews
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-10-09 16:56:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2006-10-09 14:25:14 (#)
Ranking: 2
I thought this was going to be about the Billy Joel song "Moving Out" when I saw the title.
I'm glad it wasn't.
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hehe, me too!
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2006-10-09 14:25:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I thought this was going to be about the Billy Joel song "Moving Out" when I saw the title.
I'm glad it wasn't.
Submitted by coley (user info) at 2006-10-09 14:05:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I never lived on campus either, so I suppose I missed out on some prime college-experimentation time.
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 12:10:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
thanks, you also.
Submitted by matnotharry (user info) at 2006-10-09 12:01:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:55:24 (#)
Ranking: -2
try almost double that. i am just an asshole. you, however, are a cocksmoker.
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Awesome. Hope you have a nice day
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:55:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
try almost double that. i am just an asshole. you, however, are a cocksmoker.
Submitted by matnotharry (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:50:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:45:38 (#)
Ranking: -2
whats the matter, don't like it coming back at you?
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Oh jesus, you're sixteen aren't you?
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:45:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
whats the matter, don't like it coming back at you?
Submitted by matnotharry (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:33:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:21:06 (#)
Ranking: -2
forgot your -2 die.
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what the fuck are you, five?
get a grip
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:21:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
forgot your -2 die.
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:19:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
please promptly swallow an electric sander, fag
Submitted by matnotharry (user info) at 2006-10-09 11:16:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2006-10-09 10:13:44 (#)
Ranking: 2
So... how's Warwick?
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It's going well thanks. People are great, campus is pretty and lectures aren't too dull. Thumbs up all round
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2006-10-09 10:13:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So... how's Warwick?
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2006-10-09 09:58:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I feel as if I have missed out on pretty much all of the uni culture by living at home. I mean, there'd be no point in moving into one of the colleges, I don't think they even allow people from the city to live in them, but it's kinda disappointing to hear all this stuff about "crazy college days" etc. and not having experienced any of it. I just go there, do lectures and stuff then go home.
That being said I recently had to clear out all my old shit and I found a wealth of old written material from my childhood, I'm saving it for a post when I get time to go through it properly.
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2006-10-09 09:51:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2006-10-09 09:44:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
PS. Warwick sucks.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2006-10-09 09:43:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I remember those days. The trick is, when leaving your gaff at uni, to lose everything, or have a party the night you leave so everything gets nicked or broken. Then, never buy anything ever again, apart from a Pot Noodle and a fork. If it can't be cooked and consumed in a Pot Noodle pot, it's not worth eating.