Why I fell in love with Bangor- The open days

One of the first sets of posts I did was about how to choose a university that is right for you but it recently struck me that I never said why I chose Bangor. So this is my story... Part 1

Warning this is quite a wordy/rambling post

Bangor was always on my list of unis to apply to. I love Wales, I spent most of my summers in the area as a kid, my grandparents had a caravan in Towyn. Anyway, I knew I wouldn't get the grades to go to Cardiff and Aber was too far away from home and it didn't really appeal to me on the open day so that just left Bangor really. Being from a small town I'm not really into the whole big city thing, I visited Leeds and while the shopping was amazing I missed grass and trees. So eventually I applied to Bangor, Chester, Sheffield Hallam, Plymouth and University of Nottingham. I got offers back from all 5. I picked Bangor as my first choice and Plymouth as my second only because it was my lowest offer. I don't think I would have gone to uni if I hadn't got in here.

For Bangor I attended one UCAS open day and one of the Senergy open days then I visited a few more times on my own.

UCAS open day 

The first open day I came to was a UCAS open day where the whole uni was open to any prospective students, I booked my place very early on and came along with my dad. The weather was amazing, Bangor seems to have a habit of whipping out the good weather just in time for an open day. We packed a little picnic in the car and set off nice and early, wouldn't want to be late now would we?

When we arrived I remember thinking how organised everything was, the whole town was sign posted, we were told where to park. My dad didn't put the handbrake on enough, when we got back to the car it had rolled out of it's space, lucky it didn't hit anyone. Anyway, my Dad's driving skills aside, we were then placed on a bus and were taken up to main arts where we got talked at by someone important about finance or something, I was just amazed by the room we were in (PJ hall) it is true what they say it is like Hogwarts!

After our talk we went off to a Halls tour, again a coach was very kindly provided! Compared to what I had already seen from other unis this was luxury (the halls not the coach). We decided to ditch the group here and walk back to Thoday since the weather was so good (where we found the car half escaped from the parking space).

Next we had a Senergy talk, now this was the bit I was most excited about I finally got to meet my lecturers and maybe even some people who would be on my course (although if I did I don't remember). Things are a bit fuzzy now but I remember Graham attempting to be funny but I think I was a little overwhelmed by the day so it all went over my head slightly, plus he does tell awful jokes anyway, the kind your dad thinks are funny. I also remember being terrified of Sian (how very wrong first impressions can be) and I remember thinking Lynda was brilliant because she was a northerner. At one point Senergy supplied us with lunch which was very welcome! Trust me it's worth coming to an open day just for the BBQ chicken sandwiches. We then split into our course groups which meant as a Geographer I had another hour of talks (bad jokes) from Graham and the team. You get used to his jokes, nowadays we almost find them funny...almost.

We then wandered back up to the main arts building where we got totally lost and ended up in some kind of meeting that we were sure we weren't supposed to be in, then people offered us food so we stayed. Next thing I know some guy is talking to me in Welsh, at least I think it was welsh, I hope it was since I said to the man, in the way all English people do when confronted with a foreign language, 'WE...DON'T...SPEAK...WELSH' he kind of looked at me and nodded then carried on anyway, you can imagine the look on our faces, we just slowly backed out of the room. I seriously hope I never meet this person again, or if I do I hope they don't recognize me.

After that humiliation we decided to call it a day. Since it was such a nice sunny day we called in at Llandudno where we had a picnic on the beach, which was a bad bad move, my dad had his sandwich stolen. I then watched him wrestle a seagull for a pork pie, you don't get between a stokie and a pork pie. Ever. We ended up having a picnic on Llandudno high street which wasn't quite a classy as we had pictured when we set out for a seaside picnic.

After a long but exciting day, it was time for home.

Senergy open day

Well somehow after the last open day I came back for another. Well played Senergy.

I only sat through half of this one (Graham's jokes had got worse). I thought I should come back and see Bangor again before  I made my final choice, although I was already 99.99% sure that Bangor was going to be my first choice plus there was promise of more of those BBQ chicken sandwiches. This time I made the journey to Bangor by rail just to test out the facilities as this would be my main way of getting home. By now I could already find my way to Thoday building so off we trotted from the station. When we turned up the weather wasn't as brilliant but it was nice to see Bangor looking not so glamorous and still loving it. Turns out  most of the talks and stuff were roughly the same as on the UCAS open day. We had a general welcome talk, a quick tour of the facilities and then a chat about finances followed by a free lunch (the best kind). Then we split into subject specific talks a.k.a 3/4 of an hour of Graham comedy gold. Then a GIS practical but I didn't really fancy the GIS practical .So at the half time break I asked Graham for the reading list so I could nerd it up over summer. Then we legged it to the high street for some quality shopping time. A girl has to road test all aspects of student life right?

Somehow between an escaping car, bad jokes (and a few almost funny ones), free food and a fight with a seagull I had fallen in love with Bangor and even as a write this post now, the wind is howling and it's bloody freezing but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Keep it scrimpy.
Laura.

p.s If you are reading this Graham, your jokes/funny stories aren't that bad, we actually quite like them they make lectures that little bit brighter.