STUDENT Sophie Norris from Bolton who during the last academic year gave a unique insight into college life achieved her ambitions to study English at Newcastle after achieving five As in her A-levels. She is back for one week to let readers know how she is getting on at university.

THIS is a special edition blog entry reflecting on my first week at university and my views on my life in Newcastle.

Last week was the famous Freshers’ Week which is a whole week of making friends, settling in and attending a ridiculous amount of parties on very little sleep.

I really cannot begin to explain everything that has happened as it has all passed by so quickly and been way too eventful, but what I will say is it has been one of the best weeks of my life.

On Saturday, I travelled up to Newcastle for move-in weekend.

It was all a bit chaotic with thousands of new students moving in at the same time, not to mention the fact I had two cars full of my belongings. When we arrived, I was a little apprehensive since my accommodation block is pretty much a huge slab of concrete with hundreds of cell-like bedrooms.

However, within 10 minutes I’d met my flat mates and realised that despite the fact our flat might fall down any second, I was going to have a great time. Over the next week, we discovered a maggot infestation, mouldy walls and a collapsing fridge, but in the spirit of Freshers’ Week we laughed it off.

On my first day, I met a girl called Rosie who I think I will get on very well with.

We are on the same wavelength, we both want to go home at around the same time and both order the same things at the takeaway, which I strongly believe are excellent grounds for a friendship!

On the Sunday night we had to dress up as gladiators, which was hilarious as all the accommodation blocks dressed as something different, for example some people were cavemen whilst some others were ninjas.

Overall, the whole week was full of crazy antics, several stalls of free food and lots of different societies to join.