Hellooo, welcome to my first blog on the inside word! My name is Imogen, I am a first-year biomedder, proud O’Rorkian (O’Rorke two clap!) and a self-proclaimed (if you ask anyone on my floor, they’d agree) volleyball addict. In my short time here, I have already begun to call O’Rorke home. The court and BBQ may have brought me here, but the people are definitely why I’ll stay.

Volleyball Champions!!

It’s only been two weeks since I arrived but so much has happened! You are thrown in the deep end upon arrival, new place, new people and a new city (at least for me #wellingtonianatheart). Luckily there are so many activities available to help you find your footing and some like-minded individuals. I’ve run around Auckland for the ‘Amazing Pod Race’, had online lectures for a full week and played Volleyball most nights (told you I’m addicted).

Floor Mascot Allen <3

Good ol’ corona has, of course, made the move-in different, lots of mask-wearing and hand-sanitising. When Auckland went into level 3 our floors were separated which meant specific laundry and meal times (snacks and instant noodles were (are) vital). On the surface level these changes may seem complicated and are definitely not convenient but having epic floor-mates makes everything more fun. We’ve challenged the elevator’s holding capacity many times, all of us going to eat at the same time. We’ve had floor movie nights (marvel marathon, anybody?), mafia games (very intense) and I have tried (semi-successfully) to convince some of my floor-mates to go on morning walks with me.

We’ve had our first taste of lectures, online of course which again is a tumultuous experience. There are some definite benefits to watching recordings (2x speed anyone?) but of course, being able to sit in a lecture theatre is the dream. To get us through we’ve formed a study group of sorts in the common room, even though we are all doing different subjects it is nice to figure out all this uni stuff together (a.k.a how to use canvas). I personally remember being quite scared about the prospect of living with a bunch of strangers for an entire year and worried about how much uni work there is to do. Having experienced both now I can say with confidence that you’ll meet great people and learn about the coolest stuff. It’s important to remember that everyone is in the same boat – no one is entering university with everything sorted out and with a thousand friends.

Our little study group

There are so many ups and downs to university life: we are all adults now and adulting (as it turns out) is really hard some times. However, I’m sure you’ll find (as I have) that it’s not so bad when you do it with friends.