Room with a View

And so it begins. Or should that be ends? I've now moved back into Selwyn to start my final year as an undergraduate by taking up my role as an elderly fourth year - a mark of distinction highlighted by my possession of a yellow coloured pigeon hole, and hopefully not grey hairs.

Things have been pretty quiet so far, with a few people coming and going, but things really got properly started today with the Freshers arriving. Luckily my room has a fantastic vantage point from which to spy on the comings and going in College - and to gauge how big the queue for Hall is before venturing down the three flights of stairs that lead to my abode.



So far I can tell a Fresher from the fact that they follow a pattern. Usually they emerge from the arch over the Porters' Lodge either in front of, or behind of (never to the side of) their parents. One parent then takes a photo of the Chapel while the fresher looks away, then said fresher is coaxed by the same parent to pose for a photograph in front of the Chapel. True, I did exactly the same thing three years ago, but it doesn't stop it being faintly amusing, it also allows me to feel a little God like in looking down on people milling around, and it's certainly a more entertaining way to pass the time than by reading a 'Constitutional History of the United Kingdom'.

So what should this year hold? I'm down to take courses entitled; Equity, European Union Law, the Conflict of Laws (allowing me to answer questions such as: what happens when an Irishman, driving a Japanese car in France, hits a German driving a faulty Swedish car, causing an accident killing a Norwegian?), Jurisprudence, European Human Rights Law, and the Historical Foundations of the British Constitution. But if that isn't enough I've put out tentative feelers towards signing up for learning Dutch at the languages faculty. A bit late perhaps, but something that I'm oddly keen to do.

And I think that sums up my attitude to this year. So far things do feel different to the first and second years here. I don't know whether it's because I'm a year older, or wiser, but the year abroad really seems to have helped my approach and there's no feeling of apprehension about what lies ahead. I guess that my final year here is just going to be the first year on the road to something else, and I can't wait to find out what that something else will be.