Open Day

It was De Montfort University's Open Day today so 10am found us driving to Sophie's friend Danni's house to pick her up before we headed over to Leicester. It was the most beautiful day for September - a gorgeous blue sky and lots of sunshine with warm temperatures. The leaves are just beginning to change colour and I read that because of the warm summer we may have a fantastic Autumn. I hope so!

We arrived at De Montfort at just after 11am and struggled to find a parking space, despite signs directing us to special Open Day car parks. Finally I squeezed into a space on the street but we could only park there for three hours, with no return within another three hours. We made our way to the main campus and Sophie registered.

There were people everywhere and it was chaos! The first thing I craved was a strong cup of coffee (and some strong painkillers as well...no, I wasn't hungover!) so we grabbed a table in the busy cafe and while the girls settled down with a drink I ran to a campus Spar and bought a packet of Nurofen! Next up was something to eat after which we all felt a bit better.

There was lots (and I mean lots!) going on and I felt we were very unprepared for the day. As Danni was thinking of doing a different course to Sophie I quickly realised that we weren't going to be able to fit everything in. They decided they wanted to go to a talk on student life first so we found the room it was being held in and settled down to listen to an ex-student talk about her experiences of the University. I thought the talk was great but afterwards Sophie just freaked out, saying she didn't like the campus and wanted to go home.

I managed to persuade her to book onto an accommodation tour at 2.30pm and then we went to have a look at one of the buildings where she would be taking lectures and tutorials. As soon as she was inside the building she wanted to go back outside, saying she hated it!

Poor Danni was a bit bemused so I suggested we go and look at the brand new business centre where Danni would be taking her courses. Sophie wants to study Criminology but I think she may have changed her mind now! In an effort to calm Sophie down I said we could go and have a drink and sit down and relax for a while, but the Costa Coffee we went into had run out of chocolate so that didn't go down well! We sat outside in the sun and met another of Sophie's friends, Charlotte, who was visiting with her parents. They told us there was a talk on Criminology starting at 1pm in another brand new building so we sped over and managed to sneak in, despite being five minutes late.

The talk was supposed to have finished at 1.30pm but we were still in there at almost 2pm and I was beginning to sweat as the ticket for the car ran out at just after 2pm! The three year degree course sounded very interesting and I felt nothing but envy for Sophie and her friends at all the opportunities they have ahead of them. I regret not going to University and wish that I could take a career break and go and study something I find really interesting. I thought the campus was lovely and I was impressed by all the facilities on offer for the students.

Sophie, however, had different ideas and just wanted to go home. In a way I knew how she felt as she said it was all a bit overwhelming, and there was so many people about she felt crowded. I was surprised by her reaction as I thought she would love it, especially as she raved about the place when she went to see Lewis Watson. We agreed in the car on the way home to go to another Open Day as I felt we hadn't done enough to appreciate all that the University has to offer. Sophie is thinking of having a Gap Year, which I think would be a good thing and would give her the opportunity to have a bit of a breather before plunging into another three years of study.

We never made the accommodation tour and returned to the car to go home. After dropping Danni off we went home and Sophie got what she wanted - to curl up on the sofa and watch her favourite television programme! Home is best!