Bimbling off to uni…
By Jennifer Lynam
For any student, Freshers’ week is a nerve wracking time. No matter how much you’ve been prepped with stories and advice from parents, older siblings or friends, you never really know what it’s like until it’s you navigating a new home and a new life. But the spirit of Oxford’s independents makes exploring your new city that bit more exciting and who knows, you might even make some friends, as well as those precious early memories, on your first adventures settling in.
Seeing the skyline of the city which will be your new home; its maze of winding streets, lined with shop fronts that form a seemingly endless script of names is a daunting sight. Like something out of a storybook, fear of the unknown begins to set in and you feel lost — literally and figuratively. These bubbling emotions, however, give way to the joy of excitement and the thrill of discovery. The chance to make memories is what makes going to university in a new city so enticing.
Driving to Oxford to start my own university experience, on a miserable morning in October, brought up all these feelings of nervousness within me. As my mum drove down Cowley Road, with its host of bustling cafés, restaurants and shops, the street morphed into a blur as I attempted to take a mental note of the places I wanted to visit.
As I walked down Turl Street and through the Covered Market on that very first October morning and observed the shutters rising, the coffee machines grinding and the shop fronts coming to life, I had no idea of the importance that these places would hold at the end of my first year. I did not know that it would be in these very places where my precious memories of Freshers’ week would be eternally attached. It is in these places where my memories are stored.
It’s not every day that you meet people who you know will be your lifelong friends- but during Freshers’ week I certainly did. As I reflect on the week, I have realised the importance of Oxford’s scene of independents which animated my first encounters with the people who I now call my close friends. It was in The White Rabbit, for example, an independent pub, located in Friar’s entry where I met my best friend Kitty. After being seated in the cosy outdoors area of the pub with some fellow freshers, I noticed another table of students who also went to the same college as us. After a friendly wave of acknowledgement to each other, I realised that I recognised Kitty from the English Literature induction- only to find out that we would be tutorial partners for the whole of first year. We became instant friends and since this first encounter, we have religiously sat down to enjoy the White Rabbit’s infamous duo of a pizza and a pint.
During my first term at Oxford, Kitty and I got well acquainted with many more of Oxford’s independents. Lunch breaks were spent at the Covered Market, either enjoying a hearty feast from alpha bar (a common student favourite) or indulging in a fresh baguette from Soif de France. After a particularly stressful tutorial, we would treat ourselves to a brownie from The Alternative Tuck Shop, or alternatively to a caffeine boost from The Missing Bean. If ever we wanted some retail therapy, we would raid Oxford’s many vintage shops such as Unicorn on Ship Street. These places are filled with our laughter, our conversations and are marked with our friendship.
When I look back on Freshers’ week and first year, it seems that Oxford’s independents are like memory boxes, overflowing with good times from my first year of university. Had I discovered Bimble during the first few days in Oxford, perhaps I would have felt at home even sooner and had even more unforgettable experiences with friends. Because Bimble encourages people to explore new places it’s a no brainer for any fresher coming to a new city for the first time. Bimble helps to unlock the discoverer within us all.
‘Shall we go to that bar with the umbrellas outside?’ I would ask other students in Freshers’ in week as we tried to make plans for a night out. Little did I know that the umbrellas that I was describing were those of Café Baba whose vibrancy I would only be acquainted with at the end of my first year. If I had been a Bimble user in those early days of university, not only would I have made more memories on Cowley Road (immortalised of course through drunken selfies), but I would have immersed myself into even more of the host of great, little places which give Oxford its identity.
Take a look at my Bimble which contains all the places I discovered with my friend Kitty during our first year of university here.
