Hopefully some of you that weren’t freshers took an opportunity to have some fun at some of the events that were held the past fortnight! This will now become the general events calendar for the rest for the year. If you would like a clearer view idea of the event details just click on “more details” at the bottom of each event; the same content will be presented in a more reader friendly format. We havn’t gotten all the maps in correctly but most of the postal codes are on there and research skills are just as valuable outside the academic environment as they are inside them!
Upcoming Events
This looks absolutely awful. Can’t you do some stuff to cater for the more mainstream students?
I totally agree with Joe! cant we have a suggestion box for students to suggest perhaps other events?
OMG are you taking the piss? This is not a Freshers’ Week at all. Freshers’ Week is about having fun, settling in, and making friends. Obviously no thought or care has gone into planning this and I hope you understand what a Freshers’ Week is within the next couple of weeks and change it to Bar Crawls, Foam Parties and Shag Tags xx
“Freshers’ Week is about having fun, settling in, and making friends.”
So, the problem with these events are … ?
This looks pretty fun and I’m looking forward to it.
You can find all the mainstream stuff anywhere if you can be bothered.
“Freshers’ Week is about having fun, settling in, and making friends.” And getting drunk.
The point is that you can find the mainstream stuff yourself, that’s what you do for the rest of your life, but in Fresher’s week, you shouldn’t have to. It should be done with everyone else
Dear Brett, Dan and Joe, I’m sorry if you’re unhappy with the Freshers’ week programme we have put together… we have decided on purpose to go for some “non-mainstream” events as you can find them anywhere else around you, as Tom correctly said, and here at soas we like to do things our way a bit. And in all fairness, I don’t think this looks that boring, there are loads of parties and music nights going on all over the two weeks… However, feel free to put forward some more clear suggestions about what you’d like to see on at freshers and I promise we’ll work hard to satisfy your desires as much as possible: but please, no shag tags. We’ll be looking forward to hearing your ideas!
WHY SO MUCH YOGA? The only good thing on this list is the pub quiz. The only thing _approaching_ the usual clubbing is the penthouse tribal weirdness, which sounds bizarre anyway.
I think what’s up there so far is actually good but you should have mixed it up with some mainstream events too because even though yes we may will/want to be going to those kind of events for the rest of our lives as you say, freshers is a once in the a lifetime kind of opportunity that we will never experience again, a good mixture of both would be have been good enough to satisfy us all.
Kate: Possibly because there’s more people at SOAS interested in yoga than you think? You’ll understand when you get here… Anyhow, there is no obligation to turn up to things you don’t want to do!
As for the clubbing, I see two beatsoc nights in the first week, Arriba la Cumbia (which always packs out Passing Clouds), an LGBT clubnight which’ll be open to everyone and a Rugby Pub Crawl on the same night, another pub crawl by the japan soc, and finallu the fresher’s ball, which is ALWAYS a club night where the music is far too loud and you can’t hear yourself or anyone else.
When I started at SOAS a few years back (and I am just finishing my Masters now), the parties were organised solely by the union, many of which didn’t drink, and the other events were cringeworthy failures. This year a lot are organised by those societies who know what they are doing – and there is no obligation to join these socs.
The plate looks a little bare at the moment, but remember there’s a ‘next’ button on the calendar (the information isn’t presented that well) and that the SU has to cater for a huge range of freshers’ interest, and that the time’ll fly by.
Have fun – I know you will (if you try!)
Just to throw in a dissenting view here, I think the week looks awesome
Mainstream clubs aren’t my thing, and I wanna spend the week getting to know people, which is difficult over pounding music and drunk throngs – I think the planned events are much more condusive to that.
Besides, there are club nights anyway, and pub crawls – so plenty of opportunities to get trashed and dance the night away
. I’m looking forward to enjoying the events everyone else seems to be moaning about, but maybe I just like picnics and afternoon tea a bit too much ^.^
I think the guys organising this week have put a lot of work into it, and tried to pretty much cover all bases in a SOASified way (barring shag tag). Well done guys, and thanks for the effort
Hi to everyone,
Thanks for your comments on the fresher’s week lineup- personally I think it looks really good, but I can’t speak for everyone. If there’s things you think are missing please, please get in touch with us and let us know- bearing in mind we already have a few pub crawls and club nights lined up.
Also, SOAS tries to break with the idea that you need to rely on big chains, brands and companies to pull off a good party, which is why all the events here are organised by students and societies. It doesn’t mean that the night will be worse because it’s not at Walkabout, or sponsored by Coca-Cola.
Hoping everyone enjoys the week,
Elly x
’shag tag’ – you’re an idiot brett
One thing i’ve noticed about SOAS events is how they’re directed at being non-conformist, going against the grain, and so forth.
Really, there’s a balance that needs to be met. Sure, have the stuff that keeps SOAS the exciting and unique institution that it is, but also have more mainstream events, like asking a cool club like Tiger Tiger, OnAnon etc to maybe discount the entry and some drinks, and maybe stuff like fashion shows, karaoke, and a fun live act for the freshers ball.
that’s just me though. I enjoyed my freshers week last year, but mainly through meeting people in halls and large groups not liking what was on offer, so organising our own stuff.
Matt
I do see their point though. Last year I was a fresher and I did feel quite marginalised by all the pretentious showing-off of people trying to prove how alternative they can be….bit unfair.
Hey as an ex-student who has previously been dissapointed by Fresher’s week, I’m a little bit dissapointed to see that nothing’s changed. Su officials that dont understand the concerns of people who ask for more “mainstream” catered events, please have a look at the Fresher’s weeks of UCl, Kings, RVC, other campus universities Bristol, Bath etc. etc. –
http://www.uclunion.org/events/fresherscalendar.php
I’m sure you’ll see the difference.
Seems at the moment you’ve definately provided lots of interesting and alternative things, but it’s also very easy to point people in the right direction, should they want to go to more commercial and standard Fresher’s events – for example the rough hill fresher’s parties are pretty standard for a Fresher’s week schedule – http://www.roughhill.co.uk/event.php?eid=18831
or at Fabric – http://www.last.fm/event/347410+London+Freshers+Festival
or a handfull of the events on the ucl union website will also be applicable to the rest of UoL students.
Placing some nights like this on the schedule, I think would reassure students that want to party, that they have a student union behind them that can help them find like minded people.
The plug now is that I own a pub and bar crawl business. Check out the website for an idea of what we do. Tickets usually cost £10 but for Fresher’s week, for a promo, with loads of different unis we’ll be offering £4 tickets to people. SOAS rugby are already going to be taking us up on the offer. If the union would like to add a night on the calender to a more general group of students, then we’d be happy to extend the same offer. So SU activites organiser – contact me if you’d like to organise a set date.
And maybe act upon some of the above advice.
last comment I left got, deleted, probs because the end of it looked like an advert so this one doesnt have any of that on it, but still has a valid point.
I’m a little bit dissapointed to see that nothing’s changed. Su officials that dont understand the concerns of people who ask for more “mainstream” catered events, please have a look at the Fresher’s weeks of UCl, Kings, RVC, other campus universities Bristol, Bath etc. etc. –
http://www.uclunion.org/events/fresherscalendar.php
I’m sure you’ll see the difference.
Seems at the moment you’ve definately provided lots of interesting and alternative things, but it’s also very easy to point people in the right direction, should they want to go to more commercial and standard Fresher’s events – for example the rough hill fresher’s parties are pretty standard for a Fresher’s week schedule – http://www.roughhill.co.uk/event.php?eid=18831
or at Fabric – http://www.last.fm/event/347410+London+Freshers+Festival
or a handfull of the events on the ucl union website will also be applicable to the rest of UoL students.
Placing some nights like this on the schedule, I think would reassure students that want to party, that they have a student union behind them that can help them find like minded people.
“we have decided on purpose to go for some “non-mainstream” events as you can find them anywhere else around you”
You’re right there. We DEFINITELY cannot find this elsewhere.
There is a reason some events are ‘mainstream’
It is really dissapointing to see the lack of exciting going out nights, especially compared to other London Union Freshers Weeks.
So many of the Freshers events are left wing stuff that can be done during any time of the year; we’re only going to have one week to party and get to know each other for the first time.
Woah..that’s a whole lotta free yoga
The events aren’t ‘that’ bad, unless of course you’re obsessed with the idea that the soul purpose of Freshers’ Week is to get absolutely smashed (which I believe is a poor excuse to have fun). I think we ought to understand that SOAS is a one of a kind institution; it does things it’s own way and I give credit to how they’ve refrained from making Freshers’ Week all about the alcohol, a convention that every other UoL Freshers’ would’ve conformed to . Thus, I agree with you, Natasha; I guess I just like my picnics a little too much 
Also, what exactly happens on the 26th? The capitalisation of the letters makes everything so exciting though I don’t know what to be excited about :/
And before I forget again; what is the date of the Freshers’ Fair?
Right, so you’re coming to a university renowned for its alternative image, and you want mainstream?
There are going to be just under 1000 freshers, which pretty much puts SOAS in a crap position when negotiating for a decent venue in which to hold a fresher’s party. Then you need to account for the 1/5th of those that don’t drink, and the 30% that remains that have other plans that night, and another 100 are desperately panicking over one of many inevitable administrative fuckups and forget to go.
With that in mind, there are a ton of good nights out seemingly planned. There are a load of parties on the later pages schedule as it is (compared to previous years – could the SU get these events displayed a bit more clearly? I realise the site’s in a state of flux, but it would go a long way to calm this mess down), and they should be better than previous years when the stigma was that it wasn’t worth bothering going because the venue was what was a small cupboard somewhere in ULU, with music way too loud to be able to talk to people to make friends, and £10 tickets in advance and outrageous drink prices. And, predictably, shisha. (For those that just love the smell of other people’s armpits, there’s a meatmarket effect, just in a very tiny space.) I snuck into the Freshers’ do last year at walkabout, and I have to say, it was far, far better.
It may take time, you may think you’ve picked the wrong university during freshers week, but remember:
1) The JCR is getting a refurbishment and’ll probably look too damn clinical (mainstream?) come next June. No doubt the SU exec will eventually be replaced by equally clinical MP wannabes happy to please the top brass of SOAS at your expense.
2) If you’re complaining, you should know where fabric is. Do you need SOAS to come and hold your hand as you walk into the big scary nightclub? There’s more than enough partyage there anyway, given that at most 6-700 people aren’t able to party every night.
3) SOAS is becoming more mainstream, aside from the massive year-on-year increase in numbers, most alumni seem to reminisce about the days of hosting acts before they were famous (Are you old enough to remember Nirvana?) and also the large amount of dubious deals going on in the bar. Can’t see us being ahead of the curve with the gigs like that again these days.
4) If you really feel that something should be done, there’s a democratic process to deal with it. Alternatively, if you kick and scream enough, you might get coverage in the Daily Mail, because they’ll both hate SOAS because they see us as too Left-Wing, and they’ll hate you for wanting to become a drunk youth contributing to the downfall of British Society as we know it.
Seriously? The program is far better than previous years, you get a ball (club night) and a fayre afterparty at SCALA, a stumble away from dinwiddy, and you’re all getting worked up because there’s yoga on the schedules. Please, for the sake of your own sanity, don’t ruin your idea of SOAS before you’ve even turned up, or you’ll never have fun.
And to the SU or whoever’s in charge of doing it: Great work on the new site, far better than the purple mess, but I don’t think it is quite there yet – Hope to see it evolve further!
Why’s everyone being so negative?! Hope you’re not going to be like this for the whole time you’re at SOAS, because that’ll make the experience so miserable.
There’s plenty of nights out, so is the problem with the style of music or something?
The reason I’m moving from Devon to London (and going to SOAS) is to get away from the ‘mainstream’. Where I’m from it’s about 98% white British and almost everyone listens to either indie or chart/dance music. I personally like grime, dubstep, funky house, bassline, reggae, dancehall etc! So I’m excited that some of the events include the music I like, because it’s hard to find where I’m from.
I’m looking forward to some free yoga. But the yoga and left wing debates won’t effect the true party animals anyway because you’ll probably still be in bed!
I was actually expecting freshers week to be less party based than it is, so I’m pleasantly suprised at the number of club events, and am also glad that there’s not so many that I’m going to spend the whole week passed out on my bed haha.
I am looking forward to going to the big clubs too at some point, but we have 3 or 4 years to do that, there’s no rush people!
Let’s all just chill!
(Oh, and thanks to everyone who’s organised these events, I know how stressful it can be, and can’t be nice seeing people being so negative about all your hard work.)
Hello Everyone,
For those starting SOAS this year, please be aware of our long-running campaign to get better rights for our cleaners and come along to a public meeting on the 30th Sept to here whats going on!
On the 2nd October the Governing Body will be deciding whether to employ our cleaners directly, rather than through a seperate company.
Why will it be better to have our cleaners directly employed? Well for years ISS (the cleaning company) have paid our cleaners awful wages, flouted their rights and last summer facilitated a raid by the UK border agency which led to many cleaners being deported from the U.K
So check out our past campaign here…http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/unison/slwc/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=89511288639&ref=ts
COME DOWN ON THE 30TH TO LEARN MORE
AND LET YOUR FEELING KNOWN ON THE 2ND ON THE SOAS STEPS!!!
Personally, i think we should learn to appreciate one anothers bodies, and how lucky we are to be able to touch them, something i feel passionately about. Not every human being has this privilege. For this reason, i think Freshers fortnight should include, for the purpose aquainting with each other, a swingers night or perhaps a nude meditation (only if you feel comfortable in your own skin)
love and kisses Nicola xxx
Good to see everyone is getting involved in Fresher’s this year, and dont worry if you feel that the calendar doesn’t represent what you really want to see – We were in the same boat last year, and thats why BeatSoc was set up – its specifically to put on more mainstream and standard nights, politics free, which everyone needs once in a while!
Check out the website: http://www.beatsoc.co.uk
Just to give you an idea of the events we’ve got coming up over freshers for you…
27th September – Freshers Welcome at Bar B-Lo :: First night of freshers to welcome all of SOAS’s newcomers – BeatSoc DJ’s manning the decks all night, cheap cheap drinks and best of all FREE entry!
29th September – BeatSoc Resident & Guests taking over the decks all night in Room One at SOAS Versions at Penthouse, Leicester Square.
3rd October – BeatSoc closing the Freshers Fair after party at SCALA with 90 minutes of the best in Electro, Funky & Dubstep.
5th October – SOAS Warriors Rugby Ball at SWAY, BeatSoc taking over the controls all night on this one.
9th October – Freshers Ball at Islington O2 Academy – Again, another chance to catch that fix of good raw beats courtesy of BeatSoc’s residents – hosting the main room all night!
Also, if your interested in helping us with events and generally filling that gap you’ve all seen in the freshers calender then get in touch! We’re all fellow SOAS students running this, and any help we can get is appreciated – if your a DJ, MC, or just damn keen then drop me an email at rob@beatsoc.co.uk
See you all in freshers! x
Hold tight Nicola… maybe a sesh in dinwiddy some time? hit me back..
This website is dreadful! Have you seen lse’s SU website. http://www.lsesu.com/ I look forward to all the free yoga.
Ohhhhhhh! Check it out! Some new events seems to have been added to the list! There’s less yoga on the list now
Dear folks organising freshers’ events,
I’m a returning second year postgrad, so already feeling a bit on the fringe. I’m not a fresher but would like to know about what’s going on to celebrate the beginning of term.
How come I’ve not received a single email or letter about what’s going on at the beginning of term? Looking at this website (which I found today, ok not great research skills but hey), what you’ve got on looks good, but I didn’t know about it.
There are lots of part-time/multi year postgrads so why don’t you appoint one of them postgrad officer so somebody remembers we exist?
My department’s equally guilty of this, to be fair.
Anyway, what I’d like to know is when the freshers’ fair is on – anyone?
Hey, im a first year undergrad…
I was really surprised with the freshers because as someone who is more mainstream, i began to question whether i would be an outsider at SOAS… but i feel better looking at the comments, quite clearly there is some conventional normality amongst the marches and political banners. Students union should represent all students. Either SOAS is catering for the majority of people when it sets up this “alternative” events or it is being overly PC and targeting the minorities… Either way, its quite obvious that you represent all of us, and whether majority or minority, the mainstream students should still be a priority which clearly we are not.
Big up Beat Soc, and anyone who is fed up with what they see on the events list, i suggest you support the guys trying to do something about it.
Look forward to meeting you guys, whatever your views.
Nev
I agree with Chloes comment, why don’t we know more about what is going on?
This website seems very rough and does not leave a good impression. I am a returning student to SOAS and remember very clearly that the vast majority of people who attended the nights out on freshers week (not the day events) (even thought the non-mainstream events are actually mainstream) were very disappointed, for two main reasons: the first was the locations of the clubs or bars – really seedy hard to get to areas and the second reason was the unbelievable prices! I remember paying 20 pounds for the rugby ball and the cheapest drink being 7 pounds!! I don’t know about you but i dont have that kind of money. Why not have some nights where we go somewhere umm, like the rocket? It is cheap, does student discounts, close to SOAS undergraduate halls, and there will be students from London Universities there. I understand that SOAS is not mainstream but the kind of people that go to the bars at night clearly want mainstream otherwise why would they be there??
It’s all a bit lame really. Yoga? Why not give it a twist, maybe something specific to different regions. Some Balanese dance or some Mawi drums beats… come on guys – this could be amazing!!!
Right, as the guy in charge of the website and watching all these comments rattle in about design, I’ll reiterate that the last one was worse; far, far, worse and left ignored. Consider it freshly liberated from the legions of student marketing companies offering cheap web hosting shoving adverts in your face.
This current iteration is (in mine and others opinion), the most sensible website the SOAS SU has had since 1997, despite being planned, coded and launched within 24 hours (despite being oft-talked about). It’s also been slapped together with myself forced into exile in Birmingham (due in part to the glacial pace of some quarters of SOAS) trying to get files, notes and feedback from the SU in London, and despite juggling this and 3 or 4 other projects at the same time, I’ve also taken a two week holiday.
The site looks rough because it is, and is probably totally unrepresentative of how the final product’ll look in a month or two. You had the choice of the unmaintained old purple thing telling you nothing (because I don’t think anyone really knew how to update it) whilst we went all public consultation and took time to design something that everyone would probably hate anyway; or this spartan effort, at least telling you something! We’re still fiddling with getting everything on the site, we’ll be fiddling with the look and feel once we have it all working.
The emphasis was on participation, and with 32 comments already in 11 days on this post alone, I think we’ve reached that aim. Things can only get better.
tl;dr: We’re sorry if you don’t like things as they are, (and we’re not happy with everything ourselves) – please consider this as “BETA”, and all constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome – but please leave it for the forum, which pending approval from Sebilio in London, I’ll have up tomorrow!
—
Under a more personal-opinion subheading, because I have nothing to do with the union outside of this site (except for occasionally buying lunch there) – I think the calendar’s better on paper than in previous years, with the beatsoc with their sticky paws in most of the parties things should be better on that front, and the people organising the calendar aren’t teetotalers who cannot start a barbecue, as was my freshers’ experience. Despite this I still made a ton of friends and I didn’t even live in Dinwiddy, and haven’t regretted choosing SOAS as the place to waste away 4 years studying at all.
Make the friends, speak to everyone you see on your first days in SOAS go out and have mainstream fun by yourselves. (Or stay in, get cheep booze and use your hifi, but Dinwiddy wouldn’t like me encouraging the inevitable!). Worked for us.
If you’re still not happy, your challenge is to come to a unified decision between the lot of you what a mainstream night would involve. Mine would involve some pretentious chilled-out expensive cocktail bar in Shoreditch or a real ale pub. The Rocket really isn’t SOAS territory – I’ve known times the bouncers kept anyone SOAS out to avoid altercations with UCL students, as it is ‘their’ pub…
On the lack of divined info: How many essays did you hand in at 3:58PM on the day of the deadline? It’s the air in SOAS. Everyone else is just as last minute as you are!
Seriously though, I’ll poke the right people for you to try and do something by the end of the week.
And the Yoga? For four years of SOAS I’ve been getting emails from student services offering the possibility of Yoga. I’d never be seen dead there, but for it to be consistently offered some people must love it!
i think the ‘mainstream’ of people are enjoying the last bit of their holidays and will enjoy freshers week and all the events that are planned when they get here. a message to freshers: london, a place of 8 million people, has something for everyone. every night there are dozens of ‘mainstream’ parties happening across town that you can go to- indeed, promoters see students as easy money. what i see the soas union trying to do is providing an alternative to that, something uniquely soas that doesn’t happen in other places. if you want to listen to rnb and drink corona that is cool, and you can do that with all your friends. if you want to engage with the fabric of what soas is about thent he events that the SU have planned are pretty close to the full bag and you should stop moaning and go and enjoy your last week.
SOAS DON’T YOU GET IT?! people need to stop turning their nose up at ‘mainstream’. By mainstream I think we mean having more ‘general’ events that will cater for a bigger proportion (like the soas ball we had earlier this year, sooooooo many people were there from all different kinds of ‘groups’)
Things like a vegan picnics only caters to a tiny minority, and yoga and activism day and veggie lunch and temple tour and womens liberation AGAIN only caters for a minority of students. Probably the same minority of students will go to all of those events. It’s unfair that this middle-class ‘I’m fighting for other people’ mentality really leaves a vast majority of people out. Marxists indeed….Marx hated people like that. It also alienates a lot of ethnic minorities. I know its a generalisation to say that ‘they’ enjoy different things but a lot of these events cater specifically to the white-middle-class.
I’m glad that soas has these events and encourages activism but there doesn’t need to be a trade-off between being a ‘typical’ teenager and being one who enjoys helping others. Why does it have to be seen as either one or the other???? I enjoy having a night out on the town n having a few drinks but I also do a lot of acitivism outside of uni and a lot of voluntary work. I can’t put this any plainer. Stop looking down on the majority of people and cater for everyone.
Thanks Maya
‘if you want to listen to rnb and drink corona that is cool, and you can do that with all your friends. if you want to engage with the fabric of what soas is about thent he events that the SU have planned are pretty close to the full bag and you should stop moaning and go and enjoy your last week.’
Exactly my point. I didnt realise that I’m not a part of what soas really is (which you feel can be defined) because I like RnB. Exactly why I say that Ifeel totally marginalised by SOAS and this is exactly why soas is researching why a lack of ethnic minorities attend SOAS. I know because I completed the survey. I know I speak for a lot of people because this comes up very often among the ethnic minorities at our uni. I guess I’m not a part of SOAS then, Maya.
When I was a fresher, SOAS was a community that respected the place for its various quirky groups, even if we don’t take them seriously. What pisses me off about the whole bloody lot of you is you’re complaining about the excess of cultural and social diversity at a university where the excess is one of the major draws of students.
And Miss Camelia, what makes SOAS is the people – you’ve been here at least a year judging by your comments, and you’ve had every opportunity to do something to get yourself and other likeminded people together with union support. If the Beatsoc can be this organised for doing stuff outside the perceived SOAS norm, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you and a few friends doing the same. And you could even get some promoters in to help (make some easy money off students) if you don’t have the time to manage it all. I’d say that the problem with freshers’ week a couple of years back was too much bloody R’n'B (and too loud too), but obviously attempting a balance in these weeks is impossible.
Lack of ethnic minorities in SOAS? Has the number of working-class “White British” students dropped to a dangerously low level again?
Hi everyone again,
After reading the most recent comments, I feel compelled to say: given that the calendar has been updated with loads more parties and includes a hangover lounge, two pub crawls and fun, non-political things like picnics (by the way, everyone can enjoy yeggie food- it’s not exclusive!)- why are people still upset at the events on offer? No one has to attend the feminist self-defence classes or the women’s liberation discussion (although they will of course be spankingly fantastic), but as has been mentioned we need to cater for everyone. A calendar full of nights at fabric and days at the pub wouldn’t cater for everyone either.
Like we’ve mentioned many times, if there is something you think should be included on the calendar that isn’t then please let us know- but please don’t imply that we should take down the ‘non mainstream’ events.
Thanks,
Elly
I for one actually think this line up looks pretty cool. I think it may have changed slightly since the last time i saw it, for the better i must say, but even prior to the added party nights i thought it looked pretty good. I definitely choose soas for it’s reputation for being multi cultural and varied in what it offers and am glad to see the freshers week is representative of that. To be honest if there was not feminist freshers discussions goings on i would be very disappointed; as i thought we all chose soas knowing gladly that this is what we could hope for. I did. This is also not to say i go to all the free yogo, i probably wont and I think anyone who doesn’t want to should not but i am glad it is there. What wrong with yoga!
I have to admit i was slightly worried about what the freshers night scene would be like but there freshers events looks positively wicked and I am glad there are a bit different; i am well excited about the beatsoc events more so than i would be if it was an non unique soas mainstream event and agree with Elly, i don’t know why anybody would suggest the less mainstream events be taken down. Surely that’s what makes it, and i don’t think that is being pretentious but true.
Everyone’s different, and i appreciate that our union even exists in the first place…. people who want to make a difference and change things, why not join the union? If this has been a problem for a long time, its not exactly a good indication if nothing has changed because we are ultimately responsible…?
The other unions (like ucl) cater in a certain way because the students make sure this is the case.
So if an activist day isnt your thing, get involved…
Yoga is for mainstream people.
Mainstream people have digestive problems, stifness in their muscles and joints, respiratory problems, etc.
Mainstream people also experience anger, irritation, lack of concentration, insomnia,laziness, lack of concentration, impatience, envy, lust, depression, hatred, etc.
I am a mainstream guy and I have at some point identified with all of the above, and more.
Yoga addresses all these issues. Through Yoga you begin to become mindful of the states of the mind, and as you learn to observe them, you begin to realise the impersonal, impermanent nature of these mental states.
Working with the body, as you come into a posture, you can begin to release blockages in the body, but also in the mind, so you can be more open-minded, which is also very beneficial. As you get to know yourself you fell more open to meet other people and begin to experience your own happiness, but can also experience sympathetic joy, which is double-happiness: yours and your mates! which mentions on the Brett Carter’s point of making friends and having fun.
Of course, if getting off your head, going to parties, and raves is what you want to do… then go for it!! You might find there will be plenty of them to keep you busy and give you plenty of pleasure, but remember this: it is only momentarily (how do you feel atfer an all-night party getting pissed and taking drugs).
Someone said to me the other day that even if you could get everything, anything you want in this life, I mean whatever your mind can think of, if you could get that an more for the rest of your life, you will never be happy. That kind of happiness vanishes very, very soon, then you want something else.
Through Yoga I have learned a little bit, I mean a tiny bit about myself,and I am just a lot happier. But I have also learned that that happiness, even though is the kind of happines that gives you roots, that gives me balanced, that makes me think: This mind can take anything, because I have seen how deep the rabbit hole goes, that kind of happines is also impermanent , just like this body is too.
so how about giving yourself a chance?
Remember to leave your shoes, socks and expectation behind as you walk into the room.
Limited places, so turn up early
man, dis is an disgrace, this events cater 4 da middle class rebels and there ain’t enuff shobs and tings. soas union needs to fix and allow dem tings. just because some mandem at da union like to hugs trees don’t mean we all. u get me fam?
safe
Max, I understand might not like what’s being put by the union. I’m not really into bowling, pub quiz, rugby, eh christian union, etc but you know what, so good for them, and I let them be. I hope there is more of those so there is more of a variety in SOAS, ’cause that’s what I love about this place, the meeting of minds. Nevertheless I made some arrangements so there could be some of what I thought people would be interested?
Forget about middle-class or working class or whatever, because at the end of the day we’re all people, persons, humans. Where is the separation? It is only apparent.
How can a yoga class be for the so called middle-class if it’s free?
I myself couldn’t go to university in my home country because my mother had no money to raise my brother and I. At one point she had to call my dad so he could look after us but he didn’t really care. Man I respect my mum. Eventually I left the country by any means and worked real hard for many years all over before ending up in the UK and SOAS. Excuse me, am I getting to personal?? Because that’s the problem when we generalize, we fall in the trap of accusing without knowing.
I guess you’re not being peronal, and in any case I don’t take it personally, but it’s good to make things clear.
Do you own a bike? You should check the bike Doctors, they’re really cool and one might learn something from them.
what about friday night at Passing Clouds?
And the gig on 9 Oct by khantara.com? It is the Justice for Cleaners campaign. Is that middle-class too? tell you man, I bet some of the guy who clean after our terrible habits are middle or even upper-class back home. I did those same jobs not long ago, quite a humble experience.
Anyway, act out my friend, propose, that’s what the union needs, people with ideas like I’m sure you have, then in the end it won’t all turn to be a disgrace for you.
Good luck and peace
My god, the inaugural lecture looks scary.
Hi there,
I’ve missed the freshers’ fayre, could anyone tell me how to get in touch with the yoga and boxing societies?
Cheers!!
Tom
Hi Tom, not too sure about boxing but the guy who runs yoga is called Carlos and his email is bsolrax@aim.com. Ben will probably know about the boxing society- his office is on the right hand side of the JCR. x
to contact the yoga society go to ‘SOAS Yoga Society’ on facebook, or email at soasyoga@yahoo.co.uk