Societies Award Ceremony and Ball 2013

This year has been incredible - no other way to describe it really. We have organised so many events, been on so many trips and had so so much fun, we don't feel like it could have been much better and the committee have loved every minute of it. So when we found out that we had been nominated for 5 awards it really was the cherry on top of the icing of a very large cake =]

The awards we were up for were:

Best president
Class Clown (for Emily's amazing antics in Dublin!!)
Most Improved society
Best event (for Race Around Reading)
Best Trip (for Central America last summer)

And we actually won quite a few!!!! First up was Emily's success - we knew she was going to win that one!! Who can beat that Dublin story, it will go down in travel soc history!!! Love the way they read it out to the whole of 360 as well!! Next up was Best trip - we couldn't quite believe that we had won award for going on holiday!! And finally we won Most improved society which is what we were most happy about!!! We have done so much more this year than the previous year and have all worked so hard, we were desperate for this award. But still couldn't believe it when we got it! We went crazy!!

And then finally they announced the Rewards and Recognition points which you basically get every time you do an event or social! And we came second in that (after St John's bloody ambulance who apparently win everything!!), making us a 5* society which will hopefully attract a lot of  people next year!!

We have literally had a ball and loved every minute of organising everything for you!!! Us three who aren't on the committee next year will definitely make sure we come along to everything because we will miss you too much. And we hope that next year is going to be just as fun and that you have enjoyed it as much as we have.

Lots of love, Jade, Jo, Charlotte W, Nicole, Emily and Charlotte C xxxx
 

New Committee

So the other night we had our hustings. The votes have been counted and verified and the new committee for 2013 - 2014 are as follows!

President: Jade Taylor
She did such a good job this year that we just had to have her again!!!

Vice President: Hannah Banks
Her links with Spark*, as she is also the travel editor for 2013-2014, will be so valuable plus she seems to have travelled absolutely everywhere!

Secretary: Connie Chau
Again she seems to have travelled everywhere!!

Treasurer: Nicole Sarahs
Like Jade, we thought we would miss her too much if we didn't have her and her mathematic-y skills on the committee this year

Publicist: Emily Roashan
Taking on a new role this year, we can't wait to have Emily and her antics with the committee again

Social Secretary: Ryan Sweeney
He went on a pub crawl in Dublin dressed up as a duck - this year is going to be fun.

General Committee: Tom Herman
He's been there for literally everything this year. Can not wait to have him join us

And just to say a quick goodbye to our three leaving Jo Healy (VP), Charlotte Woods (Secretary) and Charlotte Coster (General Committee). We will miss it so much but will definitely still come along for events (particularly the Charlottes who are still at uni in Reading!) We could never truly abandon everyone

Stonehenge and Bath (members trip) - 2/3/13

On the 2nd March 2013 the Travel Society at The University of Reading endeavored upon a short pilgrimage to Bath and visited England's very own, "wonder of the world": Stonehenge.
So, you're thinking: cavemen. Ancient rocks. Pagans. Big deal! Well, I initially thought that too when I signed up to go. But after an hours drive to get there I began to see and truly appreciate why these rocks are so special to our culture.
Now, I've passed this famous "wonder of the world" countless times in my past. My parents always slowed down and made my siblings and I marvel at it. Being young and preoccupied with my then Game Boy, I moaned and commented on how: "it's just a bunch of big silly rocks", not truly comprehending the magnificence of them.
However, this recent trip opened my eyes and I couldn't help but wonder what they meant.
Why were they placed in these strange positions and what did it mean to those who created them?
I find it amazing how these rocks were transported hundreds of miles by foot. Or so we are led to believe. Why did they not just choose rocks which originated from the Somerset area?
Wouldn't that have saved time and effort? But why were they moved? And what is so special about those rocks and placing them specifically there? What do they mean?
Myself and fellow Spark* Travel Editor, Emma Reeves, pondered over these questions; finding them fascinating and imagined our own crazy answers.
Next, the Travel Society drove us all into Bath. For me, I have previously visited all the tourist attractions on offer in Bath and was quite looking forward to an afternoon exploring the shops. However, I was pleasantly surprised and quite enjoyed revisiting the Roman Baths and Pump Room; visiting Jane Austen's house; trying the sulfurous water again (which smells like rotten egg), and visiting the Circus and Royal Crescent. It was so nice to walk through the City and imagine I was a tourist, visiting these places for the first time. My friend and I spent hours wandering along the cobbled streets chatting away and having fun.
It made me truly appreciate English culture and history and realise that travelling doesn't have to be exotic and to some faraway place. It can be one hour away from Reading.

Thanks to Hannah Banks, brand new Vice President of the Travel Soc, for this wonderful review of what we got up to in the historic city and Charlotte Coster, present General Committee for photos.

Dublin 8/2/13 - 11/2/13

So finally, our wonderful travel society managed to make it across the ocean and off our little island - to another little island!! Yes, we might not have gone far but that definitely didn't make it any less fun. Or crazy.

We set off very early on Friday 8th February...7am to be precise and snoozed away up the country, through Wales, eventually getting on the ferry around 2pm. From there a group decided they were going to set up camp on the floor to continue their naps, much to the amusement of the other passengers in readiness of our first night out. Which happened literally minutes after we arrived at the hostel. After checking in at The Generator, we had a mere half an hour to change into our costumes, which all began with a 'D' or an 'I' so we had doctors, drunkards, dancers, IloveTour Reps, ducks, a dalmatian, a dork, and many others...and dressed like that, we wandered around pubs in the temple bar area, drinking far too much, listening to live Irish bands and being chatted up by the locals! (and getting with them in some cases *cough* jade *cough*)

Not suprisingly there were a few sore heads the next morning but that didn't stop us from seeing the sights. Many took advantage of the Hop on Hop off bus, which carted us all over town with the driver telling us all sorts of facts about the wonderful city...none of which I can remember! It meant that we could see a huge number of the sites quickly and easily, including Trinity College, the castle (from the outside only as it was shut) the main bank, a number of different squares and greens that were actually rectangles apparently, Phoenix Park, Dublin Zoo, Kilmainham Gaol (or Gah-ohl or Goal as Jo liked to pronounce it) museums, art galleries, Molly Malone, Oscar Wilde, the Jameson Factory...and many more! Some brave souls even continued drinking but the majority of us waited for the evening and the second night out to Club M...which somehow reulted in three people being evicted from the hostel after they tried to swim down the corridor...we shan't name any names, shall we Emily, Jade and Hannah :P To be honest, I just think the security guards hated you because you were singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot very loudly!! Who knew their singing was that bad! Haha!

Despite their homelessness and yet another sore head the next morning, we still managed to make it to the Guiness Storehouse...who knew the amount of effort and love that went into every single pint!! It was interesting to see all the different processes and then we finished off the tour with free food, learning how to pull the perfect pint and yet more drinking at the famous gravity bar at the very top of the storehouse. And our final afternoon in dublin was spent with yet more sight seeing for some, while others sat and drank (more alcohol!!) whilst watching England thrash Ireland in the rugby!!


All in all, I am absolutely certain that my liver is shot! But it was so worth it!! Thanks to everyone who came - you made the trip so epic! And we will have to all get together for St Patrick's Day to celebrate further in Irish style.  And for those of you that missed out, don't worry, we will be definitely having more trips like that soon!

Give it a go trip to Stonehenge and Bath

Hello and Happy New Year to our beautiful travel society members and readers!!!

As we are settling back into term, we have had a rather slow start to 2013's travel events (don't worry - more will be coming soon!!) but our first little trip was a minibus full of eager new potential members who headed over to the west country as part of the uni's give it a go week!

After a rather windy walk around the beautiful Stonehenge, we then headed over to Bath to soak up some more ancient culture. Sites here included the Roman Baths, the beautiful abbey, we viewed the oldest house in Bath (which happens to also be the home of the Sally Lunn bun), we saw the weir (which I can just watch for hours by accident!! haha!), we wandered along the river and of course, fit in a little bit of shopping as it is so amazing there!

All in all it was a really wonderful day and we hope that some of you came along might be tempted to sign up for the society and join us on our future trips. These include a trip to Dublin (next week!! eeeeeeee); another trip to Bath for our members so they don't feel left out, a night out will be on the cards very soon, a comedy night if you guys want it and finally some punting in Oxford in March (hopefully the sun might have made an appearence!) So come and join in the fun!!!

Lots of love, RUTS xxxx 

Fairtrade Cocktail Evening, Christmas Club Crawl and Winchester

Sorry for the delay for writing these events up - deadlines ate all of us up over the past few weeks but this does not mean that the Travel Society wasn't as active as ever. So here's what we got up to in the last three weeks of term.

Fairtrade Cocktail Evening - 22/11/12

First up, we joined forces with the Fairtrade Society and the RU Not drinking too much society for an evening of non-alcoholic cocktails. We were in charge of preparing them and made several yummy travel themed ones. It was a really great evening, getting to know some members of other societies and taking part in a quiz.

Christmas Club Crawl - 3/12/12
Monday saw us hit the town in style. Armed with santa hats we started off in Cape with free pizza and cocktails. We then moved on to walkabout where we were given shots and jaegarbombs before moved to Revs where we had more shots, champagne and drinks. And that was just the predrinks. I am surprised anyone made it to Q bar, but made it we did, just about and danced the night away. Such a fun evening!

Winchester - 8/12/12
To finish off the term in further christmassy style, our final trip was to visit the Christmas markets in Winchester. After a bit of a mix up at the beginning and a little bit of an argument with the train conductor, we did eventually make it to find the city centre absolutely packed with holiday shoppers. We all seperated off to do our own thing but our group saw five of us wandering around the city centre, visiting the cathedral, accidentally trespassing into winchester college, taking a romantic stroll along the river, eating a christmas roast in the pub and of course, drinking the almost compulsory mulled wine and cider in the market. An absolutely fabulous day that was perfect to get us into the mood for christmas :D

































Huge thanks to everyone who has come along to stuff this term...we have had an absolute ball and hope you guys all enjoyed yourselves as well.
Much love, Merry Christmas and here's to an even better term, next term.
Love RUTS xxx

If you haven't already, join us:
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On Twitter https://twitter.com/TravelSocUoR

Windsor 8/11/12

Here we are on our first day trip of the year which took 14 of us down to Windsor for a ghostly night tour of the haunted buildings in the centre of town. We had a grisly informational tour consisting of tales of murder, suicide and ghostly goings on in the most normal looking houses. I don't know about anyone else but I got thoroughly creeped out so we all headed to a local pub to recover our nerves. And instead we got shouted at by a very scary barman, for rearranging the furniture. All our nerves were well and truly shot =] But it was fun none the less!

Lots of love, RUTS xxxx

Coming up next
21st November - Fairtrade Cocktail Evening - come and join us for an evening of fun. And the best bit is that its free for members.

And if you haven't already, join us:
On facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/402056619830384/?ref=ts
On Twitter https://twitter.com/TravelSocUoR