Cambridge Formals

so far:

* Gonville and Caius *
- standing at the back of the queue (I said queue! line!) for Superhall tickets while everyone else cut the queue for 45 minutes and being very very afraid that they were going to run out of tickets by the time we got to the front - getting the second to last ticket -
- bringing lots of people - random or not - to normal formal halls to get rid of my tickets - can now eat wherever I want for rest of term :)

* Peterhouse *
- MITers with a bottle of wine each - some guy's birthday party, resulting in a drunken speech on top of the table and mooning us (twice) with English flag boxers - more drunkeness at the bar afterwards

* St. John's *
- quite quiet because of the formal hall boycott - gorgeous hall and food oh my the best - extremely strict porter - one of us almost getting kicked out for trying to penny - taking lots of pictures of hall after the fellows leave the high table - hanging out afterwards and talking half in Chinese the rest of the night about Chinese movies, Chinese food, Chinese cities, Singapore, whatever else random topics

* Churchill *
- launch of Spring Ball theme - seeing white girls with white face powder and their definition of a makeshift kimono - thinking oh god what if the Spring Ball theme is like, Japan or something? - finding out the Spring Ball theme is Neon Sunrise Tokyo, combination of old Japanese culture and the new neon light modern raves of Tokyo - seeing half the dressed up people in Chinese rather than Japanese clothes - a guy in a Hello Kitty costume head that was made out of a de-stuffed pillow - Japanese food for superhall - teaching one to eat with choptsticks! - one talking up an East Asian studies major - going from Churchill room to St John's - trying to learn how to ride a bicycle along the way - making a fool of myself - ending up giving each other and thinking about brainteasers most of the night - meeting the awesomely funny drunk next door neighbor - taking turns going to another "special" room to see if one has the correct answer - me being very happy I solved it first

* Trinity *
- not a day for good food - college bar pool and Foosball - watching replays of Man U v Stokes 5-0 at the bar - as much as I can drink in 10 minutes? okay not really - playing guitar and You Don't Know Jack on the computer - not going to the toga party - riding on the back of a bicycle while driver not completely sober - ending up listening and singing to Chinese songs until 5am

* Girton *
- so freaking far away - thank goodness for friend's car transportation - entering through the back entrance and walking all the way through the college to the front - nice JCRs, swimming pool, squash court, Tesco down the road... Girton is self-sufficient - life after Girton? life outside of Girton? - meeting new people - realizing the whole long hall table is reserved for CUMSA group - no pennying allowed, but secret spooning - pennying dessert - college bar drinking but then half the guys getting banned for drunken rowdiness - very amusing drunks - going on a big walking tour of Girton while making sure one person doesn't throw up - lots and lots of cam whoring the whole night - what a Girton adventure

* Christ *
- tomorrow - supposedly lots of pennying to get ready for :P

this is the way to live [London]

driving into London Chinatown just for dinner
buying ramen yummy ramen for friends
knockoff pocky definitely not as good as real pocky!
meandering around Chinatown
navigating the Chinatown alleyways for Hong Kong Cafe by a friend on the phone
salivating over crispy golden ducks hanging in store front windows
London night time sightseeing by car
taking city pictures through rainy windshields
leaning out the window of the moving car into the rain in order to get better shots

walking halfway across London and seeing it all again in the daytime
Trafalgar Square
Nelson's Column

Buckingham Palace
Westminister Abbey
Thames River walk
not getting to the Tower of London
random sculptures along the sidewalk
obligatory London telephone booth pictures
walking walking talking learning just looking window-shopping where are we going
riding the red double-decker city bus around Hyde Park
Harrod's posh-ness
Harrod's restroom posh-ness
Harvey Nichols being the same as ten years ago
Fifth floor sushi on a conveyor belt
Tube-ing it for the first time
Pirandello, Gieguld Theater lights
cider pre- and mid- drinks
London nightscapes again


waking up oh so early
breakfast in the car
stories and history lessons in the car
Tower of London terror and dark dungeon galore
in awe of the Crown Jewels
hehe Buckingham red guard bears
the White Tower armouries
Henry VIII's enormity
guns guns guns germs and steel
prisoner's chambers and their wall graffiti
rushing madly to Stonehenge
running around Stonehenge like crazy and taking 1000 pictures in 15 minutes
trading cameras and taking more pictures
taking more pictures just because we can
did I mention pictures?
did I mention sheep?
pat pat baa baa white sheep
all the angles of Stonehenge

making a U turn in the middle of the highway to detour to Woodhenge
running around, jumping around
laughing
having Woodhenge all to ourselves
action pictures
fun pictures
random pictures
what a playground
dinner randomly through GPS
the best Peking roast duck place ever

train station parking
taking the train into London
King's Cross, wondering where Platform 9 3/4 is
finally, English afternoon tea
Sloane Street Square
the hotel where Oscar Wilder frequented and was infamously arrested at, accused of sodomy
tea sandwiches
champagne and tea
pastries
oh the art of eating scones
fat piggy
London Bridge (is falling down, falling down...)
dinner conversation
late night train home
first sight of UK snow!
pretty fluffy white snow around London outskirts
white scary-looking balls of hail raining hard and fast

Cambridge by night and by day, beyond words

Second sighting of Stephen Hawking and Caius Matriculation dinner

I brought a friend to a Tuesday Caius formal hall because Stephen Hawking often comes then. No luck, I told him to try again another week. Next day, I go to formal hall. For once I'm a little early so I'm at the head of the middle table, right by the high table for Master and Fellows, perpendicular to us. Lo and behold, right before Latin Grace is read, Stephen Hawking comes out in his wheelchair with his pretty blonde nurse. He waits for Grace to be said, facing the whole hall and thereby giving us -- especially us at head of the middle table -- an interminable three minutes to stare at him and scrutinize him, his disability, his wheelchair, his laptop, his caretaker...

After dinner, we return to our dorms, but then decide to visit the college bar for a few drinks before going out to a club maybe. When we enter the courtyard we hear people talking about Stephen Hawking in the college bar. I walk in, wondering if he's going to be typing physics to his doctorate students or something... and find one old professor and Hawking sitting in his wheelchair with his blonde nurse... and five other blonde chicks with drinks in a circle. You should have seen the skeptical look on my face. So my friends and I sit in our own circle, wondering what the hell the conversation could be over there. We kind of wanted to go over and say hi to him, but then we thought, er since he can't reply, what are we supposed to do? awkward turtle? dunno o.O so we didn't do anything :P I call my friend from the night before with the news, and he drops what he's doing and runs from over 45 minutes away in hopes that Hawking will still be there. Hawking still is, so him and I have a conversation near the bar, with my back to Hawking so that my friend can talk to me and see Stephen Hawking in person for the first time before his nurse waves Good Night to everyone for him and wheels him away. haha, ridiculous, right? :P

Matriculation dinner is supposed to be one of the nicest dinners we will have in the university - not hard compared to regular hall food. We had drinks with the senior members before dinner (gorgeous antique rooms btw) and talked to the Caius Master briefly - his Chinese is quite good! For dinner we sat in our majors with our Director of Studies, nice evening all together :)

Pictures of us and dinner say it all:

Things they told me at MIT about Cambridge that are not true

First and foremost, the whole hype was all "oh Cambridge is awesome there's no required work that's due, or any midterms exams. You can focus on learning the material at your own pace!"

Students later admit, the weekly supervision papers should be attempted for your own learning benefit, "but just doing a few questions or showing some work is enough."

I've attended a few supervisions and now I see that it's all BS. I have a pset for a class every two weeks (four classes => two psets a week) that are super long and difficult - and it's not okay if you don't do them. The supervisor says "Do questions blah blah blah." I have to turn in my work a day ahead of time, and the supervisor goes over our graded work for one hour, just me and another person. I *could* not do any work, since there are no numerical grades per se, but then my supervisor would be like, WTF is wrong with you, if I answer no to "Did you attempt question X?" repeatedly. Plus two out of my four supervisors are my Directors of Studies, basically academic advisors. Yea, I am not willing to put up with the weekly- and subsequently year-long awkwardness with them.

Students also told me Brits go to bed really early here; as an exchange student, bed time was around 11pm. Ummmm I also don't know whereth they were hanging out, because all my Cambridge friends here go to sleep around 1-4am, definitely comprable to my MIT sleep schedule. Well I guess I'm lucky I don't have 8am lectures, mine are 10-12pm or 11-1pm everyday.

Caius food is not as bad as everyone warned. I would say the average Caius food is the same as another college's, maybe Trinity and St. John's are slightly better. Or maybe it's because I can't tell what is good English food or not, it's all the same meh to me..

Will add more as I remember/notice/decide to write.

It's scary how normal living here has become. I feel the onset of the same quiet, downwards static-ness that I was afraid of and ran away from at MIT.