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.

Playing Chardes

in high school, Georgia, USA
ex:=
The Man with the Golden Gun
Britney Spears
Titanic
Star Wars
Mickey Mouse

at University of Cambridge, England
ex:=
Ecclesiastes
A Tale of Two Cities
Much Ado About Nothing
Wuthering Heights
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tess of the D'urbervilles

Becoming a Cambridge student

Gonville & Caius College freshman Matriculation photo, all of one hundred eighty-something odd of us standing around the green court at 9:30am, half-hungover and chilly yet chatty and proudly wearing our blue college gowns.
multiples roll calls and assembly into alphabetical lines for the photo shoot
being able to walk on the grass for a few seconds!
To think, I will be forever captured in this matriculation photo as a true Caius freshman
Sitting in the dining hall at the front of the table, being welcomed by the Caius Master and Fellows formally into Gonville & Caius College and hearing their hearty congratulations, taking the ink pen and officially signing my name onto both the college and university matriculation forms... I look up at the enormous hall ceilings colored by stained glass lights with a sense of immense awe

Our first formal hall dinner, for freshman only, the Caius-definition of a three-course meal with our college gowns
walking in and realizing Stephen Hawking is attending our formal hall, a way of welcome into his college.
someone whispers Stephen Hawking and the name quickly passes down the long hall table from person to person and every head turns to look at the high table in wide-eyed wonderment
me craning my neck to try to figure out what his laptop is running on his wheelchair, some green text that was constantly changing against a black background, but I was too far away to make out anything
all wondering if he was going to say a few electronically created words but he never did

going punting again, this time a seasoned veteren, and with great weather
looking through the various university and college society fairs
meeting and finding freshmen to hang out with, finally feeling more integrated with my college and dorm
joining the Caius Army pub crawl, night before lectures begin :)

lectures are all about managing to find a not-crappy place to sit and scribbling down what the professor is saying and writing at the same time as fast and much as possible
then spending the rest of the afternoon going over each word and sentence to decipher it all
finally understanding that people actually use the library to do work, study, and read textbooks, wow

realizing that I am now a Cambridge student, and time will pass by before I know it

This is England.

I feel like I'm walking around in a quaint 18th century movie, ridiculously out of place.
I love the adorably nice old porters dressed in black suits and black trench coats who know everything under the sun and moon.
Punting along the River Cam and not falling into the water
Sundry of shops and trinkets along windy cobblestone roads
Gorgeous gorgeous green grass that only college Fellows may walk on
You can see stars. stars stars stars bright against the darkness, framed by the top of trees in my field of vision when I walk home alone the road with my face looking up.
Dancing to cheese reminds me of Singapore's Zouk Mambo Jambo.
Horrible, antiquated internet and network connectivity
Such an adventure to find edible cheap food everyday.
British girls and their old school fashion.
I like girls who appreciate good beer.
Unconsciously mimicking a British accent when talking too long to Brits
Not unpacking my room yet.
Freezingly drizzly cold cold yet bright and clear English sky
breathtaking architecture that we call home







>> Rest of Facebook album