(no subject)
This will
be a really long post. You have been
warned :)
Ok, let’s do this! Most of it is for me, as my sort of diary, only you can read it too if you want. I’ve separated it into topics so you can skip whatever you don’t want to read.
The city: Is gorgeous. What more can I say? I’ve had time to go around through most of the city centre while buying random things. It’s such a great city because the it has the best of everything. You have modern shops or old cathedrals and churches; a central marketplace that still sells handmade soaps and breads or the average twenty-first century supermarkets. Some streets are still made of cobblestone and are very stiletto-unfriendly.
Its also very very international. You hear different accents and languages everywhere you go.
The weather here has been great so far. It’s cold in the morning but gets hot enough around noon to wear just a light sweater. It’s only rained once, and that was for 10 minutes. At any other time, its been sunny and beautiful.
The College: There are 31 colleges within the university and act sort of as residential colleges in the sense that you live there, but it also acts as a liaison to the entire university. So tuition, mail, school work, all these technical things are sorted out through the college first (which is probably the only way to keep track of 15,000 students). My college is Emmanuel, known familiarly as Emma. It’s a medium-sized college located just outside the city centre so its really really convenient to get to all the shops in the centre as well as shops in the outskirts.
We’re apparently known around town for having a good bar but still doing well academically. Plus there’s the pond with the ducks! Accommodation is good, the whole campus is really nice. Oh yeah, and they spoil us like crazy. Laundry is done for us. Cleaners (we call them bedders) come into our rooms a few times a week to clean up and hoover. For all those reasons, it’s the most over-applied to college of Cambridge, and therefore has the lowest acceptance rate (which I was completely unaware of when I applied…so I’m lucky I got in!)
My room: Is really spacious and nice. It looks into a courtyard full of massive trees. *Looking around* There’s a really nice bookshelf for all my stuff, a fireplace (don’t know if it works), and a sink which is super convenient, a love seat, coffee table, random chairs, etc etc. And right in the middle is this huge space that I can’t fill. I can literally do a cartwheel in my room and not hit anything. I’m looking for beanbags or something to fill it up, or I might just keep it like this.
Everyone has a single room, so no roommates. But in North Court where I live we do share this little walk-in area with another person. My neighbour happens to be a guy named Andy. A really hot guy named Andy. Who plays the guitar. He could be a poster boy for some preppy clothing brand I swear.
The guy who lives below me is a music major and plays the piano ridiculously well. So when I walk upstairs to my room I hear classical music wafting through the halls. Its nice :)
Formal hall: You have the option of going to Formal Hall for dinner, which is really posh and…well, formal. It happens after regular dinner is over and you have to book seats in advance. Plates with gold foil, napkins with the Emmanuel seal on them, wine glasses, the works. You have to wear your college gown and nice dress clothes to Formal Hall, which looks like a Harry Potter robe. Before the meal starts, the master of the college rises, so the student body rises, and the master says a prayer in Latin. It’s a three-course meal (last time it was vegetable soup, salmon and vegetables, and crème brulee followed by coffee) and all the while waitresses walk up the aisles refilling your wine glass. There’s this drinking game called pennying that people play during the meal. If you slip a penny into someone else’s glass, they have to finish the glass in ten minutes. If someone else doesn’t realize there’s already a penny in the glass and puts a second on in, that person has to down it. Our gowns have these intricate folds of fabric in them that coincidentally are the perfect size for hiding pennies. Then when the master is done, he rises, we rise, he says a prayer in Latin again, and then he leaves. We stay on because we’re not done and chaos ensues.
The bar: Is really not as bad as it sounds. No, I don’t get slopping drunk there every night. I’ve never gotten slopping drunk there. Its just a place to hang out with friends, really, no big deal. There are just a lot of squishy chairs and tables and a DJ and usually some theme.
Work: I’m taking maths, chemistry, biology of cells, and physiology of organisms. With each course comes lectures (~200-400 people), practicals (~30-40 people) and supervisions (2-3 people). Every week, I have:
12 hours of lectures
11-17 hours of practicals
4 hours of supervisions
excessive hours of homework
You do the math. I have a lot of work.
HP: Ok, I had to put this in. I'm pretty much living in Harry Potter world. I've already mentioned gowns. All the building look like Hogwarts. Our Master is the elusive Dumbledore. Our hall looks like the Great Hall (it even has the portraits of the previous Masters on the walls, but unfortunately they don't move). But the greatest thing ever has got to be the portrait hole door. There's the secret door that only Emma students can access. It's this tiny door built into this bigger wooden frame that leads to the city streets, but its camouflaged so that no one can see it. But when you do open it and step outside, the tourists get all excited about seeing a student walking though a magic door. I call it the portrait hole door because its so small that you have to duck your head under the top and tuck your feet up to get through, just like the Gryffindors do when they do through the fat lady's portrait to get to the common room. Hee!
Ok…that’s all I can think of for now…Sorry for boring you. If you want to know more or have a specific question about those weird English people just comment.
Ok, let’s do this! Most of it is for me, as my sort of diary, only you can read it too if you want. I’ve separated it into topics so you can skip whatever you don’t want to read.
The city: Is gorgeous. What more can I say? I’ve had time to go around through most of the city centre while buying random things. It’s such a great city because the it has the best of everything. You have modern shops or old cathedrals and churches; a central marketplace that still sells handmade soaps and breads or the average twenty-first century supermarkets. Some streets are still made of cobblestone and are very stiletto-unfriendly.
Its also very very international. You hear different accents and languages everywhere you go.
The weather here has been great so far. It’s cold in the morning but gets hot enough around noon to wear just a light sweater. It’s only rained once, and that was for 10 minutes. At any other time, its been sunny and beautiful.
The College: There are 31 colleges within the university and act sort of as residential colleges in the sense that you live there, but it also acts as a liaison to the entire university. So tuition, mail, school work, all these technical things are sorted out through the college first (which is probably the only way to keep track of 15,000 students). My college is Emmanuel, known familiarly as Emma. It’s a medium-sized college located just outside the city centre so its really really convenient to get to all the shops in the centre as well as shops in the outskirts.
We’re apparently known around town for having a good bar but still doing well academically. Plus there’s the pond with the ducks! Accommodation is good, the whole campus is really nice. Oh yeah, and they spoil us like crazy. Laundry is done for us. Cleaners (we call them bedders) come into our rooms a few times a week to clean up and hoover. For all those reasons, it’s the most over-applied to college of Cambridge, and therefore has the lowest acceptance rate (which I was completely unaware of when I applied…so I’m lucky I got in!)
My room: Is really spacious and nice. It looks into a courtyard full of massive trees. *Looking around* There’s a really nice bookshelf for all my stuff, a fireplace (don’t know if it works), and a sink which is super convenient, a love seat, coffee table, random chairs, etc etc. And right in the middle is this huge space that I can’t fill. I can literally do a cartwheel in my room and not hit anything. I’m looking for beanbags or something to fill it up, or I might just keep it like this.
Everyone has a single room, so no roommates. But in North Court where I live we do share this little walk-in area with another person. My neighbour happens to be a guy named Andy. A really hot guy named Andy. Who plays the guitar. He could be a poster boy for some preppy clothing brand I swear.
The guy who lives below me is a music major and plays the piano ridiculously well. So when I walk upstairs to my room I hear classical music wafting through the halls. Its nice :)
Formal hall: You have the option of going to Formal Hall for dinner, which is really posh and…well, formal. It happens after regular dinner is over and you have to book seats in advance. Plates with gold foil, napkins with the Emmanuel seal on them, wine glasses, the works. You have to wear your college gown and nice dress clothes to Formal Hall, which looks like a Harry Potter robe. Before the meal starts, the master of the college rises, so the student body rises, and the master says a prayer in Latin. It’s a three-course meal (last time it was vegetable soup, salmon and vegetables, and crème brulee followed by coffee) and all the while waitresses walk up the aisles refilling your wine glass. There’s this drinking game called pennying that people play during the meal. If you slip a penny into someone else’s glass, they have to finish the glass in ten minutes. If someone else doesn’t realize there’s already a penny in the glass and puts a second on in, that person has to down it. Our gowns have these intricate folds of fabric in them that coincidentally are the perfect size for hiding pennies. Then when the master is done, he rises, we rise, he says a prayer in Latin again, and then he leaves. We stay on because we’re not done and chaos ensues.
The bar: Is really not as bad as it sounds. No, I don’t get slopping drunk there every night. I’ve never gotten slopping drunk there. Its just a place to hang out with friends, really, no big deal. There are just a lot of squishy chairs and tables and a DJ and usually some theme.
Work: I’m taking maths, chemistry, biology of cells, and physiology of organisms. With each course comes lectures (~200-400 people), practicals (~30-40 people) and supervisions (2-3 people). Every week, I have:
12 hours of lectures
11-17 hours of practicals
4 hours of supervisions
excessive hours of homework
You do the math. I have a lot of work.
HP: Ok, I had to put this in. I'm pretty much living in Harry Potter world. I've already mentioned gowns. All the building look like Hogwarts. Our Master is the elusive Dumbledore. Our hall looks like the Great Hall (it even has the portraits of the previous Masters on the walls, but unfortunately they don't move). But the greatest thing ever has got to be the portrait hole door. There's the secret door that only Emma students can access. It's this tiny door built into this bigger wooden frame that leads to the city streets, but its camouflaged so that no one can see it. But when you do open it and step outside, the tourists get all excited about seeing a student walking though a magic door. I call it the portrait hole door because its so small that you have to duck your head under the top and tuck your feet up to get through, just like the Gryffindors do when they do through the fat lady's portrait to get to the common room. Hee!
Ok…that’s all I can think of for now…Sorry for boring you. If you want to know more or have a specific question about those weird English people just comment.