Hey!
Hope finals and the end of term are going well for everyone. I'm currently in Berlin, which is blanketed by snow and quite chilly.

Term's Over!

Sorry for the lack of posts the past month as I've been quite busy.

BUT, term is officially over and I'm pretty much packed.

Tonight, I'm actually going to Selwyn Snowball with some friends.

And, tomorrow starts Eurotrip 2010.

First stop, Morocco for a week with the Cambridge University Surfing Association. After the dreadful weather (and even snow!), I could really use some time in the sun. Weather forecast is between 70 to 80F, so I can't wait to hang ten as they say in Hawaii. Haha

N.B. I'll have limited internet access in Europe (until January 11th) so EMAIL ME!

Pennying/ Formal Halls

During Formal Halls, students often bring copious amounts of wine to drink with the catered lavish meals that are provided by the dining staff. The event is very formal, as the name implies, and involves not only dressing up in a suit/tie, but also wearing a college gown (think shortened version of post-grad gown). Usually, there is an appetizer (either soup or salad) accompanied with bread, a main entree with vegetables (usually some sort of potato and a vegetable), and finally dessert with coffee. (On a side note: formal halls cost about 6 pounds/ ~$9).

Throughout the night, students attempt to penny each other's wine glasses. The process involves tossing a British penny into the other person's drink without them noticing or stopping you. Upon being pennied, the person must chug the entire glass without stopping. The origins of this tradition stemmed from the fact that the penny has an image of the Queen and that in order to save the Queen from drowning, the entire glass had to be finished. Other rules of pennying exist, such as pennying an empty glass, which requires the person to fill up a glass and finishing it again. Another interesting example is the engineer's penny, which is a bent penny that is used to penny an entire bottle of wine, so that the person who bought it must drink all of it. As such, by the end of Formal Halls, many people are quite tipsy or drunk. Nonetheless, the food at Formal Halls is usually quite good. In total, I've been to 6 Formal Halls: 3 at Emma, 1 at Peterhouse, 1 at Churchill, and 1 at Caius. Before the semester is over (in a month), I plan on going to Trinity , Selwyn , Emma , and Murray Edwards Formals and possibly even more!

What It Means to Be A Cambridge Student

Dressing preppy on a daily basis

Having a bedder/ maid clean your room everyday

Receiving free laundry and folding service

Breakdancing at the School of Pythagoras at St. John's College while old, rich alums walk by and stare

Eating at Formal Hall (3 course fancy dinners) multiple times on a weekly basis

Meeting famous classmates, such as Freddie Highmore and talking about football (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Highmore)

Being ready to eat at Trailer of Life (http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/the-trailer-of-life-cambridge) at any point during the night

Not studying for exams until May

Listening to dreadful British music and having to educate DJs about real American music

Rowing multiple times a week

Being prepared to eat potatoes on a daily basis if needed

Watching out for pennying during Formal Hall (more to follow on this)

Cambridge: Some Preliminary Thoughts

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire is quite the interesting town.

As one of my fellow CME friends pointed out, this place is way better than the other Cambridge.

For instance, my college, Emma, is right near the center of town, yet there are various school buildings interspersed with stores and restaurants. All of my classes are all within 1 block walking distance (5 minutes at the most). The post office is literally 50m away, and even closer is a huge 4 floor department store, John Lewis, which sells literally everything (random aside, they had ads in GQ UK). Right next to John Lewis is a HUGE shopping center called Grand Arcade with electronics stores, an Apple store, and even a Hollister. A HSBC and several other banks are also on the same street as Emma. I feel like I'm living next to Harvard Square, Newbury St., and MIT all at once.

There are a multitude on restaurants, ranging from Korean and Chinese to Mexican and American (i.e. pizza hut, Subway and burgers!). Best of all is the fact that dining halls serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which means that I have so many various options for lunch. Cambridge, UK is so much more different (and fun).

The other day when I woke up and looked out my window, I realized that there were huge grapes growing on one of the walls of the courtyard...seriously wtf? Sometimes, I feel like I'm living in a chateau as there's pretty much a dedicated "concierge" (porters), laundry service, and so many fancy occasions.

Another random fact is that Cambridge students party/ go out Sundays to Thursdays and do work on Friday and Saturdays...which is quite strange. It is justified by the fact that people in the town of Cambridge usually go out during those times and don't want to mingle with us college folk. I actually spent part of last Friday night in the library writing a paper on "Did a scientific revolution occur in the 16th and 17th Centuries." Quite the experience....

Matriculation Dinner

Tuesday 12th October 2010

Grilled artichoke with goats' cheese crumble

Slow cooked scottish salmon with beetroot puree and beurre blanc

Supreme of free range guinea fowl with caramelised shallot puree and herb jus

Baked white chocolate cheesecake with dark chocolate sauce

Coffee and mints

Flamingo Bay Chenin Blanc 2010

Nero d'Avola 2009

Emmanuel College Tawny Port

so filling and good.

Rowing

Woke up at 630 AM...(that's a first in college) to go rowing today. The sun wasn't even up yet and it was fairly chilly outside. After washing up, I went for a quick jog to the boat house (~15 min walk). The members of my boat were all upperclassmen today, including my college "dad." After erging with the proper technique for about 1500m, we took the boat out of the boathouse.

My position on the boat is called stroke (I'm situated at the very front of the boat and set the pace). In total there are 8 seats and room for a cox. Today, we practiced drills of 4 people rowing at a time, while the other 4 stabilized the boat with their oars. Although it was a bit shaky at the beginning, we managed to set a good rhythm. Towards the second half of the outing, we managed to have 6 people rowing at once, while 2 stabilized the boat. We were moving fairly fast, when we were all in rhythm! We even managed to pass by some other novice boats which started before us. After an hour and a half, we put the boat back and had a quick coaching talk.

Afterwards, I ran back to Emma (the Cambridge River is very pretty in the morning!) and grabbed a quick breakfast at about 9am. Luckily, I have no classes or supervisions on Tuesday, so I'll probably do some reading later on. Tonight is Matriculation dinner, which is a very fancy three course dinner with various wines and drinks. It should be fairly exciting as it completes our official enrollment into the University of Cambridge!