Churchill Spring Ball

My first Ball at Cambridge!  Churchill Spring Ball was last night.  Whatever made you put a ball in February, let alone call it a "spring" ball, escapes me, but since the more traditional "May Balls" are actually in June, I'm not exactly surprised.

Spring and May Balls are a big deal here.  Some of the more coveted ones (Trinity, Clare etc.) are almost impossible to get tickets to, and some of the richer colleges spend ridiculous amount of money on their balls.  Churchill's is a little less over-the-top, but since it's my college, and a lot of people I knew were going to be there, I decided to go.

The theme this year was "Seven Deadly Sins."  Yes, I did fell a little bit like I was going to prom again, but it was really the people there that made it fun.  There was a lot of food and drink (AMAZING lemon gnocchi and waffles!), many musical performers, henna, massages, and a variety of bouncy-houses and ballpits (not so great for someone wearing a dress that I just bought last week and really didn't want to ruin!).   After the experience, I'm looking forward to the May Balls (in June) even more now!

Here are some pictures from the night:

Chinese New Year X 3

Hi Everyone!

Gosh, it's been a long time! I've got some blog catch-up to do, so bear with me if some of these are old.

Happy Chinese New Year! To be honest, I've never really celebrated Chinese New Year before.  I always knew that it was happening, and sometimes I got red envelopes from teachers, but it was never as big a deal at it was in Cambridge!  I'm not quite sure why this is, but I think it may have something to do with the fact that there are more Chinese students at the University than American students, so it is a large community.  It may also have something to do with the fact that it is a really fun holiday to celebrate!

Let's brush up on the facts of Chinese New Year.  It's a holiday based around the lunar calendar, so it falls at a different time every year, but if always towards the end of January or in February.  Each year is associated with an animal zodiac, of which there are 12.  This is important, because, like the other zodiac, the animal whose year in which you are born say something about you, and when that year recurs, it's supposed to be lucky.  This was actually very important for me when I was a child.  Being young for my year, I was so jealous because all of my friends were born in the year of the dragon whereas I was born in the next year, the year of the snake.  But, remember the rules?  It's according to the lunar calendar, which doesn't change over until Feb, so I'm still a dragon! Yay!  According to the Chinese students in my lab, it's a very good sign!

This year is year of the Rabbit, which was exciting for my lab because one of the Chinese students was born in the year of the Rabbit.  Considering the fact that our student from Taiwan just completed his PhD, we decided to have a celebration for both of them!  This was my second chinese-new-year-associated event (we had a Gates Chinese New Year Party too), so I was excited for my second helping of chinese food in a week!  To celebrate, our lab went bowling, and then we went to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant in Cambridge, which was absolutely amazing!

For my third and final Chinese New Year celebration, there was a special hall at Churchill to celebrate the holiday.  To be honest, the food was not that great, but they did have a fantastic troupe of lion dancers!