9. Christ's College

More formals!  Last week I was invited by a friend to a special formal at Christ's for Mardi Gras (or, as it's called here: Pancake Day).  I was already in a good mood, since our cafeteria at work made pancakes for Pancake Day, and this was like the cherry on top.

Christ's is another college that I'd never been to before I went to formal there.  It is in the busy center of town, which I realized when I found myself taking off my cycling pants (which I was wearing under my dress to stay warm on the cycle ride from Churchill) on a busy street corner!

I think I've mentioned Christ's before, as it was founded by the same person as John's: Lady Margaret Beaufort.  However, the college existed as the small college of God's-house since 1437, before it was given a royal charter.  It was originally designed as a teacher training college to replace the teachers killed in the black death.  When King's was established, God's-house was forced to move.  At this point, Bishop Fisher (chaplain to Lady Margaret), who was friends with the head of God's-house, persuaded her to establish it as a proper college, and it was granted a charter in 1505 on May 1.  The college flag continues to always be flown on that day.  The gatehouse has Lady Margaret's statue, holding a bible.  The symbols of the Tudor rose and the Beaufort portcullis are also everywhere, as are her coat of arms supported by the mythological yales (like at John's).

The hall at Christ's was restored in 1876.  It is lined with portraits, including one of John Milton, who came up in 1628, and Charles Darwin.  Apparently, Milton was a "pale an delicate young man," so other students nicknamed him "the lady of Christ's."

It was fun to visit Christ's.  It's a gorgeous college, and I'd like to go back during the day time!  The hall is quite small, which gives it a very intimate feel, and it was neat to be there during a themed hall.  There were Mardi Gras beads on all of the tables and people were dressed up for Carnival in masks and some times more elaborate costumes!

Here are some pictures of Christ's:

The yales above the gate.  The motto is the same as John's: souvent me souvient (remember me often)

Again with my crest-on-china obsession.  This time, the tutor rose...

And the Beaufort portcullis.

Best part of the dinner.  They had a separate chocolate plate after the desserts! Yum! Downside, there was only coffee, no tea

More yales!

Wales (Cardiff Castle)

I'm pretty much a home-body.  I've barely been anywhere since I've gotten to Cambridge (I actually haven't even been to London!), so when the opportunity arose to go on a Gates trip to Wales, I jumped on it!

Here's a great video to remind yourself of what the deal is with Wales:

Wales is pretty far away from Cambridge, so the trip entailed getting up at 5 am, leaving by 6, and getting there around 11.    The bus ride didn't bother me so much (maybe that 20 hour trip to France has conditioned me not to mind long bus rides) but the waking up that early definitely was not the best!

It was still fun to go though.  One of the neat things about Wales is that all of the signs are both in English and Welsh.  We visited Cardiff Castle (Castell Caerdydd in Welsh), a medieval castle with a Victorian gothic revival house.  The buildings are adapted from what was originally a Normal keep overlooking a Roman fort.  It was neat to see all of the different layers of the history of the site.  Plus, the Victorian mansion was pretty amazing.  I was also quite excited to see that the landscaping in the 18th Century was done by Capability Brown!


After visiting the Castle, we were all starving!  So we just went into the first place we found for lunch.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be a restaurant called "Old Orleans," which was the most ridiculously tacky take on American Cajun/Louisiana food (the menu used words like "hankerin'", but then spelled flavours with an "ours").  It did provide some amusement, but mostly the food was not so great.


We then walked down to the bay to see some of the rest of Cardiff.  The Welsh national assembly is there, as is the Millenium center and a couple of neat churches.  Apparently, Roald Dahl was born in Cardiff, since there is a "Roald Dahl Pass" there as well!


All in all, it was a nice excursion from Cambridge. I'm looking forward to more of them in the future!

8. Jesus College

As always, I'm behind again, so I'm going to try and play catch-up really fast and let you all know some of the things that have been going on recently (life is pretty busy right now, but should slow down soon as term ends this week).

A little bit more than a week ago, I went on another Gates formal swap, this time to Jesus College.  The fun was all the more increased by the endless jokes: "I'm going to Jesus tonight!"

Jesus is a gorgeous college, and is actually the college where my adviser is a fellow!  Despite this to recommend it, I'd never actually been to Jesus until I went to hall there, so it was really exciting for me to get to see it for the first time.

Jesus was founded in the late fifteenth century by the Bishop of Ely (a town quite close to Cambridge).  When he first visited it in 1496, it was an impoverished Benedictine nunnery dating back to the 12th century.  As there were only two nuns left, he got a grant from Henry VII to suppress the nunnery and establish a college with the longest name I have every seen: "The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist and the Glorious Virgin St. Radegund."  Since that's way too long to say, it was always called Jesus College.

Since Alcock's (the Bishop) symbol was the cockerel, that's what's on Jesus' shield and on a lot of the buildings and decorations around the college.  A statue of Alcock stands in the center of the gate house with a cockerel above him, standing on a globe.

The buildings of the old nunnery were adapted for use in the college, and therefore a few of the buildings at Jesus are some of the oldest in Cambridge.  The hall above the kitchens, which was the nuns' refectory, has been continuously used for dining for over 800 years.  The nuns' church became the college chapel, and is the oldest building at any of the Cambridge colleges.  Throughout the years, the chapel was updated, and in the 19th century William Morris designed the nave and the tower ceilings.  The south transept has a memorial to Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who was burned at the stake by Mary Tudor and who had been a Jesus undergraduate.  Other famous Jesus students include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who came up in 1791 (but left before obtaining his degree).

One more fun fact: the Old Library at Jesus has an autographed copy of the first edition of the first bible printed in America.  It was printing in the other Cambridge (Cambridge MA) in 1663 in Algonquin and was translated by a Jesus man, John Eliot.

My experience of Jesus was quite nice.  It is a nice hall and the food was quite good.  It wasn't super formal, although Jesus students do wear gowns.  All in all it was a nice way to catch up with some Gates scholars I hadn't seen recently and enjoy yet another college hall!

Sadly this was the point where my camera ran out of batteries, so I don't have any pictures except for a couple:

Lent Bumps

Before you get too excited, I didn't actually row in Lent Bumps.  While upper boats are guaranteed a spot based on their performance in previous years, lower boats have to race in order to "Get On," with only the top seven boats getting slots.  This year there were 21 boats competing for those seven places, so it was quite competitive.  We came in 10th, which I think was quite respectable, but it was disappointing to not get to race (although my knees are basically falling apart, so it's probably better for me that we didn't).

However, it was still really fun to experience bumps as a spectator (virtual spectator that is; I didn't actually go to any of the races).  For those who aren't familiar with bumps, here's a rundown:

Basically, the reason we have bumps races is that the Cam is really narrow.  This means that it is hard to do head-to-head regattas (with two or more boats racing side by side) and the ones that there are are quite short since they are limited to the widest part of the river.  We do a lot of time-trial races, but those aren't very exciting, so the other type of racing we do are bumps.

Bumps entails exactly what it seem like it would.  Boats start in a staggered order and the goal is to literally bump into the boat in front of you before the boat behind you bumps into you.  The starting order is determined by the results from the previous year, so clubs that are historically strong (like First at Third, Caius, LMBC etc.) are near the top.  If you bump someone, the next day the two boats switch places, and you move up one.  If you're bumped, you move down one.  If you "row over" (i.e., are neither bumped nor bump anyone) you stay in the same place.  There are also such things as "over bumps." This is when the boat in front of you gets a bump and then they and the boat in front of them are taken out of the race.  Then you have a chance to bump a boat three places in front of you, so you move up three places.  This year, there was actually a double overbump in one of the divisions, where a boat moved up five places!

Bumps are four days long.  Basically, this means that the only people who would realistically end up "head of the river" (i.e., the number one boat) are those that are in the top five spots to begin with.  However, this doesn't mean that there's no point racing lower down in the division.  If you bump up four places (either bumping every day, or over bumping and bumping again or whatever combination) then you are awarded "blades" (those big oars that hang in the boathouse or the pub and have the names of the crew and of the boats you bumped on them).  If the opposite happens, and you fall four places, you get "spoons."

As should be pretty obvious, bumps are endemically unfair races.  If you happen to have an unusually good boat but are not normally a strong club, you can get blades easier than if boats were just ranked by a time trail to determine the starting order.  But that's kind of just the way it works.  This year, the big news was whether First and Third would keep the headship in the two women's and men's divisions.  They actually lost both to Downing early in the week, and then Caius bumped Downing to take Headship for the men, so it was pretty exciting.  Churchill didn't do phenomenally.  Our top men's boat was bumped and then rowed over for the rest of the time, and our women were bumped twice and then rowed over.  However, our second men's boat was bumped once, rowed over once, but then bumped on both of the last days, which was nice for them.  Some clubs had an even more embarrassing week (watch for the LMBC boat at about 27 seconds in this video of M1 division):

Now everyone is calling them Lady Margaret Beached Crew

7. St. John's College

Would you rather be at Oxford or St. John's?

Being at school, you kind of have to have a rival.  At South it was North (although they were always better than us at most sports, so it was mostly depressing).  At Amherst it was Williams (kind of ditto, a lot of the time).  Churchill College doesn't really have a rival, but at Cambridge, many find that rivalry with St. John's College.  I don't know about their other teams, but their boat club (Lady Margaret Boat Club, more on this later) is pretty good, plus, the College has a little bit of a reputation for elitism (and the college is pretty wealthy): prime rival territory.  And as with any rivalry, there is a lot of trash talking. There's even a song: "I'd rather be at Oxford than St. John's."  To reference another famous rivalry, John's is often cast as the Slytherin of Cambridge.

At the same time, I have a lot of friends in John's, so I was torn when I decided to go on a formal swap there.  Would I be offended by the stuffiness and wish I was dining at another institution some 60 miles away?  Or would all the stories turn out to be apocrypha and John's just be another charming Cambridge college underneath it all?

I think a little bit of both were true, but first a few facts about St. John's:

The founder of the College was Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry VII), who is also responsible for the founding of another Cambridge college (Christ's) and a college at Oxford.  Although she died before work on the college could commence, she left a provision in her will to make sure that her intent to found it was fulfilled.  Her symbol (the portcullis) adorns the gatehouse (as it does many other buildings in Cambridge), as does the Tudor rose.  The Gatehouse is also decorated with daisies (for "Margaret") and forget-me-nots in honor of her motto: souvent me souvient (remember me often).

The college is designed as a sequence of multiple courts that lead to the "backs" and the river Cam.  A gorgeous bridge links the courts on either side of the river.  The "Bridge of Sighs," as it's called, is covered like it's Venetian namesake (though there is where the similarities end).

Like all colleges, John's has some strange traditions.  Apparently fellows of John's are the only people outside of the Royal Family who are allowed to eat unmarked swans.  Traditionally, the Queen owns all of the unmarked swans in the UK, so this is a pretty big privilege.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, LMBC (Lady Margaret Boat Club) is what John's calls their boat club.  The story goes that both Trinity (which is currently called "First and Third") and John's used to use the college name in the boat club.  However, after an accident where a St. John's crew killed the cox of Trinity's second boat, both clubs were renamed.  According to Wikipedia, this story is "entirely fabricated."

Contemporarily, St. John's is well known for it's May Ball.  Last year it was named seventh best party in the world by Time Magazine.  Since this is the 500th Anniversary, this year's ball is likely to be a blow-out.

As is likely obvious, John's is pretty traditional.  This extended to dinner as well.  Every plate, cup, and piece of silverware is crested, and each person is given an individually printed menu.  If you don't fancy the dessert, you can request the cheese course, and both port and sherry are available before and after dinner.  But to be honest, that isn't too much more intense than a lot of the older colleges.  On the whole, I had a great time at John's.  When we went to the bar afterwards (which, unlike the measly Churchill MCR bar, is staffed by professionals, not students), I made a brief note of the sign announcing that "Each Johnian is allowed up to two guests, who must be accompanied at all times."  But even though it is a little stuffy, you've just got to smile, because that's just how John's is.

And when it comes down to it, if it's a choice between Cambridge and Oxford, I'd choose St. John's.

Some pictures:

6. Trinity College

Again, I'm getting pretty bad with the updates.  Sorry!  Things have been quite busy here, what with it being half term, but hopefully I'll be better in the future!

The first half of the term wasn't super heavy with the formals, but things seem to have picked up because I've had two in the last two weeks, and one on the horizon.  I love formal halls, especially when I get to go to other colleges.  Formal at Churchill is not quite as exciting any more, particularly because it is one of the more relaxed halls, but it's still a thrill to get to eat in halls that are hundreds of years old!

At the same time, that's life here!  Often, it's freakishly easy to forget the fact that most of the world does not dine in medieval halls and then spent the evening drinking port on a regular basis.  But, when you think about it, with 31 colleges, if each only had one formal a week, then there would still be tons going on, and some colleges have them every day!  I guess that's my rationalization for the fact that the lifestyle here is kind of ridiculously great.

Anyways, the other night I got to go to formal at one of the colleges that you think of when you think of Cambridge: Trinity.  For those who don't know, my dad was actually a student at Trinity back in the 70s after he left Amherst (yes, we are basically the same person), so I was even more excited to get to see the hall.

But, as always, first some fun facts about Trinity:

As I said, it's one of the biggies: the largest of the Oxbridge colleges and the leader in Nobel prizes at Cambridge (guess who's second? It's Churchill!)  It was founded by Henry VIII (the one on "The Tudors" who killed all his wives) in 1546 only five weeks before he died.  It was actually formed as a conglomeration of two already existing colleges and was given a pretty sizable endowment (which it still enjoys today).

In honor of it's founder, there is a statue of Henry at the Great Gate to the college.  You'd think he'd be holding a scepter, but in his right hand he actually holds a chair leg (a 19th century student's joke)!  Nearby the Gate, there is a "statue" of a different sort: a descendent of the apple tree that was said to have inspired Isaac Newton (a Trinity man) to explore the laws of gravity.  Other famous Trinity men (whose statues adorn the chapel) were Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Francis Bacon.

The Great Court wasn't designed until the reign of Elizabeth I, but it is the largest court in Oxford or Cambridge.  Two key hallmarks of the Court are the central fountain and the clock tower.  The clock strikes the hours twice, once with a low tone, once with a high one (the clock 'with a male and female voice' of Wordsworth's Prelude).  There is a tradition whereby undergrads try and run around the Great Court as the clock is striking twelve (a challenge featured in the movie "Chariots of Fire").  There are a lot of other odd traditions at Trinity (as at many of the older colleges), like the fact that the undergrads where blue, not black robes, and the porters wear bowler hats.

The hall, where we had formal, is absolutely gorgeous.  It's Elizabethan, and meant to model London's Middle Temple.  The walls are hung with portraits of Trinity men (Byron, Dryden, and Lord Rutherford) and a painting of Henry VIII hangs at the head of the hall.

(The last famous Trinity building, which I have yet to go to, is the Wren Library.  More on that later once I've made it there).

Phew!  As you can probably tell, Trinity is a college with a great history.  However, being one of the largest colleges, it still has a pretty large sway on contemporary Cambridge life.  A lot of my friends, both on the Gate and not, are at Trinity, and a couple of my friends from lab invited me to the annual Valentines Day Hall (although I'm not sure what was so Valentines-y about it, as it was almost a week later and there weren't any decorations up, but whatever).  The food was quite good, and we were given wine, which probably made it one of the most valuable (bang for your buck) formals that I've been to here.  But probably the most exciting thing is eating in a hall lit by candlelight!

This was the first time that I went to someone else's hall as a guest but not on a Gates swap, and it was a fun experience to not just hang out with people I already new but to get to meet "friends of friends."  The people I know in lab have been at Cambridge for a long time (some were even here as undergrads) and it is neat to see how at home they are here (for most of my friends everything is new but for them it's old hat!).  It definitely made me wish I was staying longer, but for now I guess I'm just trying to get everything out of it that I can!

Some pictures from my night at Trinity!

We cut the desserts into heart shapes in honor of Valentine's Day!

Continuing my fascination with marked china, all the Trinity plates had the seal printed on them!