Home Away From Home.

King's College, Cambridge University: Cambridge, UK



------
Picture tour through King's College


[Front gate of King's from inside]


[Upon entering front gate. Gibbs court.]


[King's Chapel. From South side.]


[Inside of King's Chapel.]


[Back court from North side on rainy night.]


[Back court sunset.]


[Bodley's Court. My dorm/building.]


[Gate into my building/courtyard.]


[My V staircase - sliding door.]


[Staircase up to my landing.]


[My living room. Yes, it's a single.]


[My bedroom.]


[My kitchen, 3 steps away from my room.]


[View into court from my kitchen.]


[Bodley's bathroom - toilets on left, showers on right.]


[King's dining hall, where I have every meal every day.]


[View from West end of King's, right outside my dorm.]


[King's erg room.]


[side street to Market Square, right outside King's gates.]


[Sainsbury's. Basically the only grocery store in town that's open past 5pm. It's about the size of 3 CVSes.]


[Van of Life. Junk food until 6am.]

6:20 AM

Late night up writing my lab report due tomorrow.

Two mornings ago, I was already at the boathouse at this time.

Ridiculous.
My neighbor just left for crew practice. The sun's rising! Aahhh! Bedtime.

To anyone who wants to visit ...

1. Buy a large cardboard box at UPS/FedEx/DHL.
2. Cut a few air holes.
3. Go to the post office, hop inside, tape it up.
4. Ship to:

367 King's College
Cambridge CB2 1ST
United Kingdom


p.s. - don't forget food! and water! and maybe your iPod if you're easily bored.

Cambridge Fall

Yesterday I went to my supervision for 3F1. It was at the fellow's house out in West Cambridge.

So I biked out there and back - about 10 minutes each way. We passed various sports fields, little rural houses, the University library, and countless trees/bridges/parks.

It was beautiful. Finally, a redeeming factor of this place. It's not a city, but it's got its nice, compact, chill and rural areas of narrow streets, standing mailboxes, and cottage houses. 4pm, under a calmly setting orange/pink sun, biking down the street past house after house, notes in a messenger bag hung across my shoulder, fall jacket loosely wrapped around, all as a Cambridge University student ... it was one of those happy moments that every once in a while amidst my homesickness for MIT give me hope that this place has its gems to be discovered.

:)

Crawl, crawl, crawl ...

One of the most recurring events during Freshers' Week was The Pub Crawl.
Seriously, can't we find anything better to do than just hop from bar to bar?
But that's besides the point.

Anyway, after one "Cops and Robbers" themed night out, a couple of freshers got the sudden vision of becoming deemed "The King's Men." ... by skinny dipping into the Cam.

Pictures say enough.


"The King's Men."


Post-dip on a freezing night.


victorious group.


warming up after their bath ...


Freshers '09.

Matriculation to Cambridge University

Saturday October 3, 2009 was official Matriculation into Cambridge University.

[Fig. BEST - Matriculation Dinner, 03 Oct 2009, King's College, Cambridge University]
[[taken from 1st floor balcony during dinner]]

matriculate

/məˈtrɪk.jʊ.leɪt/ v. [I] formal

to be formally admitted to study at a university or college

(from Cambridge Dictionary)

Anyway, this entailed getting to the chapel by 10:30am, signing a book of all past King's students, and listening to speeches by our Senior Tutor, Robin Osborne, and someone else (lay dean?). The dress was "smart casual" which meant collared shirts for men, no jeans, and by special request of the JCR president, no Ugg boots. lol.

Then, we lined up here (right outside our college bar/dining hall) to take the Entering Class of 2009 picture with 130ish Freshers, standing alphabetical by last name.

[Fig. 1 King's College, Great Court]

By chance, Nate Sharpe (MIT '09) was also starting his "Fresher" year at Cambridge (King's College) this year for grad school, so we were right next to each other in the picture! So we mused about the Brit system and how overly complicated they were making the whole lining-up process. Talk about small world + MIT people everywhere you go. (Rane Nolan MIT '09 is also starting grad school here, but at Trinity Hall, a different college. But I ran into him in the market square my second day in Cambridge!)

Anyway, then we had an assortment of Matriculation Day activities including a book discussion, blah blah ... until that evening, the night of Matriculation Dinner!

Now just to set the stage:
-Cambridge has been around for 800 years
-They follow tradition like mad
-Harry Potter was modeled after Cambridge/Oxford
-My entire college campus consists of chapels and castles

6:30pm Pre-dinner drinks with your DoS (Director of Studies)
Everyone has a DoS within college, who is basically the fellow who takes care of all your academic issues/registration - think MIT advisor. These are assigned according to major. So, at 6.30pm, all the fresher engineers + me + Notre Dame 3rd year exchange student (Bart Dear) enjoyed wine, cheese, and crisps (chips) in our DoS's room (in college).

7:30pm Matriculation Dinner
We had tables set out for each major/department, where we found our nameplates and silverware laid out for us:

[Fig. 2 Place setting at Matric Dinner]

[Fig. 3 The Engineers' Table]

[Fig. 4 Part 2 of 3-course meal]


[Fig. 5 The Historians' (?) Table]

At the end of dinner, during dessert, we had a serenade by King's Voices, the college mixed choir (which I am now a part of!) from the tier looking over the entire dining hall. It was ridiculous, like whoa. Like, wow, we are sitting in The Great Hall with candles, wine, good food, in dresses and suits, with a choir singing to us, welcoming us formally into the Cambridge University community.

[Fig. 6 King's Voices performing during dinner]

Post dinner, basically all the freshers joined the rest of the college in our college bar (yeah, each college here has their own college bar. King's is the best.) and it was packed. We had bands playing and just general socializing.

[Fig. 7 bands in King's bar]


[Fig. 8 King's Bar]

Alex and Roman - Germans, and adopted College Dad


Hallikki - first person I've met from Estonia, I think and Oscar, the Swede fresher engineer


Elian the Italian, and Oscar - both engineer freshers


[Fig. 9, 10 King's Bar after matriculation]

Welcome to Cambridge.

I miss MIT like mad.

Ugh.

I want snow too ...

It is snowing in Cambridge, MA.

The explosion on my Facebook home page of statuses like
"Snow!!"
"omg it's snowing in October?!"
"snow in Boston!"
"snooowwwwww"
"it's snowing!"
"SNOW SNOW SNOW."
etc.

makes me so jealous.
I wish it would snow in this Cambridge, too ...

Ready all ... Row!

6:40am practice this morning.

We had a new coxswain - a grad student from the US who had coxed back in New Jersey in high school.
SCORE.


Oddly enough, despite his unfamiliarity with our abnormally narrow course (and our consequent running into things), I felt right at home and suddenly much more natural/comfortable this practice. Maybe it was the extra half hour of sleep, or more likely, it was being back in my familiar world of crew terminology again.

Oh
'let it run,'
'hold water,'
'ready all - row,'
... how I have missed you.

I hadn't even noticed until today that the English coxswains never said "even pressure" after asking port/starboard --excuse me, stroke-side and bow-side-- to add pressure and bring us around a turn .. I can't think of what they do say, but it's not that, cause when I heard seemingly insignificant phrases like even pressure through the speakers today, I was just so happy ...


p.s. I saw Jon Garrity (another CME '11) and Rane Nolan (MIT '09, varsity heavyweight men's crew) pass by in their college boats this morning! It's so odd to see people I know/people on my own MIT team go by in other college/team boats ...

Familiar Faces.

So far around campus, I've seen people who really really really look like:

Carson, Bethany, Carlo, John '12 from crew, Sarah from my club soccer team, Heath Ledger, and a cute mouse. Oh, and also a younger Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson from House/Neil from Dead Poets Society)
Also, during my bike home from classes, I passed an old man who looked just like Robin Williams.

Am I going crazy?

It feels good ...

to be working out regularly again.

it hurts so gooood.


-----
context:
pre-2009 - 18 months of continuous serious rowing/erging
January - intense 2-a-days Florida crew training
February - break arm, stopped all physical activity (including walking briskly)
Feb-May - healing, no physical activity
Jun-Sept - interned in China, tried to go on runs a few times, but it's impossible in those bustling streets and the air isn't fun to breathe
September - upon returning home and during one week at MIT, worked out a few times/days, then came down with some icky virus


So. After an 8-month hiatus of pretty much anything physically strenuous, it's great to be back on that train again.

And Suddenly ...

the workload piles in.

WOW.
So much individual reading and learning. So few problem-set-like assignments. So much working-on-your-own-in-your-own-room-locked-up-by-yourself. No p-set late night parties.
I'm taking a macroeconomics class in place of 14.02 and 14.11 credit, but it's more like I chose a HASS CI-H by taking it here. Lovely.

Credits ...

are going to screw me over, potentially.


----edit:
yay my course CME coordinator back at MIT finally responded and my coursework here will get me credit for everything I need. looks like it's smooth sailing after all.

Spare Time.

I feel like I have lots of it.


I had my 3rd lecture (total) today, the 1st of Signals & Systems (3F1) from 11am-12pm.
Then met up with Caroline Bogdan (MIT), had lunch at King's, walked around, checked out the rooms I potentially will swap into, and then came back. Since our crew outing was in the morning, I'm totally done for the day now. Cambridge people don't really do homework; they have practice exams with problems each week that are reviewed at "supervisions" - basically a one-on-one tutor session, one every two weeks per class. Besides that, it's self-study and April cramming for May exams.

I feel wrong ...

Morning, chaps.

Just finished my first morning rowing outing.

The last 4 hours were crew-related ...
5:30am - get up, get dressed
6:15am - leave college, bike to boathouse
6:30am - everyone meets at boathouse
6:53am - take the boats out, practice
8:10am - dock, stretch, etc
8:40am - get back to college, breakfast in dining hall
9:00am - go back to room, shower
9:30am - finally sitting down at the computer, clean, refreshed, tired

... eek.

Set at 8.

Today I had my first outing for King's Boat Club (i.e. crew)!

We were set at 8.
(a lot of the time. more than expected, at least.)



Totally out of shape; haven't really done much of anything physical since mid-February accident. Hopefully will get into the groove and suit up soon. Lack of post-practice stretching bad for muscles, but I should remember to do them on my own, at least. Found the erg room at King's and it's a tiny tiny little cellar room in the basement underneath some stairwell in a corner, that you get to by going through two meeting rooms and down an obscure set of stairs. WHAT. I wish Cambridge would compile money from its 30+ colleges and build a freakin' university athletics center. Benefit/Cost >> 1. It's odd that the colleges here are so independent.

Got off on a random tangent. Mostly wanted to comment that I'd had my first "outing" for crew today (i.e. practice, not a picnic) and smirk at some funny terminology.

outing = practice
easy there = wane'nuff/let it run
bow-side = starboard
stroke-side = port
(regardless of which side the boat is rigged)
front-stop = catch
back-stop = finish
take off the run = hold water


We have 3 weekday practices at 6:30am and 1 weekend practice in the afternoon. I'm getting up on Monday at 5:30am to bike over to the boathouse in time. fml?

Hello, Cambridge.

After spending about 9 days at home and another 7 at MIT, I was off to Cambridge!


Day 1

Upon arrival:
- 5:30am, waiting, waiting, waiting ...
- spent my first British pounds on a cookie and hot chocolate at the airport.
- didn't have the greatest time on the plane (didn't sleep at all, and was rather depressed to be leaving MIT. which was odd because I'm usually more excited leaving than returning, anywhere. I'll elaborate more on that in a separate post.)
- gloomy-ish/drizzling outside
- tried to nap on benches at terminal 3 where we were meeting everyone, but no luck
- read parts of The Ongoing Moment for freshers' week discussion, not terribly occupying/interesting
- felt really cold/potentially sick, huddled in large hoodie, lying on benches under harsh fluorescent airport lights in a loud terminal
- couldn't wait to get to Cambridge campus


First impressions of Cambridge:
- WHOA.
- such a small town, huh? where's my Boston-like skyline, skyscrapers, and bustle?
- not so charmed
- did i make a mistake in deciding to do this exchange?


After waiting for the longest time, we finally got a cab to take me around to the front of King's with my luggage. At this point I still wasn't too familiar with the college system at Cambridge University so I wasn't so clear about what was happening.
But I did get greeted by this as soon as I walked into King's gates:

[Gibbs building, view upon entering King's gates]

After checking in and getting my key, I dragged all my stuff to the back of the college campus, getting some help from a friendly stranger, who I've gotten to know now as one of the 2nd years in my college. Walking to my room was like walking through a royal park, by the way ...

Got to my building. Whoa.

[Bodley's Court, my accommodation]

Opened up the door to my room. Whoa again.


[my living room. wait for it, wait for it ...]


[my bedroom. this is the size of my entire room at MIT.]


Later in Day 1, I shopped around town, went to lunch with Caroline/Alex/Alyssa, bought groceries and toiletries, etc etc.


[Right outside King's gates. King's on the right, Cambridge town center on left.]

Evening included going to Wetherspoon's pub, back to the college bar, to Juan's room with freshers & co. for cards and games (coincidentally the guy who helped with my luggage earlier that day). Was going to go to a massive foam party at Fez, but didn't bring proper ID. So I went to the Turing Office (the equivalent of an Athena cluster) and Skyped forever on the beautiful iMac in the room I had all to myself since most Freshers hadn't arrived on campus yet.

Day 2

Did some more shopping and wandered around town. By this day, my initial dislike of Cambridge's ruralness had turned into a fondness of its quaintness.


[token photo of English telephone booths]

That evening was the Meet Your College Parents dinner, which consisted of lots of Freshers going around shouting their "parents"' names like orphans in the Chetwynd common room. Mine never showed, but I found my brother! A 3rd year exchange student from Notre Dame. Roman and Nadia ended up "adopting" us for the dinner in the dining hall.


[Roman, adopted College Dad]

Then was the Chaplain's port and cheese party (yes, wine+chaplain+freshers+cheese). I hung out in the college bar (yes we have a bar), meeting tons of freshers and upperclassmen.


[King's College bar]

Afterward, Roman, Alex, Hallikki and I went clubbing, Euro style.
First came Spoons, then Soul Tree, then Cindie's. Lots of European House/Trance/Techno, and not enough dirtay American hip hop. However, Pitbull and Black Eyed Peas were played, so all's good. It was like all the clubbing I didn't during my real freshman orientation. After the club-hopping, I was introduced to the "Van of Death" and "Van of Life" in the middle of market square, which is practically directly across King's: two food trucks parked in the square selling junk food from midnight-6am-ish. They got cheesy fries (I passed since I wasn't hungry for fat-in-a-box) and we sat on the stone bench-gates outside our college eating fries smothered in shredded cheese and a giant glob of mayonnaise. And we all thought Americans were the junk food junkies ... OH WAIT. I meant cheesy "CHIPS," not fries. Of course.

Day 3

Don't really remember right now. Will post more about Freshers Week once I remember ...