Cambridge-MIT Exchange: Formals & Swaps

formal n.
Dinner event at Cambridge University. Entails semiformal attire: suit-jacket/tie, dresses. Usually a 3-course meal is served with wine and post-dessert coffee/chocolates. Uber posh.

(see Halloween formal post)

Depending on which college it is, formal halls happen from daily to weekly to bi-weekly, even. King's has formal hall every Wednesday night - I've gone to 2 of them. They're pretty costly, but good fun, what with candles, formal dress, a 3-course meal, wine, delectable dessert, and endless pennying, all served inside a medieval castle of a dining hall.

pennying v.
1. Maneuvering a 1pence coin into your friend's (preferably full or empty) wine glass. Consequence: they have to down their glass; if it's empty, it has to be filled to the rim and downed.
2. A unique Cambridge tradition.
3. Endless entertainment.

The Guide to Pennying
- penny in wine glass = down the glass
- penny in empty wine glass = fill the glass, down it
- 2nd penny in glass = pennier downs their glass
- 3rd penny in glass = whole table downs their glasses
- penny in wine bottle = get ready for a forgotten night
(note this can only be accomplished with an "engineer's penny" - a bent 1p coin to fit into the bottle opening)
- 5 pence in dessert = no hands allowed!
* pennying is invalid if the glass is in hand or the dessert's already been started

Ways to Penny Your Friend (or Stranger sitting next to you)
- drop in a p when they're not looking
- free-throw across the table
- sneak it in by pretending to reach for the water pitcher
- wrestle them down and dunk it in their glass
- fight them
- ask them to pass the sugar bowl with both hands and plunk it in
- fast as a lightning bolt when they've just finished the glass and are picking up the bottle to refill

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Got a couple of ins with other MIT students also doing CME (Cambridge-MIT Exchange) ... basically since all the CME kids are at different colleges, this means we get to go to each others' formals pretty easily :)

Couple of the last formals:

11/02 Pembroke iCUSU formal
11/11 King's formal hall
11/14 Trinity formal hall
11/17 Selwyn formal hall

---------------King's College formal

[King's formal]

funny story about this formal: so I'm sitting in the bar, having just finished dinner and about to take a nap while others dine, so I can be fully energized and ready to go once everybody gets out of formal. Naiara comes around asking if anybody wants a free ticket.
"Why?" ...
"cause we know we can't sell it now." (It's like ... 15 minutes before formal starts, haha.)
"eh ... well, we all just ate ..."
"yeah, I gotta do work"
"I'm writing a paper"
....
"Ok how about this: you try to find someone who really wants the ticket. If you can't find someone within the next 5 mins, I'll take it."
So at this point I sit back, relax, and expect the chances I'll have to rush back to my room and change for formal are pretty slim.
7:21pm - I get the ticket. Oh snap.
[fast walk back to room, change into formal wear, get back to hall]
7:28pm - standing outside hall.