I never thought I'd be stressed from trying to fit in/juggle too many parties.
I never thought I'd be stressed from having too little work.
Oh Cambridge, how you've surprised me this year.
<3
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Last 1.5 Week
WHOA.
10 MORE DAYS IN CAMBRIDGE AND IT'S TIME TO GO BACK TO THE STATES.
WHOA.
wow.
Kinda don't want to leave anymore ... lots of places/people to miss :(
10 MORE DAYS IN CAMBRIDGE AND IT'S TIME TO GO BACK TO THE STATES.
WHOA.
wow.
Kinda don't want to leave anymore ... lots of places/people to miss :(
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Rote vs. Deep Learning
A fellow exchange student's gchat status:
"Dear Cambridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning#Rote_learning_vs._actual_thinking"
It seems the course 6 (compsci) kids got a bit shafted ... in CUED (Cambridge's Engineering Dept), the problem is less that rote learning is forced over deep learning, but that the focus is pretty much entirely on theory, rather than appplication/practical use of engineering .. so I have to disagree in this instance and vouch for Cambridge that it does encourage "deep learning" in the understanding-theory-and-principles sense. A little too deep to be practically useful in the real world, though, but fantastic if you want a career as an academic.
"Dear Cambridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning#Rote_learning_vs._actual_thinking"
It seems the course 6 (compsci) kids got a bit shafted ... in CUED (Cambridge's Engineering Dept), the problem is less that rote learning is forced over deep learning, but that the focus is pretty much entirely on theory, rather than appplication/practical use of engineering .. so I have to disagree in this instance and vouch for Cambridge that it does encourage "deep learning" in the understanding-theory-and-principles sense. A little too deep to be practically useful in the real world, though, but fantastic if you want a career as an academic.
Exam Term's "Quiet Period"
At Cambridge, "Exam Term" = all else comes to a screeching halt.
The extracurricular activities that took up the already-tiny time commitment during the regular school year? No more meetings, and don't worry if you don't make any progress or can't make a rehearsal. It's all excused because of exams.
Noise? Talking loudly? Playing music in your room?
PSH.
It's nice in a way, to see how enforced from "the top down" (in terms of Quiet Term being enforced by administration, even) this whole "focus on exams and nothing else" attitude is, but I mean, come on guys, it's a bit over the top, no? I guess it's just coming from a place where you wouldn't ever miss a rehearsal just because you have an exam the next morning, or skip a meeting just because you have an entire p-set (examples paper) to do that night. Those are just the academic-work-time-crunches/sacrifices that you are aware of/make when you commit to the activity/group. And after years of doing it, you get used to all the mad-packing-in-of-work-into-tiny-time-frames. And students are expected to work out solutions to issues like noise, study inconveniences, etc. amongst themselves without the admin stepping in, I guess.
Anyway, this was extremely amusing. It's really quite awesome of the Dean/porters to enforce such a strict environment for the sake of people taking exams, but I feel like I'm in a boarding school where the faculty have to step in and make everyone hush up so that people can study ..
Email from King's College Dean to all students:
The extracurricular activities that took up the already-tiny time commitment during the regular school year? No more meetings, and don't worry if you don't make any progress or can't make a rehearsal. It's all excused because of exams.
Noise? Talking loudly? Playing music in your room?
PSH.
It's nice in a way, to see how enforced from "the top down" (in terms of Quiet Term being enforced by administration, even) this whole "focus on exams and nothing else" attitude is, but I mean, come on guys, it's a bit over the top, no? I guess it's just coming from a place where you wouldn't ever miss a rehearsal just because you have an exam the next morning, or skip a meeting just because you have an entire p-set (examples paper) to do that night. Those are just the academic-work-time-crunches/sacrifices that you are aware of/make when you commit to the activity/group. And after years of doing it, you get used to all the mad-packing-in-of-work-into-tiny-time-frames. And students are expected to work out solutions to issues like noise, study inconveniences, etc. amongst themselves without the admin stepping in, I guess.
Anyway, this was extremely amusing. It's really quite awesome of the Dean/porters to enforce such a strict environment for the sake of people taking exams, but I feel like I'm in a boarding school where the faculty have to step in and make everyone hush up so that people can study ..
Email from King's College Dean to all students:
Dear All
I am writing to remind you of the College regulations for the 'Quiet Period'. These will come into force on Friday 14 May (when Easter Term divides) and remain in place until Friday 11 June (when Easter Term ends).
Parties, student events and outside receptions are not permitted during this period. Musical instruments may only be played in student rooms between 1.30 pm and 5.30 pm each day. Music students who are offering a performance paper will have priority booking for music practice rooms.
Many students are already taking, and if not, preparing for, exams. A great deal rests on people's performance in these, and they have a right to an absolute minimum of disturbance. I ask you all to make a special effort to be considerate for others' need for peace and quiet.
Remember that activities you may engage in to help you through stressful periods (playing loud music, singing, drinking, sharing anxieties with friends in corridors late at night etc) may not be at all relaxing for others in the vicinity.
I take a particularly serious view of all forms of disturbance during exam term, especially after 11 pm, and anyone reported to me for this offence can expect correspondingly serious consequences.
Please also note the following:
- Ball games and playing frisbee are permitted only on the field between Old Garden Hostel and West Road. They are forbidden anywhere else in the College, including Bodley's Court and the Fellows' Garden. Studded footwear must not be worn when playing on the Garden Hostel field, and noise must be kept to a minimum.
- Barbeques must not be used anywhere in College grounds, including hostels, without the express permission of the Bursar acting for the Council (and this is rarely granted).
- Advice about bookings for garden parties in the Fellows' Garden, which are permitted only after the end of term and only for personal bookings, not University societies etc, can be obtained from the Domus PA, Jennie Franks (jennie.franks@kings.cam.ac.uk, tel. 31427).
I hope all goes well in your exams if you are taking them this term. If your life is made difficult by noise or other disturbance, and the matter cannot be amicably resolved, please inform the Porters (tel. 31656) and/or me (tel. 31237) without delay.
With best wishes,
John Barber
Lay Dean
Friday, May 7, 2010
MIT vs. Cambridge Systems
I've ragged on Cam quite a bit in some of these posts. It seems, even after a year of being here and seeing some perks of this university, that I still heavily lean in favor of MIT. I've tried to make objective comparisons and diminish the effect of my biases on these observations. But here let me explain the root of the favoritism.
It's not that Cambridge is a bad university. It's not that, as an institution of learning, MIT >> Cambridge. They just approach education very differently. While the English/European system hammers home the focus on your single discipline/major, pushing students to definitively choose their course before even applying to university, the American system views the undergraduate experience as only part-classroom-learning and a hell-of-a-lot-of-outside-the-classroom-learning-experiences. The Cambridge/Oxford systems hold an overall similarity with the Chinese university system in that these institutes are extremely academic. People don't care so much for seriously exploring interests, hobbies, or passions completely unrelated to their studies - there are a lot fewer "just for fun/just because .. why not?" sort of activities available (or taken up by students) at Cam, and most of the time outside the library or lecture room is spent going to guest-speaker lectures or political debates at The Union (imagine if Kresge held debates with invited speakers all the time). It would be a lot less likely to, without much of a conscious decision to do so, pick up a sport you've never played before, join Dance Troupe just because you want to try something new, or stumble into joining an a cappella group and wind up seriously dedicating yourself to these activities that have nothing to do with your coursework. There's a lot smaller chance for discovering new and perhaps so-far dormant passions, and a lot more you're-only-going-to-do-things-laid-out-on-your-exactly-planned-college-track. Sure, some people may perceive extracurricular pursuits as 'a waste of time' since college 'should be about learning your subject' - but we'll get to that point later*.
MIT's method of teaching is "learn by doing."
Cambridge's method of teaching is "learn by writing about it."
Seriously. I'm doing my best to be unbiased, and those statements come from the collective experience of a large sample set, not just mine.
MIT stresses application, whereas Cambridge stresses theory.
As with the International Baccalaureate program (in high school), Cambridge's method of teach-and-examine is: teach, teach, teach. Talk, talk, talk. Think, think, think. Write, write write. Then, at the very end of the year, compiled all your year's worth of knowledge and prove yourself on a final exam. It's a lot of self-planned study, revision that the student must themselves pace out, and basically, "here's all the material. learn it. we're testing you in May." With MIT, the method of teach-and-examine is: teach, teach, teach. Do, do, do. Apply, apply, apply. Lab, lab, lab. Pset, pset, pset/exam, exam, exam. Continual assessment creates constant and continual stress, is way extremely more stressful, but you're constantly being tested on what you know/don't know, and getting wake-up calls in the form of checkpoints - with each exam, the student is forced to prepare and at least be on par with the curriculum so far. The stress at MIT may be immensely more and thousand-times more intense, but at Cambridge, you could fall behind to god-knows-where before you realize you're that far behind. In a way, this may get the student to learn the invaluable lesson of time management that they somehow bypassed before uni, or, as is the case with some freshers, it could result in them practically wasting their entire first year here. (But don't worry, even if you fell waaay behind during the first 2 trimesters, you get AN ENTIRE FIVE WEEKS of vacation right before exam term to catch up. Oh, plus like, extra weeks once term starts and classes stop.)
Honestly, I realized what makes me so biased against the Cambridge system. It's that the set up, curriculum, schedules, and methods make Cambridge undergraduate university much like a graduate school, and at this point in my life, I don't want that. I want an undergraduate college experience. Additionally, I'm an engineer - not an academic who wants to read textbooks until I know enough to become a university professor. I want to apply my knowledge, not simply be a bookie. For those of you who enjoy the lone-researcher-don't-bother-me just-let-me-sit-here-and-pore-over-these-books-every-day style, Cambridge would probably fare better for you than the constant DOING of MIT. It's more relaxed, self-managed time here, with a lot of flexibility of when/where to do your work, as long as you produce a year's worth of evidence ... at the end of the year. For me -- I enjoy being constantly busy, juggling development-lab, robot-design-class, lathe-making class, finance class, music class, psychology research, a cappella rehearsals, athletics practice, event-planning committee work, dinner out with friends, and spontaneous most-random-stuff-ever with people at the same time, with little to no flexibility because you can't add extra hours to the day. I love running on 150% intensity all the time and being so bogged down with work/activities that I have negative time to sleep. (Acceleration trap? Ok ... maybe that does exist, but the fall out doesn't happen until the semester's over. Then we all die. But it's worth it.)
*For me, those are the things that the undergraduate experience is about. I have the rest of my life to go to grad school, work toward a PhD (never), and conduct calm, quiet, studious, narrowly defined, focused research. But. At this point, we are only 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old. We have just finished high school, which we finish at age 17. You know, when you're still living at home with your family taking care of you and blah blah blah. College -- you're out on your own, and there's a lot to learn. And not just about topics taught in the classroom. This is the prime time in our life. The undergraduate experience in America is about exploration, discovery, passion, imagination, and creativity. It's about learning more from your peers than from your lecturers. It's about figuring out things about yourself, your dreams, your life, your social self, your academic self, your financial self. We have the rest of our lives to narrow our social group to the small group of lab partners, or the few coworkers at the office, and do research about a new HIV vaccine or develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool ... but there are some things we might never discover about ourselves if we're never given the chance. Personally, I value the chance to open every door and take a stroll into several rooms, ultimately choosing my final door and having an enriched rest-of-life due to the various experiences .. over heading down the hallway, not bothering to dip into any rooms along the way, blindly and determinedly fast-walking to 'my final door.' Sure, I'd get there faster that way .. but the journey itself would lack most of the enrichment it would've had otherwise.
The scope and opportunities in high school are limited by virtue of economies of scale, but in college - and especially somewhere extremely diverse and supportive of its students - there are so many opportunities for anything and everything you have ever wanted to do, it will blow your mind. Glass-blowing lab? Chocolate-truffle-making lab? Wine tasting class? Square dance lessons? Researching fuel and materials for nuclear energy systems with world-renowned scientists? Flying 2500 miles away and touring California with your a cappella group, performing at schools and plazas along the coast? Yes, of course my academics are important to me. Yes, I'm getting a world class education from my professors. But these types of opportunities -- these, I will no longer have at my beck and call, all free (funded by the university), once I finish undergraduate. These aren't things I must do, and certainly things I wouldn't seek out voluntarily, but the fact that these opportunities are offered and encouraged to me throughout my early 20s allows me to explore things in a scope 100x bigger than I'd ever imagined. For that, my undergraduate college experience is absolutely irreplaceable for me. And I surely don't want to have that replaced by 4 years of premature grad school.
It's not that Cambridge is a bad university. It's not that, as an institution of learning, MIT >> Cambridge. They just approach education very differently. While the English/European system hammers home the focus on your single discipline/major, pushing students to definitively choose their course before even applying to university, the American system views the undergraduate experience as only part-classroom-learning and a hell-of-a-lot-of-outside-the-classroom-learning-experiences. The Cambridge/Oxford systems hold an overall similarity with the Chinese university system in that these institutes are extremely academic. People don't care so much for seriously exploring interests, hobbies, or passions completely unrelated to their studies - there are a lot fewer "just for fun/just because .. why not?" sort of activities available (or taken up by students) at Cam, and most of the time outside the library or lecture room is spent going to guest-speaker lectures or political debates at The Union (imagine if Kresge held debates with invited speakers all the time). It would be a lot less likely to, without much of a conscious decision to do so, pick up a sport you've never played before, join Dance Troupe just because you want to try something new, or stumble into joining an a cappella group and wind up seriously dedicating yourself to these activities that have nothing to do with your coursework. There's a lot smaller chance for discovering new and perhaps so-far dormant passions, and a lot more you're-only-going-to-do-things-laid-out-on-your-exactly-planned-college-track. Sure, some people may perceive extracurricular pursuits as 'a waste of time' since college 'should be about learning your subject' - but we'll get to that point later*.
MIT's method of teaching is "learn by doing."
Cambridge's method of teaching is "learn by writing about it."
Seriously. I'm doing my best to be unbiased, and those statements come from the collective experience of a large sample set, not just mine.
MIT stresses application, whereas Cambridge stresses theory.
As with the International Baccalaureate program (in high school), Cambridge's method of teach-and-examine is: teach, teach, teach. Talk, talk, talk. Think, think, think. Write, write write. Then, at the very end of the year, compiled all your year's worth of knowledge and prove yourself on a final exam. It's a lot of self-planned study, revision that the student must themselves pace out, and basically, "here's all the material. learn it. we're testing you in May." With MIT, the method of teach-and-examine is: teach, teach, teach. Do, do, do. Apply, apply, apply. Lab, lab, lab. Pset, pset, pset/exam, exam, exam. Continual assessment creates constant and continual stress, is way extremely more stressful, but you're constantly being tested on what you know/don't know, and getting wake-up calls in the form of checkpoints - with each exam, the student is forced to prepare and at least be on par with the curriculum so far. The stress at MIT may be immensely more and thousand-times more intense, but at Cambridge, you could fall behind to god-knows-where before you realize you're that far behind. In a way, this may get the student to learn the invaluable lesson of time management that they somehow bypassed before uni, or, as is the case with some freshers, it could result in them practically wasting their entire first year here. (But don't worry, even if you fell waaay behind during the first 2 trimesters, you get AN ENTIRE FIVE WEEKS of vacation right before exam term to catch up. Oh, plus like, extra weeks once term starts and classes stop.)
Honestly, I realized what makes me so biased against the Cambridge system. It's that the set up, curriculum, schedules, and methods make Cambridge undergraduate university much like a graduate school, and at this point in my life, I don't want that. I want an undergraduate college experience. Additionally, I'm an engineer - not an academic who wants to read textbooks until I know enough to become a university professor. I want to apply my knowledge, not simply be a bookie. For those of you who enjoy the lone-researcher-don't-bother-me just-let-me-sit-here-and-pore-over-these-books-every-day style, Cambridge would probably fare better for you than the constant DOING of MIT. It's more relaxed, self-managed time here, with a lot of flexibility of when/where to do your work, as long as you produce a year's worth of evidence ... at the end of the year. For me -- I enjoy being constantly busy, juggling development-lab, robot-design-class, lathe-making class, finance class, music class, psychology research, a cappella rehearsals, athletics practice, event-planning committee work, dinner out with friends, and spontaneous most-random-stuff-ever with people at the same time, with little to no flexibility because you can't add extra hours to the day. I love running on 150% intensity all the time and being so bogged down with work/activities that I have negative time to sleep. (Acceleration trap? Ok ... maybe that does exist, but the fall out doesn't happen until the semester's over. Then we all die. But it's worth it.)
*For me, those are the things that the undergraduate experience is about. I have the rest of my life to go to grad school, work toward a PhD (never), and conduct calm, quiet, studious, narrowly defined, focused research. But. At this point, we are only 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old. We have just finished high school, which we finish at age 17. You know, when you're still living at home with your family taking care of you and blah blah blah. College -- you're out on your own, and there's a lot to learn. And not just about topics taught in the classroom. This is the prime time in our life. The undergraduate experience in America is about exploration, discovery, passion, imagination, and creativity. It's about learning more from your peers than from your lecturers. It's about figuring out things about yourself, your dreams, your life, your social self, your academic self, your financial self. We have the rest of our lives to narrow our social group to the small group of lab partners, or the few coworkers at the office, and do research about a new HIV vaccine or develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool ... but there are some things we might never discover about ourselves if we're never given the chance. Personally, I value the chance to open every door and take a stroll into several rooms, ultimately choosing my final door and having an enriched rest-of-life due to the various experiences .. over heading down the hallway, not bothering to dip into any rooms along the way, blindly and determinedly fast-walking to 'my final door.' Sure, I'd get there faster that way .. but the journey itself would lack most of the enrichment it would've had otherwise.
The scope and opportunities in high school are limited by virtue of economies of scale, but in college - and especially somewhere extremely diverse and supportive of its students - there are so many opportunities for anything and everything you have ever wanted to do, it will blow your mind. Glass-blowing lab? Chocolate-truffle-making lab? Wine tasting class? Square dance lessons? Researching fuel and materials for nuclear energy systems with world-renowned scientists? Flying 2500 miles away and touring California with your a cappella group, performing at schools and plazas along the coast? Yes, of course my academics are important to me. Yes, I'm getting a world class education from my professors. But these types of opportunities -- these, I will no longer have at my beck and call, all free (funded by the university), once I finish undergraduate. These aren't things I must do, and certainly things I wouldn't seek out voluntarily, but the fact that these opportunities are offered and encouraged to me throughout my early 20s allows me to explore things in a scope 100x bigger than I'd ever imagined. For that, my undergraduate college experience is absolutely irreplaceable for me. And I surely don't want to have that replaced by 4 years of premature grad school.
Bye Bye, Exams
DONE.
WITH.
EXAMS.
Hello, 4-week project term.
---------------------------------------
Clarification:
Cambridge's third trimester is "exam term," which consists of a first 4 weeks of studying + few wrap-up lectures/supervisions. Then, the second 4 weeks of testing. Also, a 'quiet period' is enforced (more about that in another post).
3rd/4th year engineers work on a different schedule, however - we have a 3-week exam period starting on the Monday before term, a subsequent 4-week period of 2 simultaneous projects (~20 hr/week each), and 1 week off before May Week jazz. So. There we have it. Today was the last day of engineering exams, so I'm officially done with all course 2 exams for junior year. Still have to take an economics paper in June with the econ folks for 14.02/14.11 HASS-C credit, but generally not the case for Cam students.
MIT has 1 more week before finals week .. then they'll be out. I'll enjoy being 'done' for now, and then when I'm in the middle of project term, they can shove it in my face :P
WITH.
EXAMS.
Hello, 4-week project term.
---------------------------------------
Clarification:
Cambridge's third trimester is "exam term," which consists of a first 4 weeks of studying + few wrap-up lectures/supervisions. Then, the second 4 weeks of testing. Also, a 'quiet period' is enforced (more about that in another post).
3rd/4th year engineers work on a different schedule, however - we have a 3-week exam period starting on the Monday before term, a subsequent 4-week period of 2 simultaneous projects (~20 hr/week each), and 1 week off before May Week jazz. So. There we have it. Today was the last day of engineering exams, so I'm officially done with all course 2 exams for junior year. Still have to take an economics paper in June with the econ folks for 14.02/14.11 HASS-C credit, but generally not the case for Cam students.
MIT has 1 more week before finals week .. then they'll be out. I'll enjoy being 'done' for now, and then when I'm in the middle of project term, they can shove it in my face :P
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Cambridge Exam "Term"
This is ridiculous.
I'm in the library right now, looking over everything one more time for my last remaining final exam tomorrow afternoon.
And I'm so tempted to just go to the bar. (equivalent to the stud, or floor lounge)
Actually, I think I'll go.
UGHHHH
Shireen: "words cannot express .. how much I hate you. haha"
yeah, me neither.
Cambridge engineering exams are basically blink-of-an-eye super short 90 minute exams, spread across a painfully, unnecessarily long 3-week period. Like snot dragged out and spread so thin that you barely notice anything's there. I don't know why but I feel really angry about this right now. AUGHAS;LKDGASJF It's seriously been THREE WEEKS of exams. And FOUR WEEKS OF VACATION right before that. that is an ETERNITY to study and prepare. I haven't had this much time to study anything in my life since .... .... ............. elementary school?!?! Or maybe the SAT if you count the cumulative hours aggregated across YEARS.
ok, I'm getting a little upset. You would want to tear your brain out too if you had this agonizingly long of a time to study. Should probably end post before this anger erupts.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
MIT Drop Date
It's MIT's drop date today.
Email:
Today is Drop Date - Thursday, April 22, 2010
* Last day to add a time-arranged subject that started after beginning of the term (2.ThU, 2.UR, 2.URG)
* Last day to add half-term subjects offered in second half of term.
* Last day to cancel subjects from Registration.
* Last day to change a subject from Credit to Listener.
* Last day to petition for May Advance Standing Exam (given during Final Exam Period).
Today is day 4 of Cambridge 3rd year engineering exams.
(Oh right, but the exams are spread over 3 weeks.)
LOL
The timing is comedic.
Email:
Today is Drop Date - Thursday, April 22, 2010
* Last day to add a time-arranged subject that started after beginning of the term (2.ThU, 2.UR, 2.URG)
* Last day to add half-term subjects offered in second half of term.
* Last day to cancel subjects from Registration.
* Last day to change a subject from Credit to Listener.
* Last day to petition for May Advance Standing Exam (given during Final Exam Period).
Academic Calendar:
http://web.mit.edu/registrar/
Today is day 4 of Cambridge 3rd year engineering exams.
(Oh right, but the exams are spread over 3 weeks.)
LOL
The timing is comedic.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
CME: To Do or Not To Do?
Several people have asked me for advice on deciding whether or not to apply to/take part in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange. Here's a compilation on some of the most important points I've been repeating. Hopefully, whoever you are, this can give you some insight into the differences/experience/etc. and help you with your decision!
----------------
* On Classes:
Classes are not rigorous. They do not do continual assessment (the only thing that counts is the final exam - and your "psets" are only reviewed at "supervision" -think office hours- for "helpful review" rather than being graded) so honestly the workload is really light compared to MIT. I'm sure I will be stressed when finals come around (in late-April for every class regardless of which term you took the class - trimester system, first two trimesters are classes, last trimester is final exams + projects) but for now I feel like it's a breeze. And when the stress finally does come around, it'll be about 1/100th of the type of stress you feel at MIT. You'll get a 5-week vacation wherein you can study/review however much you want for your exams. Think about the 72 hours you get to prepare for MIT's finals week. Now imagine that being spread over 5+ weeks where you don't have classes, other distractions, nada (seriously, even athletics and other clubs get put on hold!), to study for exams.
* On life at Cambridge:
It is a totally different pace (slower) that you'll have to adjust to. To be honest, when I first got here, I was kind of depressed for a while - probably 4-5 weeks. It was really weird for me to feel because I am usually someone who, out of all my friends, is the person who most loves adventure, doing new things, meeting new people, going new places, etc. so it was startling for me to feel depressed about Cam life. I realized finally that it's because MIT is incredibly -almost disproportionately, compared to other American universities, let alone European ones where the academic:extracurricular focus ratio gets even higher- spontaneous, creative, dynamic, and almost spastic, lol. Everything is always changing and exciting things are happening everywhere around you. Since Cambridge is on the college system (you live in "colleges" kind of like what you see in Harry Potter), you largely spend your time within your college grounds - wake up, lectures, come back to college for lunch, go back to your department for lectures, come back to college and work in library/room, go to hall for dinner, go to other college for university society (club) meeting, go back to room to study and/or hang out with people in your college common areas (bar - that's really the only common lounge area in your entire college campus, aka oversized dorm). I probably felt a bit suffocated at first due to this routine, but afterward, I really got into the groove and have a group of really good friends so now I am very very happy about it.
* My courses:
Getting credit this year for 2.002, 2.004, 2.671, 2.672, 2.96, 14.02, 14.11, and 24 units of HASS elective. The transfer ratio (for the course 2 department) is 1 MIT class per every 2 Cambridge engineering modules taken. In the engineering department, we can take additional language classes, so I took two Spanish classes for 24 units HASS. I'm also taking an economics class (full year class) for 24 units of course 14 credit for 2 classes that will complete my HASS concentration. So I'm walking away from CME with 9 12-unit classes worth of credit, which is great. Side note: Cam students don't get to take classes outside of their major. Doing what I'm doing and taking engineering with the engineering students in the engineering department and taking an economics paper with the econ kids in the econ department ... you'll be an odd ball there. But coming from an American background, I appreciate the balance and the chance to learn anything I want.
* Would I do it again?
Yes. Though that's more a "yes" at 80% than a "YES!!!" I still think that MIT is more active, spontaneous, passionate, etc. but I really appreciate the opportunity that studying abroad has given me to see beyond the MIT world and experience a different culture, a different college lifestyle, and just see The College Experience from a different vantage point. My personal opinion is that it broadens perspective and is teaching me/making me more aware of the countless little nuances distinguishing our cultures. It's without a doubt a huge benefit to experience more than one university during your college years, and seriously, who would turn down a chance to study at BOTH freaking MIT and University of Cambridge within one college career!? I also love meeting all these new people and having a circle of Cambridge friends who I really like and can visit/know forever. It's awesome to be able to travel Europe while you're here (in December, I went skiing on Cambridge+Oxford's annual trip 2,500 students to the French Alps for a week, then to Switzerland, Paris, London, Vienna, Paris again, London for New Year's, then Amsterdam, Munich, Venice, and finally Spain, Dublin, Kerry just this past month) and also just to understand a different definition of "college."
Read around for more posts on specific Cambridge events, thoughts/feelings/experiences, and such. Hopefully this has been helpful, stay tuned for more.
----------------
* On Classes:
Classes are not rigorous. They do not do continual assessment (the only thing that counts is the final exam - and your "psets" are only reviewed at "supervision" -think office hours- for "helpful review" rather than being graded) so honestly the workload is really light compared to MIT. I'm sure I will be stressed when finals come around (in late-April for every class regardless of which term you took the class - trimester system, first two trimesters are classes, last trimester is final exams + projects) but for now I feel like it's a breeze. And when the stress finally does come around, it'll be about 1/100th of the type of stress you feel at MIT. You'll get a 5-week vacation wherein you can study/review however much you want for your exams. Think about the 72 hours you get to prepare for MIT's finals week. Now imagine that being spread over 5+ weeks where you don't have classes, other distractions, nada (seriously, even athletics and other clubs get put on hold!), to study for exams.
* On life at Cambridge:
It is a totally different pace (slower) that you'll have to adjust to. To be honest, when I first got here, I was kind of depressed for a while - probably 4-5 weeks. It was really weird for me to feel because I am usually someone who, out of all my friends, is the person who most loves adventure, doing new things, meeting new people, going new places, etc. so it was startling for me to feel depressed about Cam life. I realized finally that it's because MIT is incredibly -almost disproportionately, compared to other American universities, let alone European ones where the academic:extracurricular focus ratio gets even higher- spontaneous, creative, dynamic, and almost spastic, lol. Everything is always changing and exciting things are happening everywhere around you. Since Cambridge is on the college system (you live in "colleges" kind of like what you see in Harry Potter), you largely spend your time within your college grounds - wake up, lectures, come back to college for lunch, go back to your department for lectures, come back to college and work in library/room, go to hall for dinner, go to other college for university society (club) meeting, go back to room to study and/or hang out with people in your college common areas (bar - that's really the only common lounge area in your entire college campus, aka oversized dorm). I probably felt a bit suffocated at first due to this routine, but afterward, I really got into the groove and have a group of really good friends so now I am very very happy about it.
* My courses:
Getting credit this year for 2.002, 2.004, 2.671, 2.672, 2.96, 14.02, 14.11, and 24 units of HASS elective. The transfer ratio (for the course 2 department) is 1 MIT class per every 2 Cambridge engineering modules taken. In the engineering department, we can take additional language classes, so I took two Spanish classes for 24 units HASS. I'm also taking an economics class (full year class) for 24 units of course 14 credit for 2 classes that will complete my HASS concentration. So I'm walking away from CME with 9 12-unit classes worth of credit, which is great. Side note: Cam students don't get to take classes outside of their major. Doing what I'm doing and taking engineering with the engineering students in the engineering department and taking an economics paper with the econ kids in the econ department ... you'll be an odd ball there. But coming from an American background, I appreciate the balance and the chance to learn anything I want.
* Would I do it again?
Yes. Though that's more a "yes" at 80% than a "YES!!!" I still think that MIT is more active, spontaneous, passionate, etc. but I really appreciate the opportunity that studying abroad has given me to see beyond the MIT world and experience a different culture, a different college lifestyle, and just see The College Experience from a different vantage point. My personal opinion is that it broadens perspective and is teaching me/making me more aware of the countless little nuances distinguishing our cultures. It's without a doubt a huge benefit to experience more than one university during your college years, and seriously, who would turn down a chance to study at BOTH freaking MIT and University of Cambridge within one college career!? I also love meeting all these new people and having a circle of Cambridge friends who I really like and can visit/know forever. It's awesome to be able to travel Europe while you're here (in December, I went skiing on Cambridge+Oxford's annual trip 2,500 students to the French Alps for a week, then to Switzerland, Paris, London, Vienna, Paris again, London for New Year's, then Amsterdam, Munich, Venice, and finally Spain, Dublin, Kerry just this past month) and also just to understand a different definition of "college."
Read around for more posts on specific Cambridge events, thoughts/feelings/experiences, and such. Hopefully this has been helpful, stay tuned for more.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
British-isms.
The American's Guide to BritSpeak
By: assorted British folk
with examples by actual Brits
"Are you alright?"
phrase. Hey, what's up? How are you doing?
pants
n. underwear
"I'm not wearing any pants today. And you can't even tell!"
"I can't be bothered." or "I can't be asked."
phrase. I don't feel like it; It doesn't matter enough to me to ..
"Oh, I can't be bothered to decorate my house for Christmas."
"Oh pff, I can't be asked to study for my supervision."
"Have you got ____?"
phrase. Do you have _____?
"Have you got football boots for tomorrow?"
"Have you gone ____?"
phrase. Did you go ____?
"Have you just gone to the grocery?"
washing up (liquid)
n. dishwashing (liquid)
"Well, since I cooked, you should do the washing up tonight."
fortnight
n. two weeks
"See you again in a fortnight for our semi-monthly pub crawl."
toilet
n. bathroom
"Where's the toilet? I seriously drank too much wine tonight."
buttery, canteen
n. cafeteria
"The canteen's closed tonight, so we'll have to go to Nandos for dinner!"
"sort it out" or "(get it) sorted"
phrase. get it figured out, get it organized/fixed
"New phone is a twat. Why does it automatically type 'ame' instead of 'and'? Non-word vs. most common word in the English language ... sort it out Samsung, seriously."
mental
adj. ridiculous, crazy, off the sheezy
"Mate, that concert tonight was absolutely mental!"
lash/pre-lash
n. big drinking night/pre-game
"Yeah the morning was rush cause we'd been out on a lash the night before."
"Let's hit the club at 10, but pre-lash at my place at 8!"
supper
n. dinner or snack
"Let's go to the dining hall for supper."
eggy bread
n. french toast
"Mm, delicious, eggy bread! That just sounds so delicious .. and descriptive."
custard
n. pudding
"This gooey, yellow, viscous custard will be served for dessert."
pudding
n. cake
"X: For dessert tonight, I'm making pudding.
Y: ooh, delicious, viscous gelatinous sweetness.
X: actually, no. that's custard. this is pudding.
Y: huh?
X: seriously. pudding. it's like, dough, and baked, and sweet. get with the program."
fringe
n. bangs
"I kept the fringe with my new haircut!"
football boots
n. soccer cleats
"did you see that midfield wearing the bright yellow boots on the field at the football match today?
kick-about
n. scrimmage
"the football team is having a kick-about on the back fields."
By: assorted British folk
with examples by actual Brits
"Are you alright?"
phrase. Hey, what's up? How are you doing?
pants
n. underwear
"I'm not wearing any pants today. And you can't even tell!"
"I can't be bothered." or "I can't be asked."
phrase. I don't feel like it; It doesn't matter enough to me to ..
"Oh, I can't be bothered to decorate my house for Christmas."
"Oh pff, I can't be asked to study for my supervision."
"Have you got ____?"
phrase. Do you have _____?
"Have you got football boots for tomorrow?"
"Have you gone ____?"
phrase. Did you go ____?
"Have you just gone to the grocery?"
washing up (liquid)
n. dishwashing (liquid)
"Well, since I cooked, you should do the washing up tonight."
fortnight
n. two weeks
"See you again in a fortnight for our semi-monthly pub crawl."
toilet
n. bathroom
"Where's the toilet? I seriously drank too much wine tonight."
buttery, canteen
n. cafeteria
"The canteen's closed tonight, so we'll have to go to Nandos for dinner!"
"sort it out" or "(get it) sorted"
phrase. get it figured out, get it organized/fixed
"New phone is a twat. Why does it automatically type 'ame' instead of 'and'? Non-word vs. most common word in the English language ... sort it out Samsung, seriously."
mental
adj. ridiculous, crazy, off the sheezy
"Mate, that concert tonight was absolutely mental!"
lash/pre-lash
n. big drinking night/pre-game
"Yeah the morning was rush cause we'd been out on a lash the night before."
"Let's hit the club at 10, but pre-lash at my place at 8!"
supper
n. dinner or snack
"Let's go to the dining hall for supper."
eggy bread
n. french toast
"Mm, delicious, eggy bread! That just sounds so delicious .. and descriptive."
custard
n. pudding
"This gooey, yellow, viscous custard will be served for dessert."
pudding
n. cake
"X: For dessert tonight, I'm making pudding.
Y: ooh, delicious, viscous gelatinous sweetness.
X: actually, no. that's custard. this is pudding.
Y: huh?
X: seriously. pudding. it's like, dough, and baked, and sweet. get with the program."
fringe
n. bangs
"I kept the fringe with my new haircut!"
football boots
n. soccer cleats
"did you see that midfield wearing the bright yellow boots on the field at the football match today?
kick-about
n. scrimmage
"the football team is having a kick-about on the back fields."
Monday, April 5, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Work Culture: On Nights
It is 11:30pm.
I am the only one left at my 6-person table in the library. Extend this to be the average occupancy of the library: currently ~17% full. Give it another 30 minutes and I will feel almost uncomfortably-out-of-place-in-the-library-at-this-"late"-hour enough to leave. (Alternatives being dorm room, the bar, or clubbing .. but for most people on a non-significantly-eventful night, their room.) ... we are at university, right? ... What a culture.
At MIT, any given night, walk into the reading room at 11:30pm and you will not find a single open seat. Wait until maybe 3am and the seats will maybe start freeing up ...
--------------------elaboration.
Thing is, check out my college library or the engineering library here (at Cambridge) during the day ... especially 2-8pm. FULL.
Scope out MIT's reading room or Hayden Library in the early afternoon. Mediocre presence, people sparsely scattered around ... go between 5-7pm (which is King's library high tide) and you'll see the tiny population of people who aren't at varsity sports practice or in one of 29387 extracurricular meetings of that day.
Independent study is a huge focus at Cambridge, since theory > application, and there are many more people majoring in humanities - so, naturally, people camp out in the library during the bulk of the day. It seems there is less priority placed on extracurricular commitments [(a) I'm doing just as many activities here, or actually, even more than I did at MIT; yet the collective time commitment definitely falls short of that in the states. (b) just a general conclusion based on my awareness of other students' extracurricular involvement both here and at MIT], so as a result, people have the time of day to spend in the library. At Cam, lectures are shorter, there's no such thing as office hours, and recitations are limited to once-every-2-to-3-weeks 1-hour meetings ... = more time to spend in the library. At MIT, people are so caught up in the massively diverse whirlwind of activities they do around campus that we rarely start doing work for CLASS (problem sets) until 10pm, maybe 8pm tops. At which point we then crack open Red Bull, stock up on candy, and hammer out our psets til 4, 5, 6am. To be fair, MIT is the night culture if there ever was one, but then again, this isn't an uncommon at American universities.
Yet another culture shock.
I am the only one left at my 6-person table in the library. Extend this to be the average occupancy of the library: currently ~17% full. Give it another 30 minutes and I will feel almost uncomfortably-out-of-place-in-the-library-at-this-"late"-hour enough to leave. (Alternatives being dorm room, the bar, or clubbing .. but for most people on a non-significantly-eventful night, their room.) ... we are at university, right? ... What a culture.
At MIT, any given night, walk into the reading room at 11:30pm and you will not find a single open seat. Wait until maybe 3am and the seats will maybe start freeing up ...
--------------------elaboration.
Thing is, check out my college library or the engineering library here (at Cambridge) during the day ... especially 2-8pm. FULL.
Scope out MIT's reading room or Hayden Library in the early afternoon. Mediocre presence, people sparsely scattered around ... go between 5-7pm (which is King's library high tide) and you'll see the tiny population of people who aren't at varsity sports practice or in one of 29387 extracurricular meetings of that day.
Independent study is a huge focus at Cambridge, since theory > application, and there are many more people majoring in humanities - so, naturally, people camp out in the library during the bulk of the day. It seems there is less priority placed on extracurricular commitments [(a) I'm doing just as many activities here, or actually, even more than I did at MIT; yet the collective time commitment definitely falls short of that in the states. (b) just a general conclusion based on my awareness of other students' extracurricular involvement both here and at MIT], so as a result, people have the time of day to spend in the library. At Cam, lectures are shorter, there's no such thing as office hours, and recitations are limited to once-every-2-to-3-weeks 1-hour meetings ... = more time to spend in the library. At MIT, people are so caught up in the massively diverse whirlwind of activities they do around campus that we rarely start doing work for CLASS (problem sets) until 10pm, maybe 8pm tops. At which point we then crack open Red Bull, stock up on candy, and hammer out our psets til 4, 5, 6am. To be fair, MIT is the night culture if there ever was one, but then again, this isn't an uncommon at American universities.
Yet another culture shock.
Friday, March 5, 2010
"Only at Cambridge ..." & "Only at MIT ..."
The other day in the library, Alexa and I noticed a historian leaned in his chair, relaxed, checking out a magazine - TIME or The Economist or something academic like that.
She wrote to me:
ONLY AT CAMBRIDGE DO PEOPLE TAKE A BREAK FROM READING, TO READ
To which I responded:
ONLY AT MIT DO PEOPLE TAKE A BREAK FROM CODING, TO CODE
... that about sums it up, I think. :P
She wrote to me:
ONLY AT CAMBRIDGE DO PEOPLE TAKE A BREAK FROM READING, TO READ
To which I responded:
ONLY AT MIT DO PEOPLE TAKE A BREAK FROM CODING, TO CODE
... that about sums it up, I think. :P
Academic Comparison [MIT vs. CAM]
Here's an attempt at an objective comparison.
I did try to stay objective throughout, although I could not resist making a subjective remark here and there. Despite my opinions, facts are facts and the details about how things run are just the way they are; I can't make up or exaggerate how free the printing is at MIT, or how long a supervision is at Cambridge, in order to make things appear better/worse.
While I personally most appreciate the resources/opportunities/system that MIT offers, there are also virtues to the Cambridge system ... for example:
Updates to this list as I think of them. The aim is to give a comprehensive comparison concerning academics.
| -- | MIT | Cambridge |
Focus | Application | Theory |
Lectures | 90 minutes | 60 minutes |
| Professor Uses | Chalkboard | Overhead projector |
| Lecture Notes | Self-taken from board | Professor’s typed handout/packet |
| Homework | Problem sets, turned in, graded, 1 per week per class | Examples papers, not turned in, not graded (“as long as you tried”), 1 per 2-3 weeks per class |
| “Recitation” | 60 minutes problem-solving in classroom with professor or grad student; ~10 students | No equivalent |
| “Supervision” | No equivalent | 60 minutes going over not-for-grade and as-long-as-you-attempted-it examples paper; 2 students |
| “Office Hours” | 2 hour blocks during week where professor’s undivided attention is devoted to students who come in | No equivalent |
| Work Style | Two words: “p-set parties”
| Work together? Huh? Together?
|
| Laboratory | Instructor-guided, clear instructions, conducted in direct relevance to course work, labs vary by class (e.g. 2.007 is extremely-lab-intensive whereas 2.005 doesn’t have lab) | Sign up for slot before term starts, done independently (little help offered), might be doing it without having any lectures (e.g. in 1st week), one lab for every class |
| Computing Facilities | Athena clusters: you’re rarely more than 50m away from a room of 10-70 computers, all within same (Athena) system using same username/pw | One central room in entire engineering department with ~60 computers; in college, only 2 locations with ~8 computers each; all these run on different systems with different logins! |
| Printing | Free, unlimited, more printers across campus than you can count | Pay for every page, printers scarce |
Internet | Wireless, signal anywhere and everywhere (e.g. dorms, student center, soccer field, classrooms, by the river, at the boathouse, in the gym), unlimited usage | Wireless? What is this wireless of which you speak? Don’t even think about getting it in your room, only in some lecture halls and college bar, restricted use! (2.0 GB/day … WHAT?!) |
I did try to stay objective throughout, although I could not resist making a subjective remark here and there. Despite my opinions, facts are facts and the details about how things run are just the way they are; I can't make up or exaggerate how free the printing is at MIT, or how long a supervision is at Cambridge, in order to make things appear better/worse.
While I personally most appreciate the resources/opportunities/system that MIT offers, there are also virtues to the Cambridge system ... for example:
- I really like having typed handouts professors give in lectures. This guarantees my notes are comprehensive and ensures that I don't miss something just because the lawn mower on Killian was too loud for me to hear what the professor just said. This is also how they can keep lectures so short at Cam - because they're not spending ages writing everything out on the board (they use pre-printed overhead projector slides).
- Despite hating Cambridge labs at first, I am starting to realize the benefit of them. The major grievances with labs is that (a) you have to sign up before term even starts, (b) you might be doing it the 1st week or the last week - so you shouldn't necessarily need lectures to understand what you're doing, (c) but you do need lectures to understand what you're doing if you want to do it properly, (d) there is almost no help, (e) it is so disjointed from the course/lectures itself as a standalone one-time experiment for each class. But, on the bright side, it forces me to sit down and really analyze theory put into practice, and scramble to teach myself the theory because otherwise (since there is little to no guidance provided during your lab - just several other students who are equally as confused as you) I'd have no idea what to write about in the report. [my first lab at Cambridge, I explained that I was an exchange student, hadn't taken the first two years of classes the engineers took here, and asked the instructor for his email in case I had any questions. His response: "oh .. well, I'm not really supposed to help you ..." and left it at that.]
- Super limited contact-time (supervisions/recitations) and the lack of office hours: forces me to do a lot of independent study. Since professors/supervisors are really inaccessible (in comparison) and it's rare to find someone to help you/answer any questions, I find myself often sitting down in the library poring over notes until I finally figure it out on my own.
- Light workload/fewer assignments: MIT always has you scrambling frantically just to get things completed that people never sit down to just read. We're too busy trying to solve problems and apply the theory, that I never, ever read textbooks at MIT, and the only context in which I review lecture notes is when I'm trying to solve a pset problem. At Cam, since classroom + supervision contact hours are so few, you get all the time in the world to just chill in the library and review notes. Inherently in the system of shorter lectures, it is implied that students will do post-study of lecture notes. The fact that we have much fewer assignments/actual work to do just makes you think, well, I better be doing something productive if I have no more problems to solve - guess I'll just study/read.
Updates to this list as I think of them. The aim is to give a comprehensive comparison concerning academics.
Academic Year/Schedule [MIT vs. Cam]
There is a STARK contrast between the MIT and Cambridge "academic year."
This was one of the biggest culture/school shocks I've faced on the exchange - our two extremely intensive 13-week terms at MIT suddenly shrank to three fast-paced, over-before-you-blink-twice 8-week terms at Cambridge.
Like any comparison, there are pros and cons to both ... imagine all the continuous assessment any university could possible give you during term - then amplify that workload x10, and throw in endless hours of extracurriculars: that's MIT for 13 weeks at a time. Now, imagine barely any continuous assessment, but very dense lectures and lots of self-study: that's Cambridge for 8 weeks.
--------
MIT
Fall: September 9 - December 10
Final exam week: December 14-18
IAP: January 7 - January 31
Spring: February 2 - May 13
Final exam week: May 17 - 21
vs.
Cambridge
Michaelmas: October 8 - December 2
--5 week vacation--
Lent: January 14 - March 10
--5 week vacation--
Final exam weekS: April 19 - May 6
Easter: April 22-June 9
Anyway, I just thought it was hilarious when I received an email from the Course 2 department at MIT today, reminding us that it was ADD DATE. Back at MIT, people are approaching the deadline to add courses to their registration (at Cambridge, you must set your course selection in stone by day 3 - after that, you're taking the exam whether you like it or not) ... whereas at CAM, I only have 3 MORE DAYS OF LECTURES LEFT in term. That's right. Three.
I feel like this term has just started, and I blinked, and now it's over. Jesus.
Lori Hyke's email to course 2 reminding us about add date:
lol.
This was one of the biggest culture/school shocks I've faced on the exchange - our two extremely intensive 13-week terms at MIT suddenly shrank to three fast-paced, over-before-you-blink-twice 8-week terms at Cambridge.
Like any comparison, there are pros and cons to both ... imagine all the continuous assessment any university could possible give you during term - then amplify that workload x10, and throw in endless hours of extracurriculars: that's MIT for 13 weeks at a time. Now, imagine barely any continuous assessment, but very dense lectures and lots of self-study: that's Cambridge for 8 weeks.
--------
MIT
Fall: September 9 - December 10
Final exam week: December 14-18
IAP: January 7 - January 31
Spring: February 2 - May 13
Final exam week: May 17 - 21
vs.
Cambridge
Michaelmas: October 8 - December 2
--5 week vacation--
Lent: January 14 - March 10
--5 week vacation--
Final exam weekS: April 19 - May 6
Easter: April 22-June 9
Anyway, I just thought it was hilarious when I received an email from the Course 2 department at MIT today, reminding us that it was ADD DATE. Back at MIT, people are approaching the deadline to add courses to their registration (at Cambridge, you must set your course selection in stone by day 3 - after that, you're taking the exam whether you like it or not) ... whereas at CAM, I only have 3 MORE DAYS OF LECTURES LEFT in term. That's right. Three.
I feel like this term has just started, and I blinked, and now it's over. Jesus.
Lori Hyke's email to course 2 reminding us about add date:
Please visit your advisor and obtain their signature today.
Add Date is Friday, March 5, 2010.
* Last day to add subjects to Registration.
* Last day for Juniors & Seniors to change an Elective to or from P/D/F Grading.
* Last day to change a subject from Listener to Credit.
* Last day for Sophomores to change a subject to or from Exploratory.
- Late Fee ($100) and petition required for students completing registration after this date.
* Last day to petition for second S.B. for February 2011 degree candidates.
* Last day for February 2011 degree candidates to apply for double major.
* Last day to drop half-term subjects offered in first-half of term.
* Deadline for completing cross-registration.
- Late Fee ($40) for petitions approved after this date.
Academic Calendar:
http://web.mit.edu/registrar/calendar/index.html
lol.
Monday, March 1, 2010
SOLID Weekend.
Saturday
Basically, football dominated the day ...
Woke up pretty late, ate breakfast, read about macroeconomics for a while, then met up with the team to walk over to the pitches. The whole footballness from beginning to end lasted about 4 hours. yeah, FOUR hours, 1-5pm. Kinda crazy, but it totally brought me back to middle school club soccer days (or even weekend high school games - which were rarer since most varsity matches were on weeknights) where the large half of Saturdays or Sundays were taken up by games (changing, driving there, playing, post-game frivolities, driving back, showering). A ride down memory lane; it was fantastic.
The day started out rainy, then was perfectly sunny during our game, started drizzling as soon as we were done, and then proceeded to rain/pour/HAIL-for-15-minutes/rain/drizzle the rest of the afternoon. ... crazy English weather.
Anyway, so basically, met the team in the bar around 1pm, headed over to St. John's pitches 1:30pm, warmed up, kicked off at 2pm, sent John's home crying by 4pm, packed our stuff and dragged our muddy selves to The Eagle pub for a toast to our league semifinal victory! Onward we go to the Plate Finals next weekend!
[King's Women after 3-2 semifinals win vs. St. John's ... "muddy but ecstatic!"]
[photo credit: Christina]
I can't even express how happy I am to be playing football [soccer] again ... especially after being broken/not doing any physical exercise for an entire year (probably the longest consecutive vegetable state I've been in since what, age 5?). Really like the team too - much more of a unified team feel than when I rowed briefly with my college last term - though the inherent social/communication-intensive structure of soccer as a sport is probably an important factor, haha.
Sunday
Churned out my economics essay in 5 hours, then King's Voices took up the rest of the night.
Rehearsal at 5pm, and somehow I'd been oblivious to the discussions we'd had in previous rehearsals about this concert, because I thought it was just some small performance in the chapel, like any other Monday evensong service.
Wrong.
I walked in to the chapel, ready for rehearsal, and what else do I see but a full orchestra and stage?! My 14 years of piano evidently didn't teach me too much outside of performing very well ... I didn't know "Mozart Requiem" referred to a 16-movement choir composition complete with orchestral accompaniment until I walked into the chapel that afternoon, 3 hours before the concert. lol. I mean, yeah, we'd rehearsed and everything, but our rehearsals are always rather cursory and quick in terms of how much we [don't] belabor the practicing.
Anyway, so, no pictures, but here are two of my favorite movements that we performed, sung by another choir in similar orchestra+SATB format:
Dies Irae
Confutatis & Lacrymosa
(Links: Dies Irae and Confutatis/Lacrymosa)
That pretty much took up the entire evening, and there was a decent audience turnout. Imagine singing 45 minutes of Mozart in D minor inside here:
[King's College Chapel]
Basically, football dominated the day ...
Woke up pretty late, ate breakfast, read about macroeconomics for a while, then met up with the team to walk over to the pitches. The whole footballness from beginning to end lasted about 4 hours. yeah, FOUR hours, 1-5pm. Kinda crazy, but it totally brought me back to middle school club soccer days (or even weekend high school games - which were rarer since most varsity matches were on weeknights) where the large half of Saturdays or Sundays were taken up by games (changing, driving there, playing, post-game frivolities, driving back, showering). A ride down memory lane; it was fantastic.
The day started out rainy, then was perfectly sunny during our game, started drizzling as soon as we were done, and then proceeded to rain/pour/HAIL-for-15-minutes/rain/drizzle the rest of the afternoon. ... crazy English weather.
Anyway, so basically, met the team in the bar around 1pm, headed over to St. John's pitches 1:30pm, warmed up, kicked off at 2pm, sent John's home crying by 4pm, packed our stuff and dragged our muddy selves to The Eagle pub for a toast to our league semifinal victory! Onward we go to the Plate Finals next weekend!
[King's Women after 3-2 semifinals win vs. St. John's ... "muddy but ecstatic!"]
[photo credit: Christina]
I can't even express how happy I am to be playing football [soccer] again ... especially after being broken/not doing any physical exercise for an entire year (probably the longest consecutive vegetable state I've been in since what, age 5?). Really like the team too - much more of a unified team feel than when I rowed briefly with my college last term - though the inherent social/communication-intensive structure of soccer as a sport is probably an important factor, haha.
Sunday
Churned out my economics essay in 5 hours, then King's Voices took up the rest of the night.
Rehearsal at 5pm, and somehow I'd been oblivious to the discussions we'd had in previous rehearsals about this concert, because I thought it was just some small performance in the chapel, like any other Monday evensong service.
Wrong.
I walked in to the chapel, ready for rehearsal, and what else do I see but a full orchestra and stage?! My 14 years of piano evidently didn't teach me too much outside of performing very well ... I didn't know "Mozart Requiem" referred to a 16-movement choir composition complete with orchestral accompaniment until I walked into the chapel that afternoon, 3 hours before the concert. lol. I mean, yeah, we'd rehearsed and everything, but our rehearsals are always rather cursory and quick in terms of how much we [don't] belabor the practicing.
Anyway, so, no pictures, but here are two of my favorite movements that we performed, sung by another choir in similar orchestra+SATB format:
Dies Irae
Confutatis & Lacrymosa
(Links: Dies Irae and Confutatis/Lacrymosa)
That pretty much took up the entire evening, and there was a decent audience turnout. Imagine singing 45 minutes of Mozart in D minor inside here:
[King's College Chapel]
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Uncharacteristically Busy Cambridge Week
10 hours of lecture
1 Macroeconomics essay
1 Organisational Behaviour essay
1 Human Resource Management essay
1 Engineering lab report
Macroecon supervision
3E6 supervision
3F2 supervision
Valentine's Superformal
Football practice
King's Voices rehearsal
Churchill Spring Ball
Football match
King's Affair meeting
King's Voices Evensong
... within the same week, when Britni also happens to visit for 3 days and Ted for 4.
This is more like it.
(The Friday before this week was uncharacteristically packed too:
10-11am 3D7 Lecture
11-1pm 3D7 Lab
1-2:30pm Pick up/confirm King's Affair hoodie order
3-4pm 3F1 supervision by CMS
4-5pm 3E5 supervision at Trinity Hall
5-6pm 3D7 supervision at CUED
7-9:30pm iCusu formal at Queens
9:30-11:30pm finish King's Affair launch paty decorations)
1 Macroeconomics essay
1 Organisational Behaviour essay
1 Human Resource Management essay
1 Engineering lab report
Macroecon supervision
3E6 supervision
3F2 supervision
Valentine's Superformal
Football practice
King's Voices rehearsal
Churchill Spring Ball
Football match
King's Affair meeting
King's Voices Evensong
... within the same week, when Britni also happens to visit for 3 days and Ted for 4.
This is more like it.
(The Friday before this week was uncharacteristically packed too:
10-11am 3D7 Lecture
11-1pm 3D7 Lab
1-2:30pm Pick up/confirm King's Affair hoodie order
3-4pm 3F1 supervision by CMS
4-5pm 3E5 supervision at Trinity Hall
5-6pm 3D7 supervision at CUED
7-9:30pm iCusu formal at Queens
9:30-11:30pm finish King's Affair launch paty decorations)
Monday, January 25, 2010
TGIW ...
Thank God It's Wednesday ...
I have found the perfect image to describe the lifestyle of King's College.
I have found the perfect image to describe the lifestyle of King's College.
Might I say this must have been tailored specifically for Cambridge University kids who have formals on Wednesday nights.
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sign of a ridiculous hangover: light of laptop screen hurts to look at. oouuuch. -LB
doesn't remember anything after the port -JDF
I wish we had guitar hero in the library. -NH
You know Monday night was bad when you have a hangover Wednesday morning -PW
is too drunk to go to a supervision
is practising using his gown
really can't be bothered to go to his supervision
The hardest part of Cambridge is having to put on cufflinks every week
Plan for tonight; Formal, back up to room for a homemade southend special, cocktails at the union then on to Emma (wednesday)
is an exhausted, hungover mess, but SO excited about tonight! [another formal] -JDF
is well chuffed with the discovery of her wonderful array of drunken facial expressions -HB
loves the fact that she got wrecked last night but still made it to lectures and labs, while her mother drank a few too many bacardis with her mate and, as a result, is wagging work.
5:46am. Did Tiananmen make the Chinese intellectual community more independent and vocal? Joseph Fewsmith says 'no', Xu Youyu says 'yes'. -JDF
Entered the library at 7.30pm... it's now 5.30am and I've nearly finished the introduction. I'm the Usain Bolt of essay writing. -KK
Working from bed with mint tea and Yemen books. Lovely. -LL
post-ball motivation fail.
To remove the HAMMER & SICKLE FLAG or not. This is the subject of tonight's controversial OPEN MEETING. Come speak at 6pm tonight!
rihanna.rwanda.coffee.
music, food, alcohol and friends - it's like the fun of a nightclub but in the warmth and comfort of King's library :) -MM
is an exhausted, hungover mess, but SO excited about tonight!
£5... 13 glasses of wine... can't be bad.
has been in the library for nearly 4 hours, and is only just starting her work.. -NH
[MIT Facebook statuses]
I just downloaded 3 gb in 3 minutes on the MIT network :) -JL
gallons of coffee and 12+ hours of various labwork to do? must be friday! -SF
So, maybe my grad student and I get a little overexcited about dorky things. but in our defense, that interface, and those grain boundaries, were absolutely gorgeous. mmm.
3 exams and 4 psets in one week? Really? -SW
haha! The dude that invented the happy meal and the cabbage patch doll (as well as pop rocks) wants to talk to me about Electroplushies. Hilarious! -MS
downloading at 5 Mb/s via wi-fi. Mmmmmmm.
wants better a better metadata UI than _KB.txt files. -KH
got into 24.900 and CMS.100 and has a UROP in CVCL! Which means that he'll be dropping 4.351
feels surprisingly prepared for doomsday tomorrow. Bring it on. -VH
bounce like ya got hydraulics in yo' g-string? hahahaha. -MYL
just found out that laundry view only works for the building you're actually in... I was trying to see if anyone was doing laundry in BC right now. -KB
excerpt from the BEST DESK CALL EVER guy: Can you connect me to the science department? me: This is a dorm, I don't really know how to do that. MIT has multiple science departments, so you'd need to call the main number and be more specific. guy: I was calling to settle a bet between me and my stepdaughter. We wanted to know if the moon is a planet or not. -EJ
is trapped in an infinite potential well. (it's like The Ring, but with more sine functions.) -SF
Op-amps are my new favorite circuit element... especially when they look like little insects. (They even look adorable in circuit diagrams.)
I've finally reached the point where it takes me much longer to format something in Word than it does when I just use Latex. Another questionable MIT milestone.
Dear fluids class - you have made me confuse upper case gamma with the capital letter F. Now the notes from all of my classes are super hard to decipher. -VH
all I want for Christmas is a stream function.
will have time for basic human needs at the end of the week.
is a sine wave for Purim! -DB
spent 3 hours figuring out android virtual machines instead of doing computation theory work. well, at least now today's refactoring nightmare is resolved....