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
Showing posts with label Cambridge University oddities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambridge University oddities. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
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
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.
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
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.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
I want to go to SCHOOL ...
... not a massive 9-month boarding school party that Cambridge is turning out to be.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thanksgiving Superformal
King's College Thanksgiving Superformal 11/25/09
1920s Jazz & Blues New Orleans theme
[1920s extravagance.]
[MIT crew at King's]
[laughs all around. sophisticated laughs, o' course.]
[Black Tie superformal for men]
[16-piece live jazz band playing in King's bar for post-formal ents, while all the uni kids dance around wearing tuxedos/dresses and sipping wine. I mean, that's what you'd expect ... right?]
[Fig 1. example of quintessential Cambridge]
[Post-formal entertainment in King's bar]
[The gang, all jazz-ed up!]
1920s Jazz & Blues New Orleans theme
[1920s extravagance.]
[MIT crew at King's]
[laughs all around. sophisticated laughs, o' course.]
[Black Tie superformal for men]
[16-piece live jazz band playing in King's bar for post-formal ents, while all the uni kids dance around wearing tuxedos/dresses and sipping wine. I mean, that's what you'd expect ... right?]
[Fig 1. example of quintessential Cambridge]
[Post-formal entertainment in King's bar]
[The gang, all jazz-ed up!]
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
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
---------------------------
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.
[Juan returned to his dessert with 5p in it :)]
[Juan, Shayan, Jade]
[Boat Club/Rowers' Boat Race, haha]
["Boaties" (rowers) post-Boatie-formal]
[King's bar post-formal]
---------------Trinity College formal
[Trinity College]
[smoked salmon appetizer]
[fruitcake dessert at Trinity]
[CMEs at Trinity formal: Denys, Jon, Isaac, me, Ye]
---------------Selwyn College formal
[Selwyn formal]
[strawberry parfait dessert .. mmm]
[CMEs at Selwyn formal: me, Ye, Francis, Isaac]
---------------Pembroke College formal
[Pembroke iCUSU formal]
[Pembroke's hall]
[me and Mateusz, international formal]
[main course - duck]
[King's at Pembroke]
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
---------------------------
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.
[Juan returned to his dessert with 5p in it :)]
[Juan, Shayan, Jade]
[Boat Club/Rowers' Boat Race, haha]
["Boaties" (rowers) post-Boatie-formal]
[King's bar post-formal]
---------------Trinity College formal
[Trinity College]
[smoked salmon appetizer]
[fruitcake dessert at Trinity]
[CMEs at Trinity formal: Denys, Jon, Isaac, me, Ye]
---------------Selwyn College formal
[Selwyn formal]
[strawberry parfait dessert .. mmm]
[CMEs at Selwyn formal: me, Ye, Francis, Isaac]
---------------Pembroke College formal
[Pembroke iCUSU formal]
[Pembroke's hall]
[me and Mateusz, international formal]
[main course - duck]
[King's at Pembroke]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
My workload at Cambridge ...
... is truly pathetic.
I sat in the library today because I felt compelled to do work ... and I realized I had done all of it already.
Perhaps I should just work on the stuff due in 2 weeks' time ...
I sat in the library today because I felt compelled to do work ... and I realized I had done all of it already.
Perhaps I should just work on the stuff due in 2 weeks' time ...
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
WTFTPCIAU?
This school's system IS SO IDIOTIC. UGH. It just goes against all logic. And against everything a "university" should be. I mean, this place is alright. But this school ... hate it.
WTFTPCIAU. The new IHTFP, except it doesn't have a brilliantly extreme positive connotation.
anecdote 1: I do my lab for 3C7 and afterward ask the lab instructor for his email "in case I have any questions" (about what we did, or while writing up the report/analyzing the results/learning). His response: "well, I'm not really supposed to help you ..."
I don't have his email.
(I still can't believe this actually happened.)
anecdote 2: The lab instructors for my other lab left the lab after the 2-hour designated "slot" time. No staying after for answering any questions we might have, anything we might be confused about ... and never, ever, ever would you see here TAs who stay until 4am helping undergrads understand a lab that started at 9pm. Don't even think about it. (Granted, I'm not asking for that, I simply want to finish hearing your input past the 1pm-sharp mark.)
anecdote 3: Every college has a download/upload bandwidth limit. It's like 3GB a day. SERIOUSLY?!?! Are we still living in the 13th century when Cambridge was born? Hello people. I had to reinstall MATLAB last night, so I downloaded the 1.8GB installer and received a "caution: approaching bandwidth limit" email (at which point my internet connection may be severed -- and yes, they can do that here because "wireless" is a foreign and innovative concept here).
WTF, (seriously?) this place calls itself a university?
WTFTPCIAU. The new IHTFP, except it doesn't have a brilliantly extreme positive connotation.
anecdote 1: I do my lab for 3C7 and afterward ask the lab instructor for his email "in case I have any questions" (about what we did, or while writing up the report/analyzing the results/learning). His response: "well, I'm not really supposed to help you ..."
I don't have his email.
(I still can't believe this actually happened.)
anecdote 2: The lab instructors for my other lab left the lab after the 2-hour designated "slot" time. No staying after for answering any questions we might have, anything we might be confused about ... and never, ever, ever would you see here TAs who stay until 4am helping undergrads understand a lab that started at 9pm. Don't even think about it. (Granted, I'm not asking for that, I simply want to finish hearing your input past the 1pm-sharp mark.)
anecdote 3: Every college has a download/upload bandwidth limit. It's like 3GB a day. SERIOUSLY?!?! Are we still living in the 13th century when Cambridge was born? Hello people. I had to reinstall MATLAB last night, so I downloaded the 1.8GB installer and received a "caution: approaching bandwidth limit" email (at which point my internet connection may be severed -- and yes, they can do that here because "wireless" is a foreign and innovative concept here).
WTF, (seriously?) this place calls itself a university?
Friday, October 30, 2009
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.
:)
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.
:)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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]
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]
[Fig. 5 The Historians' (?) Table]
[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]
[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]
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.
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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....