Vans of Life & Death.

In the wee town of Cambridge, UK, there are two places you can buy food after midnight:

Van of Life & Van of Death.

These two food trucks are located on two corners of Market Square (a free-standing block in the center of the shopping area, which during the day hosts a variety of touristy crafts/clothes and upon nightfall serves as late-night reprieve of drunken post-clubbing Cambridge students).

If
{you're a student at Cambridge;
you do not have food in your room;
you are hungry after midnight;}
Then
{you're screwed;
you can buy junk food at the food trucks;}

No 24-hour groceries, no cafes, no LaVerde's, no MacGregor convenience ... but the Van of Life and Van of Death. Luckily for us King's students, market square is literally right outside of our gates. Well, ok, one block away, but close enough.

10/30/2009

[1-minute trek to midnight greasiness.]


[Midnight snacks.]

10/16/2009

["Trailer of Life." Their prices are marginally more expensive, but quality is also marginally better.]


[Ordering cheesy fries.]


[Midnight snack with Roman and Colin.]


[Cheesy fries from Van of Life: £2.30 -- aaand everyone here eats cheesy CHIPS with mayonnaise.]

10/27/2009

["Pyjama" pub crawl. At Spoon's - Caroline, Peter, Alyssa, me, Ben]


[Wetherspoon's Bar.]


[Caroline and Roman falling asleep during said pub crawl.]


[Satisfied stomachs.]

Crawl, crawl, crawl ...

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

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

Pictures say enough.


"The King's Men."


Post-dip on a freezing night.


victorious group.


warming up after their bath ...


Freshers '09.

Hello, Cambridge.

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


Day 1

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


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


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

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

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

Got to my building. Whoa.

[Bodley's Court, my accommodation]

Opened up the door to my room. Whoa again.


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


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


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


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

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

Day 2

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


[token photo of English telephone booths]

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


[Roman, adopted College Dad]

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


[King's College bar]

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

Day 3

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