October 4, 2011 - Societies' Fair and Matriculation Hall

Today was an amazing, but absolutely exhausting day. It started like one of my lazy mornings, waking up at 10 a.m. Then Yifei and I went to the Societies' Fair (basically a HUGE club fair, but more like the Caltech Career Fair with all its free stuff and the number of booths) which was in the Sports Auditorium here. While we were walking over, we saw this pretty sweet sun dial. 

On our way there, we also crossed Parker's Piece (a gigantic grassy field) which had a huge number of booths set up as well so we assumed that to be the Societies' Fair, but then we met Conan who told us that wasn't even the main part of the fair, since that was just the outside clubs/companies who had come to advertise at Cambridge. We were definitely shocked to hear that. After leaving Parker's Piece, Pizza Hut and Dominoes marketers (who were all Indian by the way) attacked us and kept sticking coupons in our faces and forcing us to take them. It was just slightly annoying. It took us about half an hour to get into the fair itself, and on the inside, it was definitely overwhelming and extremely hot for the number of people in a compact space. Some people who showed up at 1 (for a fair from 11-3) didn't even get in! It was really exciting though because at Caltech, clubs rarely do anything, but here they are actually legit and there are so many of them! This picture doesn't even describe well how many people or clubs there actually were (since there was one more room like this). Some of the clubs were actually very interesting like Caving or Assassins Guild (where you locate/shoot three people whose names you've been given in Cambridge that are playing the game as well). I definitely signed up for much more than I should have, and I'll regret that over the next few days as my inbox is spammed with useless emails from clubs that I will never actually participate in.

My feet hurt so much after the fair since it was a far walk from St. John's as well as lots of standing and waiting in the gym itself. Basically, I'm going to end up killing my feet while I'm here. I came back to my room and had a bit of time to relax, but I also had to get ready quickly for my packed evening with a lot of Matriculation stuff. I first attended the Matriculation Service in the Chapel which was very breathtaking and moving. I've never actually been to a service before so with this being my first time, it was rather amazing. The choir sounded amazing and the music made many people rather emotional. Hopefully I'll get to take some pictures of the Chapel at some point as it is absolutely gorgeous on the inside. And I also need to get a second year or a third year to take me up to the tower because I've also heard that the view from up there is on of the best in Cambridge (source may be biased).

After that, I had a pre-dinner reception with my Tutor, Dr. McConnell, and the other Nat Sci students in his office. Since I had been skipping most of the freshers' events at St. John's, that gave me the opportunity to meet the other freshers' studying Biology, which was rather nice. One thing I've noticed though is I change the way I speak when I'm speaking with fellow students. My vocabulary improves significantly, and I think (I'm not sure) that I put on a slight British accent, just to subconsciously fit in. Hopefully I won't retain these traits when I return :P After the reception, we headed off to the Hall to have our formal dinner. We were required to be dressed as follows (the dress code is called "Lounge Suit"):

It was definitely weird wearing a gown when it wasn't graduation, but here you have to wear a gown so often. This rule is instituted only at Cambridge and Oxford. It's very Harry Potter like, but also really annoying because there is only one size to the gown, so it kept falling off, and the sleeves are huge, so they kept getting stuck on the staircase arm holds. Each college at Cambridge has a different gown (kind of like graduation at Caltech, but here there is a standard Black with different patterns on the sleeves or different designs). A little more subtle than Fleming's red gown I think. 

I was really nervous about dinner because I was sitting next to my Tutor, who is a very important and distinguished individual, but it ended up going pretty well and was not awkward at all. They actually sent out seating plans earlier that day by email to ensure that you got to your seat in a timely fashion before the dinner started. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pictures on the inside. I had a very nice dinner conversation with my tutor, even though I constantly felt so uncultured compared to the other students. People have traveled to so many places here and know so much about everything that I'm always in awe. Luckily one of the topics discussed was the Amanda Knox trial (since that was recently resolved), and I actually knew quite a bit about it. The food was delicious like usual which is to be expected of St. John's Hall. 

While I was walking back in my insanely high heels (since I didn't have room to bring any formal flats), my heel got stuck in between pebble stones on the Bridge of Sighs and I fell over :( It was super embarrassing, but pretty funny now when I look back at it. I was expecting that too happen all evening because the paths here are most definitely not designed for heels. Upon returning to my room, I was planning on relaxing for the rest of the night, since my feet ached so much and I was exhausted. But I decided to give the Ceilidh (pronounced Kaylee) a chance. For those of you who don't know what it is, its an Irish folk dance that requires a lot of energy, since you're constantly hopping around) and is a LOT of fun. Nobody else really knew what they were doing, which made it even better. I was really hot slash sweaty and disgusting by the end of it, but I most definitely don't regret my decision to go. I met even more St. John's freshers who were all pretty awesome. 

Overall an awesome day I'd say.