Freshers’ Week

“Freshers’ Week” seems to be a loosely defined phrase for the period right before the term starts when students are moving in and “freshers” (first year undergraduates) and other new students are madly running all over town to take care of a considerable list of things to be done before term starts. So far I have applied for a bank account, hunted down an ethernet cable, picked up my identity cards and had them programmed for propper access to buildings, registered with a general practitioner, met with my tutor (a fellow of the college who helps with everything not directly related to my course), obtained a UK SIM card for my phone, signed the admissions book in the Wren Library (an awe inspiring place), attended many parties (of both the wine and tea varieties), took a tour of the useful parts of town for graduate students, purchased a BA gown, stood in a matriculation photograph (with all of the new graduate students), and become lost more times than I can recall. I’m sure I missed a few and I still have lots more to do (such as purchasing a bicycle).

Now I must go dress up all fancy (including the gown) to go to a wine and cheese party for new graduate students, followed by a formal meal in the hall, followed by more wine. Cheerio.

View to the south

View to the west

My room from Green Street. I’m on the corner, on the very top.

The Cam

The Cam

Dining Hall from across Nevile’s Court, under the Wren Library.

Path across the Trinity backs (west of the Cam)

Arrival

I this entry when I arrived, but it took several days to get an internet connection, so I’m posting it now.

The flight from Denver to Heathrow was long but uneventful. We arrived only a few minutes late (after circling London several times). Immigration was easy; the only confusion came when asking what I was studying.

Me: “Math”
Immigration Officer: “What?”
Me: “Math”
Immigration Officer: “Oh, Maths?”
Me: “Yes”

I knew that “maths” was an alternative short form of “mathematics”, but didn’t realize that “math” would be so confusing here. I’ve had 2 other similar exchanges so far, so I’m trying to remember to say “maths” from now on.

Heathrow airport is enormous. I scheduled 1.5 hours between when my plane was scheduled to arrive and when my bus departed. That was not enough time, even with nothing major slowing me down.

The bus ride to Cambridge was iluminating. Driving on the wrong side of the road was not as disconcerting as I thought it would be, but some consequences of it (like roundabout direction and passing lane being on the right) did feel very odd. Much of the signage is also totally incomprehensible.

I arrived in Cambridge at the bus station in Parker’s Piece and took a taxi to Trinity College. Dragging my bags to my room (up a the equivalent of at least 5 flights of stairs) after dragging them around Heathrow and not sleeping much was extremely exhausting. When I entered the staircase and saw my name painted next to “N10″ I despaired, thinking I was on the 10th floor. luckily N10 was only on the 2nd floor (3rd in the U.S. system) and a very nice Kiwi who lived in my staircase helped me out.

I had dinner with 3 undergraduate students: a vet, a mathematician and a physicist who were British, Polish and Russian, respectively. We discussed everything from Cambridge and Trinity to oddities of the English Language to the world economy and politics in the U.S. This dinner, like all meals I eat in college will be, was in the dining hall which is one of the most impressive places I have ever eaten food. Photographs are evidently forbidden in the hall, but you can find some on the internet if you are curious.

Finally, here are some pictures of my room with my stuff halfway moved in.