My First Michaelmas
The end of my first Michaelmas term at Cambridge actually coincided with the beginning of a six week vacation full of work. My first term officially ended during the last week of November. As a going away present I received assignments of two 4,000 word term papers due in the beginning of January. That is of course in addition to work that is required for my dissertation, which is due in six months. So for those of you wondering back home, what I will be doing over my vacation here, there is much to keep me busy over the holidays.
Since the term ended, there has been some time for fun of course. Our Environmental Policy class did congregate for an end of term trip to the pub after our last class met last Wednesday:
Above (from left to right): Brittany (West Virginia/Massachusetts), Hiroe (Japan), Liz (England), Sudeep (England/India), Yana (Brazil), me, Yanglu Ding (China), Wale (Nigeria), Yan-Zhou (China), Kaoru (Japan), Federico (Italy), Elena (Moscow, Russia)
WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
Additionally, I did make it to a number of Christmas Parties and other holiday related events. On Sunday I attended a traditional English Christmas party hosted by a PhD student who has been active in the Union this term. His cozy downtown Cambridge apartment was adorned with holiday lights, mistletoe, and of course a fully decorated Christmas tree. We dined on oak smoked Scottish salmon, various cheeses, and of course mulled wine. We sang all of the traditional Christmas carols, which I am still learning, and for which the English demonstrated impressive vocal harmony.
At the Union we celebrated a term’s worth of hard work with a delicious meal and post debate Christmas party. As is traditional, the President of the Union invited all Union officers and committee members to the pre-debate dinner (which cost me £26, but given the size and tastiness of my meal, was well worth it). After the meal, the President of the Union passed the baton to his successor and made an impressive argument in favor the motion, “This House Would Take from the Rich and Give to the Poor” (the motion eventually passed). Following the debate, minced pies, mulled wine, and a merry time was had by all at the last Union event of the term – the Christmas Party.
On Saturday I gathered some friends to head over to Christ College (one of the 500 year old+ colleges) to attend a “Carols by Candlelight” event in the old chapel there. Like so many other buildings in Cambridge, Christ College and its chapel are in stunningly good shape and are quite the sight to see. For about an hour we stood in the candlelit chapel singing carols and then eating minced pies and mulled wine. All in all there were about fifty people who came, sang, and donated money for the charity event.
BROWN. TRISTAN BROWN
With an ever-increasing workload, I tried to resist the James Bond themed party at Wolfson College on Friday night. But having become so accustomed to eating dinner in a tux, I thought it’d be worth it to see if I could win the best Bond character look a like contest...
OTHER EXCITING EVENTS
A few weeks ago I attended a reception with the Italian Ambassador who spoke about transatlantic relations. It was really interesting to hear about American-Italian relations over the years and the current issues facing Italy’s former ambassador to the United States.
The Saturday before the election I attended what was probably the nicest formal that I’ve been to here. It was sponsored by the Conservative Union and it was held in Gonville and Caius College (where Stephen Hawking is a Fellow). I did not take part in all of the pre-dinner champagne, post-dinner port and cheese, and the post-‘port and cheese’ gin and tonics, but I did have quite a nice time nonetheless. The following pictures are of the stained glass windows in Caius (pronounced “keyes”) dining hall. They are of John Venn’s famous “Venn Diagram,” Watson and Crick’s famous “DNA Double Helix,” and the not so famous (for us non-mathematicians) Green’s Theorem, which does look pretty cool on stained glass though.
Since the term ended, there has been some time for fun of course. Our Environmental Policy class did congregate for an end of term trip to the pub after our last class met last Wednesday:
Above (from left to right): Brittany (West Virginia/Massachusetts), Hiroe (Japan), Liz (England), Sudeep (England/India), Yana (Brazil), me, Yanglu Ding (China), Wale (Nigeria), Yan-Zhou (China), Kaoru (Japan), Federico (Italy), Elena (Moscow, Russia)WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
Additionally, I did make it to a number of Christmas Parties and other holiday related events. On Sunday I attended a traditional English Christmas party hosted by a PhD student who has been active in the Union this term. His cozy downtown Cambridge apartment was adorned with holiday lights, mistletoe, and of course a fully decorated Christmas tree. We dined on oak smoked Scottish salmon, various cheeses, and of course mulled wine. We sang all of the traditional Christmas carols, which I am still learning, and for which the English demonstrated impressive vocal harmony.
At the Union we celebrated a term’s worth of hard work with a delicious meal and post debate Christmas party. As is traditional, the President of the Union invited all Union officers and committee members to the pre-debate dinner (which cost me £26, but given the size and tastiness of my meal, was well worth it). After the meal, the President of the Union passed the baton to his successor and made an impressive argument in favor the motion, “This House Would Take from the Rich and Give to the Poor” (the motion eventually passed). Following the debate, minced pies, mulled wine, and a merry time was had by all at the last Union event of the term – the Christmas Party.
On Saturday I gathered some friends to head over to Christ College (one of the 500 year old+ colleges) to attend a “Carols by Candlelight” event in the old chapel there. Like so many other buildings in Cambridge, Christ College and its chapel are in stunningly good shape and are quite the sight to see. For about an hour we stood in the candlelit chapel singing carols and then eating minced pies and mulled wine. All in all there were about fifty people who came, sang, and donated money for the charity event.BROWN. TRISTAN BROWN
With an ever-increasing workload, I tried to resist the James Bond themed party at Wolfson College on Friday night. But having become so accustomed to eating dinner in a tux, I thought it’d be worth it to see if I could win the best Bond character look a like contest...
OTHER EXCITING EVENTS
A few weeks ago I attended a reception with the Italian Ambassador who spoke about transatlantic relations. It was really interesting to hear about American-Italian relations over the years and the current issues facing Italy’s former ambassador to the United States.
The Saturday before the election I attended what was probably the nicest formal that I’ve been to here. It was sponsored by the Conservative Union and it was held in Gonville and Caius College (where Stephen Hawking is a Fellow). I did not take part in all of the pre-dinner champagne, post-dinner port and cheese, and the post-‘port and cheese’ gin and tonics, but I did have quite a nice time nonetheless. The following pictures are of the stained glass windows in Caius (pronounced “keyes”) dining hall. They are of John Venn’s famous “Venn Diagram,” Watson and Crick’s famous “DNA Double Helix,” and the not so famous (for us non-mathematicians) Green’s Theorem, which does look pretty cool on stained glass though.
posted by Tristan Brown | 3:14 PM
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