Almost a Master

With a good 10 full minutes to spare, I turned my 50-page master’s dissertation in to the Graduate Secretary of the Department of Land Economy on 4 June at 3:50 pm. Though it had been about nine months in the making, you probably received an invitation to fill out my survey only recently so you know that much of the work was done in the last eight weeks. (Also, for those of you who might be wondering, assuming I do not receive any failing marks, at the Senate House on 21 July 2007, a Master of Philosophy shall be conferred upon me).

After the final deadline for the dissertation passed, our class gathered at the Anchor pub, just a block away from the Department to celebrate the culmination of our long year together. After a few beers, I wanted to do nothing other than relax and catch up with all of my family and friends. I am finally getting around to the latter.






Pictures: Post dissertation drinks at the pub (top left and top right) and departmental garden party (bottom right).

Aside from work for the Union and the Gates Council, a few celebrations have also, thusfar, kept me from you (will post more on them soon)...


FORMALS
Before handing in our dissertations, one of my supervisors, Ekin Birol, invited her other supervisees and me to a formal hall at Homerton College (right), where she is a fellow. There, we sat at High Table along with the other fellows. I sat next to a fellow that I dubbed “the medieval fellow” because he studied medieval literature but also held deep beliefs in medieval philosophies of crime and punishment – mainly that anyone who tries to evade punishment for speeding on motorways should be thrown in jail (I will spare you his comments about America, our traffic laws, and the size of our vehicles)...

Also this term, I attended formal halls at Pembroke College, which was put on by the labour club (top left), Wolfson College, which was sponsored by the Gates Trust (top right), and Selwyn College (below).
















I even made it to a few formal events at Girton (my own college, which is quite far from town):









And to Hughes Hall, where my friends, Joseph and Wale (who are also fellow supervisees, shown below with our supervisor, Ekin Birol), and I took our supervisor to a Hughes formal:













INVIGILATING
After finishing up my work, I offered to help Girton College with their examinations. Oxbridge is notorious for having extensive rules and regulations for everything, including examinations. At Oxford, students must wear full regalia to their exams. Here, students need not wear anything special, but as I’m sure is the case at Oxford, there is a complicated system of watchers-over of the examinees. There are “proctors,” “examinations officers,” “supervisors,” “invigilators,” and “attendants,” all with duties to ensure order and proper procedures are being kept throughout the examination period. For most students at Cambridge, an equivalent of their grade point average, is calculated almost solely from the results of their examinations during their third and final year in Cambridge.
Thus, as an invigilator (pictured here), at this very moment I am keeping order by dutifully watching over students. I am also violating a number of invigilation rules by writing this, but since the supervisor said it was okay, I will ignore any orders form the proctors to heed my writing…


OTHER EASTER EVENTS
In May, I organized a Cinco de Mayo fiesta for the Gates Scholars. About 70 people, representing every continent except Antarctica came for cerveza, BBQ, volleyball, and good company. Amazingly, we even had a couple of Gates Scholars from Puebla, Mexico – the place of battle, which Cinco de Mayo fiestas are meant to honour.










The weekend before my dissertation was due, I also joined the Gates Scholars on trip to Sheringham, England – a small town in Norfolk, right on the North Sea coast. There, about 40 Scholars and I played Frisbee and kickball on the beach (yes, it did take quite a bit of time to teach everyone the rules of kickball, but since the last time I played was in elementary school, it was well worth it). Following the fun in the sun on the beach, we made our way to dry land where we enjoyed a pig roast, featuring an 80 or so pound locally reared hog, then a couple pub visits, and finally a late night game of scrabble (for which I placed FIRST and second, in our respective games). Also worth noting, after a long day of fun in the sun I managed to make up a new word while playing scrabble: “J-U-R-E-S,” meaning a female juror, which, if it hadn’t been challenged, would have allowed me to win the second game of scrabble.

















AN HONOURARY BROWN
Though I have been a Brown all of my life, I was only recently dubbed an honourary brown by my Gates Scholar friends of Indian (and Indian American) descent. On Sundays, we often get together for either brunch, lunch, or dinner. Recently, we lost one of our Sunday crew to Yale Medical School, but in the process we’ve enjoyed quite a few good potlucks, barbecues, and brunches in town… We’ll miss you James!


ROYAL VISIT












Pictures Above: The Senate House and the Prince's ride (a Rolls Royce).

I have to admit, the most perplexing part about living here has been the reverence paid to royalty. In the beginning of Easter term, Ramesh, my Girton friend, invited me to the 30th Anniversary of Prince Phillip’s Chancellorship of Cambridge University. It sounded interesting, so I said, “why not.” We were made to arrive a half-hour early at the Senate House and with 10 minutes before the Prince’s scheduled arrival, the Master of Trinity (who’s also the President of the Royal Society) arrived. With all of the big wigs in attendance (many in their full regalia), he was just another face in the crowd – forced to sit about 20 rows back, in the middle of the Senate House. When the Prince arrived, an official announcement was made, a man carrying a scepter led the Chancellor into the Senate House, and the entire audience kept completely silent. No one spoke, coughed, or breathed for almost two minutes before the Vice Chancellor (the actual leader of the University) finally got up to the lectern to give an introduction. Ironically, though the message of her speech was that the Chancellor was not just a figurehead of the university, her speech seemed to provide evidence to the contrary – leaving this audience member wondering why the hell all of the senior university officials bothered attending the event and moreover why they all seemed to have their tails between their legs when the Prince came...

Hope you are well! I hope to keep this updated more frequently now (once every couple weeks).