From Cambridge, MA to Cambridge, UK

Follow my adventures across the pond during my year abroad at Cambridge University!

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St. John’s May Ball 2016

The theme was film, there were different areas decorated according to different genres: Westerns, romance, horror, noir.  After walking in on a red carpet, guests were greeted with the impressive sight of a lit up building with giant letters spelling ST JOHNS in front.  There was a giant screen outside playing movies like Titanic.  There were dodgems and there was dancing.   There was henna and a stand up comedian.  There was all the food and sweets (candy) you could eat and all the drinks you could want, including some in glow in the dark cups. There was a fireworks display for all of Cambridge to enjoy.  There was even a hot air balloon you could take for a short ride up and down.  At around 6 AM, there was a well attended survivor’s photo.

And there with me were Yasuko and Dou Dou, two other MIT exchanges also lucky enough to get tickets.  I’m so glad I got to spend such a magical and unforgettable night in Cambridge with them both!  Missing Cambridge already, I will definitely have to visit again in the future.  

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So this is nearly a month late, but I was fortunate enough to finish up my year abroad with the wonderfully Cambridge experience of May Week.  May Week is actually in June, confusingly, and it is the week that colleges host these ridiculous and awesome parties called May Balls and June Events.  I attended three of these in a row, and seeing as they last until about 6 AM, that means I basically became nocturnal.  But that was actually pretty good, because I was on a plane home the day after Pembroke June Event, so it helped me adjust to EST fairly quickly.  I was so sad to leave Cambridge, but also excited to see my family.  And the good news is that I already have plane tickets to visit Polly in Guernsey this summer, so it wasn’t goodbye for that long!

But rewinding to the May Balls.  I worked at Trinity, helping out with Guest Hospitality, on Monday night.  On Tuesday, I attended the very pricey but magical St. John’s May Ball, with Yasuko and Dou Dou.  And on Wednesday, I got to go to Pembroke June Event with Yasuko, Anna, Annie, and Polly.  All the pictures above are from Pembroke.  I will post again soon with pictures from St. John’s!

Pembroke had the theme Celestial, so it featured decorations related to the skies and outer space.  Once you made it through the queue to get in, there were all sorts of food and drinks free of charge, as well as dodgems (British for bumper cars), giant swings, space hopper balls, a telescope, hammocks, face glitter, an owl, and more.  There was also plenty of live entertainment and music to dance to.  We stayed through sunrise and breakfast, but not until the very end, because we were pretty tired by that point in the week.  

May Week was an incredible experience that I’ll never forget, especially because of the great friends who I have been so lucky to get to know during my year abroad.        

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Kinder surprise eggs are apparently another thing I missed out on in my childhood.  These wonderful inventions consist of foil wrapped chocolate eggs containing cute little toys, but they are banned in America as the toys are apparently choking hazards.  I got this one as an incentive through the telephone campaign, and it served as a good mini-break from revision in the Magdalene library.  (revision = studying for exams in the UK)     

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29 Words That Have A Totally Different Meaning At Cambridge University

"Save the Queen!"

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Tess Hegarty

Hello! My name is Tess Hegarty and I’m one of the student callers for this year’s Telephone Campaign at Magdalene. Though I’m a third year student, this is my first (and sadly only) year at …

Last week I started working in the telephone campaign at Magdalene. We are calling alumni to chat and hopefully convince them to donate to the college.  Alumni support of colleges is not as big a thing in the UK as it is back in the states.  

About 20% of Magdalene alumni give on some level, which is great by Cambridge standards, but lower than the 35% of MIT undergrad alums who give back.  Apparently at Princeton almost 63% of alumni donate!

It’s fun to talk to most of the alumni, although sometimes we get sick of listening to voicemail messages.  And the other good news is that I get paid by the hour and also get free housing and a free meal each day during the campaign.  I do genuinely believe in the cause of helping Magdalene remain able to admit students on a “need blind” basis, so that makes it easier to ask for money.  

This link is a blog post I wrote for the campaign.  Kevin, who runs the campaign for the alumni office, requested pictures around college to add to the blog after I had sent in the post, so they don’t really match up with the text.  The first is a picture of Polly and me in the garden behind the library.  Next is a snapchat I sent Polly that sums up my life outside the telephone campaign, since my nine finals are fast approaching.  And the last one is a rainbow I saw yesterday while walking back from buying food for dinner at Sainsbury’s with Polly and Connor.

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Today I turned 21!

My friends Polly and Connor thoughtfully surprised me with this adorable cake. 

Meet Wiggles, the Caterpillar.  As birthday girl, per British birthday party tradition, I got to eat his face.  So much chocolate! I’m beyond lucky to have found such wonderful friends while here at Magdalene.

For clarification, this is not a normal tradition for 21st birthdays, but my friends wanted to show me what I had missed out on during my childhood.  Turning 21 isn’t much of a big deal here, seeing as the drinking age is 18.  

But I had a lovely birthday, even though I wish I could have also seen friends and family from back home!

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Sorry that it’s been ages since I last posted... been happily busy with engineering classes and spending time with all the wonderful people I’ve met here in Cambridge!

But today I did something so quintessentially Cambridge that I decided I had to share... I went punting for the first time!  Another Cambridge exhange student and her friend visiting from MIT joined me in taking out the free Magdalene punt for an hour this afternoon. 

These are some pictures I took while being pushed along.  I also tried the actual punting part where you stand at the end of the boat and push against the bottom of the Cam with a pole.  It’s tougher than you’d think to steer and try to avoid hitting other boats and the wall.  But it’s entertaining regardless and it’s nice that the weather is finally improving.  

I’m currently in the midst of preparing  for exams which start in just under a month.  I have a lot of revision to do since I have 9 exams over the course of just over 2 weeks, but I’m just taking it one bit at a time and taking breaks for fun as well.

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P.S. - I'm in Pisa and will be in Florence tomorrow!!

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This Saturday I got to catch up with two of my sorority sisters, Julia and Alexa! It was a great day of exploring, touristing, brunch, cake, art, and hot chocolate. Speaking of which, it has gotten so cold in Cambridge all of a sudden... but not as bad as back home I’m sure! 

Julia just graduated MIT in June and is now studying biomedical engineering at Imperial in London on a Fulbright Scholarship (seriously, it’s amazing to call such an incredible role models my sister).  I was so excited when she messaged me on Thursday to say she was visiting Cambridge for the weekend! 

We started with a quick tour of Cambridge, stopping by some of the colleges and checking out Magdalene. Then we had brunch and Alexa was able to join and recommend a great coffee shop/brunch spot, Afternoon Tease. Alexa is a 3rd year chemical engineering student at Newnham College, Cambridge who joined Pi Phi while at MIT last year on the same exchange program I am now participating in. As apparel chair, I loved her enthusiasm for Pi Phi “stash” (British term for club apparel acquired at uni) and in general I admire her fearless and enthusiastic approach to life and new experiences!    

Alexa brought two friends, Tessa and Sam, from zumba to brunch. We decided to treat ourselves by having a mini cake tasting where each of the five us ordered a different type of cake and then passed them all around in a circle until they disappeared. It was pretty adorable and quite tasty, and it was lovely to meet Tessa and Sam. 

Then Julia and I got to be tourists together some more and we visited the Fitzwilliam Museum in the afternoon. My favorite room had a balcony around the edge that you had to climb up a spiral staircase to reach.  I had been wanting to visit the Fitzwilliam for a while, so this was a perfect opportunity!  

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This is a bit of a late post, I’ve had a busy week!  Tuesday evening was definitely a highlight of the week, as it was Family Formal Hall.  

Stephanie and I kicked off the night by getting ready together (aka attempting to do our makeup, deciding on flats instead of heels, and letting our hair out of messy buns/ponytails).  We then donned our gowns and headed to dinner early so we’d be able to be sure to get all of fam A seated together.  The three course dinner included pheasant.  

After dinner and a quick change, we reconvened in Seb’s room.  He has really cool light up speakers, so that was fun!  Next stop was Cindies, which is one of the main clubs in Cambridge.  It’s basically a massive dance party plus an outdoor area where you can take a break and hear enough to actually hold a conversation.  I was lucky enough to not have any lectures on Wednesday, so I could sleep in the next morning.   

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haha, so just realized I originally posted this on my old tumblr blog instead of my study abroad one, so enjoy an old post from October 24th!

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Rouge Paintballing Adventure

Ten brave Magdalenites awoke at an ungodly hour last Sunday morning (I’m talking before 8 AM, haha) to venture via bike, train, and taxi to the Combat Paintball Ltd paintball grounds.  There we joined the blue team and ran/slid around in the mud, firing yellow paintballs at the other team in a variety of game scenarios, including one set in a zombie graveyard.  I ended up splattered in paint and apparently I have a knack for being shot in the head (good thing face masks were mandated).  I’m going to blame my lack of paintball skill on my mom never letting us have violent video games when we were younger (kidding).  All in all, a brilliant day, a fun new experience, a great group of people, and an unprecedented way to escape from the Cambridge bubble. Shoutout to the lovely and talented Freya (bottom left) for organizing everything and being born (as it was her birthday celebration!). Speaking of whom, if you have fifteen minutes to spare, do yourself a favor and watch her amazing TED talk!

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Cambridge students are really into costumes, or “fancy dress” as they say. Even though trick or treating is less prevalent here for kids, in classic college style, Halloween is not a day, but at least a weekend. 

For Saturday night I decided to use the cat costume again, with added eyeliner whiskers, because three different Halloween costumes seemed a bit excessive. A bunch of the Magdalene girls had a swap (similar to a sorority/fraternity mixer) where we ate dinner with a group of Magdalene guys and then there was a house party at Chesterton Lane.  Apparently the powers that be are quite strict about noise/fun, so that was shut down by the porters a bit after 11 PM, after which the party just moved into individual rooms back in the Village, so still fun! 

On Sunday night I joined the residents of Bridge Street in a group costume for the Bridge Street Bop (aka party). We all did matching skull face paint and some of us went a step further and sacrificed a black top to create a rib cage effect and round out the scary skeletal look.  Allie and Eilish were the patient and talented team behind most of the face paint. It took over two hours to get everyone ready, but so worth it.

The bop was great, they had a multiple rooms open and lots of Magdalene students of all years plus a few friends from other colleges came.  My exchange buddy’s girlfriend was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, which I quite appreciated. Most people went clubbing afterwards, but I stayed behind with a small group to chat and drink tea and help eat a fry-up (it’s an English thing, basically fried breakfast food, apparently fried bread is a thing?) courtesy of Eilish and Silviu.      

In short, fancy dress and Halloweekend was great fun and the Bridge Street fam is fab. 

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Things British people say:

all right? = hey, how are you? (this so confused me at first, I was like “do I seem not alright??” and took me a while to realize its just a friendly greeting)

cheeky = kinda like sassy or mischievous 

cheers = hello or thanks

cracking = means something is the best

legend = someone is a legend if they do something very helpful, very generous or very successfully 

fab = fabulous

brilliant = exciting or wonderful, esp in reaction to good news

chunder = throw up

fortnight = two weeks, people actually say this, it’s not just in old books

taking the piss = mocking something, being sarcastic 

amaze = amazing

soz = sorry

loo = bathroom

mate = friend

posh = high class, also refers to a specific type of British accent, comes from the cabins used by the upper class on early voyages from England to India, the coolest (and most expensive cabins) were Port side on the way Out and Starboard on the way Home

fiver, quid = five pound note, one pound

smashing = terrific

prinks = pre-drinks = pregaming 

posts = post-drinks

bant = banter

uni = university, aka college

pants = underwear and trousers = pants

bloody = exclamation of surprise or adds emphasis, like bloody hell (yep, it’s not just in Harry Potter)

also... apparently making a backwards peace sign = two finger salute = middle finger in America

Thanks for reading, I will keep on the lookout for more terms for a second post! xx <-- people sign messages/texts like this a lot, it can be friendly or flirty, they are like the kisses in XOXO, apparently you are supposed to be concerned with the number of xs received, don’t really know how the scale works yet, haha

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Halloween kicked off last Wednesday when I attended the Halloween Formal Hall at Downing College with Yasuko!  We had done some shopping the Saturday before, so we were equipped with matching black cat masks. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the hall decorated for Halloween, but I included a picture from the internet so you can see how it normally looks.  We sat with Yasuko’s college family and it was great fun to see all the creative costumes people had.  I sat next to a really well done Harry Potter who had also enlisted two friends to dress as Ron and Hermione and created various props such as Hogwarts acceptance letters to complete the look.  

For dinner they served Halloween themed dishes such as pumpkin soup and candy apple cheesecake.  Everything was delicious and it was very cool to see another college’s formal hall. Thank you, Yasuko, for inviting me!  

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Apologies for the lull in blogging here, I’ve had a busy week between school work that has piled up and the fun of Halloweekend.   I have some catching up to do here, so I will pick up where I left off with an update about the sleep out! 

Magdalene’s Sleep Out last week raised over 500 pounds for Jimmy’s Cambridge, a charity that works to accommodate and resettle homeless men and women in Cambridge.

Participating in the sleep out was a powerful reminder of how fortunate we are to have things we often take for granted - like hot showers, safe places to live, and plenty of food to eat. Though obviously totally different from actual homelessness, it was a valuable experience and effective fundraiser. Everyone who came stayed through the night until about 6 AM, when most of us went back to our rooms to get a couple hours of real sleep before our lectures.  We stayed up for a while chatting and playing cards and reading and then I actually slept about 5 hours. Even with a yoga mat and borrowed sleeping bag (thanks Ranulph!) sleeping on concrete isn’t ideal, so I definitely appreciated being able to return to my own bed after.  

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Donate to Magdalene's JustGiving Page

Help Magdalene raise money for this great cause.

Hello family, friends and anyone else who might see this post!

This Thursday, myself and over 20 other students in my college will be spending a night sleeping out on the streets to raise money and awareness about the issue of homelessness in Cambridge. All money raised will go towards Jimmy's Night Shelter, which does incredible work in providing 22 people who would otherwise be on the streets with accommodation, support, and resettlement.  Any donations to the JustGiving link above would be very much appreciated!

Also, I visited London on Sunday, so you can expect a post (or two... or three) about that soon! 

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Last week I went to the university-wide Fresher’s Fair to check out all the clubs and student organisations Cambridge has to offer (from Tiddlywinks to American Football, there was something for everyone).  In the last row of booths there were representatives from the larger Cambridge community who were interested in targeting uni students.  I was surprised to be asked “how would you like to attend church in a nightclub?”  I politely declined and moved on, laughing at the concept.

I’m randomly bring this up over a week later because I had a similar experience that jogged my memory.  While walking home from the engineering department today, I was asked by two college aged girls if I was a Cambridge student.  Now people here do not talk to strangers in the street, so it took me a second to catch on to the fact that they were addressing me.  The next question “how tall are you?” seemed really random, but harmless, so I answered “5′9″”.  It started to occur to me that this could be one of those modelling agency scam deals, and I started mentally preparing a nice firm, “thanks, but no thanks.”  But one of the girls quickly launched into an explanation of the Cambridge student club they had started that ran modelling workshops and an annual fashion show.  She added an explanation that the club was most focused on “inner beauty” with a quick mention of “Christian ideals.”  From what I could gather, it seemed like a strange combo of ideas for a club. While Christianity was only briefly mentioned, I had a feeling that they were downplaying that component, probably for fear of driving me away.  

Its interesting - while very few students here are at all religious, those who are seem very interested in sharing their faith in spite of the obvious unpopularity of their ideas.  The idea of keeping youth interested in religion with links to things like partying and fashion seems a bit, well, desperate.  Clearly, typical straightforward tactics must not be working, but I’m curious as to whether gimmicks like this are any more effective.  

The differing importance of religious beliefs in the UK vs the US is echoed in politics.  Here abortion and gay rights are not even issues in political elections, which is clearly not the case in America.  The NHS has been providing abortions since the 1960s and gay marriage is widely accepted and yet the country still seems to be functioning just fine to me!

One thing is for sure, Cambridge clubs and societies take recruiting new members to the next level, and at least now I know where to turn if I feel the urge to add catwalk skills to my resume, lol.