Cambridge (Uni) Life

Last night during dinner, I realized how much my dining habits this past week reflect the university culture here (or at least the culture for a significant portion of the university community). In the past week, I've attended formal hall--the traditional 3-4 course dinner offered by all Cambridge colleges where formal attire is required--as many times as I've cooked dinner for myself. Tuesday night was an MCR formal exchange at Christ's College; Thursday night I ate at Churchill following a lecture by the author Simon Singh; and last night I dined at Trinity College with some of my colleagues from the Cavendish.

As with almost everything here, there is a lot of tradition surrounding hall dining and, as has been pointed out by other Americans in Cambridge, the traditions of a particular College's formal hall can tell you a lot about the character of the College. Unsurprisingly, I've attended the most formals at Churchill, so--to give you a 'taste' of a formal--let me describe formal hall at Churchill.

Newnham's Hall, UCPO annual formal 20 February 2010

Formal hall is held at Churchill on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Dress code is formal; a suit jacket and tie are required for men and ladies are expected to dress accordingly (usually cocktail dresses).

The meal starts at 7:30pm with the ringing of a gong that signals that hall is open. All diners--other than the fellows and their guests at high table--are expected to take places at the tables quickly. However, protocol dictates that no one sits until after the high table has come in and grace is said. Grace at Churchill takes the form of a quick and painless recitation of the two words 'benedictus benedictat' by the Master, the President of the SCR or whomever is presiding over high table.

The short grace here is telling; the College itself was founded as a secular college and only later was the Chapel at Churchill built at the far end of the grounds near the Institute of Astronomy.

Christ's Hall, double exchange (Churchill and Homerton) 23 February 2010

The meal itself begins after everyone has been seated. A typical meal has an appetizer, main course consisting of some sort of meat (unless requested otherwise) accompanied with vegetables (usually potatoes, cabbage and carrots) and dessert. The courses come slowly, encouraging both talking and drinking; by the end of a meal, with alcohol loosening tongues, hall can easily become so noisy that conversation is only really possible with the two diners seated to your immediate right and left.

Shortly after dessert is served, everyone stands as the high table leaves for post-dinner drinks and/or coffee in the SCR. Before sitting again to finish dessert and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea, two toasts are offered, first 'to the Queen' and second 'to Sir Winston!'

The formalities end there. After 10 or so minutes of relative peace, diners deep in conversation are encouraged out of hall by the hall lights being raised and the staff unceremoniously clearing the tables in front of the diners.

Churchill College, before matriculation dinner with Jackie and Grace, October 2009
Surprisingly, I don't have any pictures of Churchill's hall!

Last night, it wasn't all the tradition that struck me but rather how normal this kind of dining is in the Cambridge university community. As Zoran (one of the lecturers in physics) put it, it's something that you just can't find anywhere else, with the possible exception of the other place.

Where have you been?

You may be asking: 'Where have you been? You haven't updated in almost a month!' The answer is surprisingly simple: no where.

Without travels (other than the tail end of a lovely week in Vienna), my January was not particularly blog-worthy. I spent one Saturday with Cambridge Hands-On Science (CHaOS) recruiting volunteers for our upcoming outreach event during science week in March and the summer roadshow. I spent another Saturday enjoying Britten's War Requiem inside Kings College Chapel whilst a celebratory light show to commemorate the end of the University's 800th anniversary year went on outside.

During the week, I've been up to my usual activities. We had a dinner to celebrate the Chinese New Year last week (I went with the Language Mentoring Programme). There was a really good lecture on the science of climate predictions this afternoon. On Wednesdays, I've been playing in orchestra rehearsals, where we're reading through (and now learning) Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, Rimsky-Korskov's Russian Easter Overture, and Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.

The biggest news for the month has been in lab where, unsurprisingly, I spent the lion's share of my January. The laser system I've been building (finally!) worked for the first time on Monday. I'll post a description of what the system does in schematic terms later; however, the punchline is that--with a well defined amount of work--I will have enough material to write up my thesis even if the next few projects don't get results before I have to write up!