Fresher's Week

Lo and behold, I am officially a Cambridge student! After a few weeks in an ambiguous status, I'm in the midst of 'Fresher's week'. 'Fresher's week' is the first week of the Michaelmas term, the full week before 'full term'--the 8 weeks of term when classes are held--begins. As far as I can tell, it's Cambridge's version of Freshman orientation, with a healthy amount of the schedule conflicts between college, department and university obligations and events that seem to partially define the Cambridge experience. I'm spending the week in the midst of safety courses, graduate events, filling out forms, gym orientations and getting myself a proper orientation of the Cavendish (the physics buildings) and the 'uni' as a whole.

Here's a smattering of the fun stuff I've been up to since Fresher's week kicked off with a mass delivery of pizza to the MCR on Friday:

• A traditional British pub lunch, consisting of an Indian-inspired lamb burger and a pint, with a bunch of other first year graduate students from my college on Saturday. Slow service is just an excuse to chat for longer.
  
  
• A scavenger hunt, running around my college with a bunch of other MCR members looking for minutia like the one outdoor drinking fountain on college and making instant friends with a JCR member wearing his bright red 'hello I'm a Fresher' college t-shirt. Look, we found a patch of blue sky!To translate: MCR is the Middle Common Room, which consists of the members of my college who have completed the equivalent of our undergraduate education. JCR is the Junior Common Room, consisting of undergraduates and SCR is the Senior Common Room ('readers' or faculty). Any of these (JCR, MCR, SCR) are used as nouns to refer to either the people that comprise the social body or the rooms in the college set aside for their meetings.
  
  
• A few hours at the University Society Fair, informally the 'Fresher's Fair'. An expanded version of the Activities Fair I had experienced as an undergrad, the 'Fresher's Fair' had groups represented from various colleges as well as the university as a whole. I chatted with everyone from fencers and jugglers to Jane Austin dance societies and pick-up orchestras. I came away with a bit of loot: a free t-shirt, two cycle reflectors, more cycle maps and innumerable fliers.
  
  
• A Quiz Night in the MCR. My team did abysmally. We got the 'wooden spoon'--Cambridge code for last place--but had loads of fun.