Being a Freshman Again

Pictures to come when I get my computer working. There's just too much that I want to write about. Here's part of what happened today.

Fresher's week started today at Cambridge. These poor kids only get 3 days of orientation unlike a whole week at MIT. I'm invited to all their activities but it feels so strange to go through this process again. "Hi. I'm Lucy. What's your name?... What are you studying?.... Oh, I'm studying Engineering." I'm definitely not as hyped up about all of this as I was two years ago.

So a few more people moved into K Block (the mansion that I'm staying in). There was a Meet and Greet at 2pm. We're assigned college parents and siblings (kinda like Big Sis/Lil Sis at McCormick). I'm not sure if I have one since I'm not really a first year. Some people were able to meet theirs. There are about 100 freshers at Caius College and all of us, along with some second and third years went to eat at the Dining Hall this evening.

Dinner was pretty cool. We all sat down at these long tables in this big hall with pictures of famous people and stained glass windows. There were waiters and waitresses all lined up in the back. Once we all sat down, they swooped down on us with a fruit salad. As soon as we finished, we were served the main course which was chicken today. There were plates of broccoli, salad, and potatoes that we passed around. And as soon as we were done with that, we were given a choice of fruit or cake. I had this strawberry yogurt mousee thing. So dinner was pretty good. They were pretty efficient. Of course I could've eaten faster had I not have to wait to be served but it was nice to be able to chat with the people sitting next to me. I was sitting across from these three guys who were really funny.

After dinner, we went to the bar for a little while to wait for the dining people to clean up the tables. We went back up and had a "speed dating" session. Since we were sitting at long tables, one side of the table stayed put while the other side moved every 3 minutes or so. We wrote our names, major, and where we're staying on a sticky note and then proceeded to get to know the person across from us. I met a lot of economists. It was really fun except that it was so loud in the Hall that we had to shout. My throat still hurts.

So dinner is going to be interesting. We have to get there at either 6:20 or 7:00pm though, I think. Otherwise it won't really work right if we're late. I think the actual dinners are half an hour long and they can only be so efficient if they just go down the aisle and plop food down in front of us. I think this is a bit annoying but I'll probably just get used to it.