I'm on a course this weekend at Churchill college, Cambridge. Tis a Physics course, and I'm here because work have sent me-although I'd happily have come anyway as the program on the whole looks awesome!
On top of which, I'm going to see an awful lot of colleges without the inconvenience of having to pay or study. Bonus. This is the program for the 3 days:
I prepared for this by intending to revise how to calculate vectors, And then going out for dinner and watching Harry Potter last night. I will admit that I may have been distracted today and watched another Harry potter film on demand instead of doing any Mechanics.
Ah well.
Maybe I can blag it.
I suspect this will be a decision I regret tomorrow, at 9am. And again at 1. But as it is my own fault and I do only have myself to blame I'll just have to deal with it.
Traff dropped me off about 3pm, so that we could make sure we found the right place (This time the sat nav was right so it's redeemed itself).
I picked up my room keys from the Porters lodge and Traff came up with me to drop off my stuff. Frankly, I think my uni room at Glam was nicer. It was a little smaller but the bathroom was nicer, and the walls less marked.
Traff was gobsmaked. Bless him, I think he thought students lived in dormitories on bunk beds or something. He spent a while going through all the cupboards and lamenting that being a student seemed very kushy. I did point out that most students have to share a bathroom. Even that didn't change his mind.
The room looks out over the quad, which nice. lots of bushes.
After he left I went for a walk- I tried to buy a cuppa from the bar, but got my card declined :( It's like real university all over again! I have no idea why it won't work. No extra teas for me then. Post failed tea buying I went for a walk around the college and the grounds- this college has 42 acres of park, so it's incredibly quiet and peaceful. It's also very 60s. In the 70s the added loads of weird sculputres. Possibly to try and hide the 60s-ness of the place.
The only place I get any phone reception is the middle of the cricket pitch, so that too should add to the peaceful nature of the weekend.
The first meeting at 6 was all about a new initiative the university has for outreach, personally I think it's very good, and will be implementing it from September.
Dinner in St Catherines College was brilliant! The room was all oak panelled and hung with portraits of famous Cambridge graduates.
The food was awesome!
It wasn't much different from eating at a fancy wedding really.
I've been really excited about the formal dinner since I got told I was attending this course in February- I always intended to go to a formal dinner when I was working in Oxford- as sometimes we would get invitations from the other Museums (When I was working at the Museum of Oxford) who were university funded. I'm not really sure why I never did- Sometimes people from work get invited- We have research links with the Uni so if a department is helping them with something their HOD usually gets to go- One of my colleagues we telling me about how brilliant the food after one such invitation. But this has been my first formal university dining experience.
We returned to the college at 9pm. To be honest, I'm gutted that my Harry potter movie box set didn't come today as that would have been good to watch in the evening- We're quite far from town so no partying for me!
I did bring "Harry potter and the Order of the Phoenix" to read for the millionth time this week. I did try and bring a grown up book but I swapped it just before leaving.
