Cambridge - Churchill College Freshers Week
Yesterday I had the most amazing time here at Churchill College thanks to the Beav and The Wife.I became a "Fresher", a new student in UK parlance, and all it took was a wink and a nod, and a name-badge with my name scrawled across it. After splitting up into groups I followed our new leader "Betta", an Italian Bella studying Bio-Physics, down to our first hostel on our "Hostel Crawl".
We started by playing quarters (or 10p pieces here), launching coins into the wooden table trying to get them to bounce into a glass. The next hostel brought a new game, one where we threw bottle caps at the other person's crotch trying to knock the bottle cap off their cleverly placed beer bottle. Next we played beer pong where we tossed a dirty ping-pong ball at a group of beer glasses, forcing our opponent to drink the now soiled beer if our ball managed to find its way in. Finally we engaged in Beav's own "Beaver Game" - a game requiring all of our brain power combined, but unfortunately at that point we didn't have much of that in supply.
Sure there were rules and such but in the end it boiled down to drinking, having fun, getting to know your co-freshers, and drinking.
All the Freshers were very cool, especially my group, and I'm now painfully aware of why Beav is not itching quite so vigorously to return to Canada. Damnit, I'm considering getting a PHD in something, anything if it means I can hang out with all the cool peeps I now know.
There's Clay the cowboy, David the Guelphster, Chi the Bombayer (because he prefers that to Mumbai), Viviane the Invertibrate Paleontologist, Betta the Bella, Adam the guy that gets hammered from apple juice, Soon the Math3 guy who managed to knock my bottle cap off 3 times in only 4 throws!, and our game leaders Max, Justin, Jonathan, Rams, Rob, and Huwe (affectionately known as "not Rob") -- and that's not even mentioning Beav or The Wife, which have very thoughtfully let me stay with them this weekend.
Today I will join them for a Fresher's lunch, and ... well I'm really enjoying this weekend. It is some very much needed R&R considering how crazy this last week has been.
Having your laptop die on you while you are mid-project on-site and out of country is never good. The less said about THAT, the better.
Labels: business trip, Cambridge, UK
posted by Blight @ 2:37 AM
15 Comments:
Like I said before, I'm glad you had a good time. I sure did.
I never got into the frat thing at NAIT as I went back at 29 and most of the "kids" were pretty young and not married.
Sounds like you had a blast. Might as well have them while you are over there. To quote AC/DC..."Have a Drink on Me!"
Sirdar: Thanks, I never got a chance to do that kind of stuff back when I was doing my bachelors either, so it was great to do!
Yeah, that sounds like fun.
I kind of kicked myself for not going to the U of A beer gardens, but then you're just a lonely alumni, standing amongst a bunch of students, and that's no fun.
Well, as an honorary fresher, you should engage in as much debauchery as you can.
Sounds like going to another university away from home is the way to go. More chance for random drunken fun.
Did you try any of the absinthe that Kev may still have?
feel like going back to school? Yeah, it sounds great when you're working, but remember all the things you'll give up. Money money!
Yes, you'll be a student, but you'll be old and weird to all the nubile undergrads.
But, yeah, you can easily trick some Asian honeys into getting down with your tutoring.
Lobo: People told Beav explicitly NOT to bring the Absinthe...
bad memories?
Cibbuano: Are you considered old and weird?
Well the good thing is that these students were Freshers going into PHD programs, so they weren't quite as young as the other new students I saw around.
I don't know if I'm old and weird, but I definitely act like a surly old man.
Sometimes, undergrads knock on our lab door to talk to a prof or something, but if they don't have an appointment, I won't let them in.
'Can't I just wait inside?'
'No.'
absinthe
[AB-sinth] Reputed to be an aphrodisiac, absinthe is a potent, bitter liqueur distilled from wormwood and flavored with a variety of herbs. It has a distinct anise flavor and is 68 percent alcohol (136 proof). Absinthe is usually diluted with water, which changes the color of the liqueur from green to milky white. Because it's considered habit forming and hazardous to health, absinthe is prohibited in many countries and was banned in the United States in the early 1900s.
absinthe (ăb'sĭnth) , an emerald-green liqueur distilled from wormwood and other aromatics, including angelica root, sweet-flag root, star anise, and dittany, which have been macerated and steeped in alcohol. It was invented in the 1790s by a Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, a Frenchman who lived in Switzerland, and the liqueur became enormously popular, particularly in late-19th-century Paris. Genuine absinthe is 70% to 80% alcohol. Because it caused harmful neurological effects (due to the presence of thujone, a toxic chemical in wormwood), absinthe was banned in many countries; where it still is available it is no longer as toxic as it once was.
Haha, that's pretty funny, bout the absinthe. Guess there's some stories that Kev ain't telling us.
I was worried (it has happend in the past), that I would get a group of students with a high-school-like attitude, and they would be "too cool" to cut loose and have a good time. Didn't happen. The noobs seemed really keen this year.
Also, Blight was the anchor for his team on the "Beaver Game". He was whipping through the post-its.
ah... not letting the undergrads into the lab... the one bit of power PhD students have...
Anyway, I hope you had a good flight home, Blight, and are settling back into life in Toronto.
Thanks, I just finished my Thanksgiving weekend. I think I'm back on EST now.
WHERE'S BLIGHT?
OH GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO BLIGHT???
CALL KOREA! SOMEONE CALL JAPAN! WE MUST FIND HIM!
I personally blame North Korea. Fuckin' commie bastards.
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