Cambridge Traditions and 5 Course Meals by Cambridge

Here in Cambridge, all new students must go through a matriculation process in which you are formally admitted into the university and your college. I think all of the colleges has a matriculation ceremony on the first day of the term where all the first year students to the university sign a book or piece of paper. Each college also hosts their own matriculation dinner where all the students who matriculated that year are invited to a really nice dinner with the fellows (mostly professors) of the college. All the CME students participated in this process. My college, Gonville and Caius, just had its matriculation dinner a couple of days ago. After talking to the other CME-ers, I’ve concluded that ours was probably one of the best dinners among the colleges.

It was a 5 course meal that took nearly 5 hours. And the food was simply amazing. We were invited to pre-dinner drinks (champagne) with the fellows. After this, we went into the dining hall where we sat with people in our major and were served with lots of food and wine. Between all this eating and drinking, we got a chance to chat with students and professors in our major about classes, ultimate Frisbee (one of the professors didn’t know what this was so we had to explain it to him), Formula 1, and other life in Cambridge topics.

We all got individual menus that were written in French (don’t ask me why). The main course was chicken and it was really good. It wasn’t dry like the usual dining hall meat. I know the portions look small but you can get as much as you want. And I mean, it was 5 courses so we were all stuffed by the end of it.

No, it’s not this extravagant everyday. We only get a 3 course meal on a daily basis. Haha. No joke! But that’s just a Caius thing. Hm.. just realized this entry was all about food. Next entry will be about MIT CME students (probably eating food)!