Study Breaks, Apple Pies, and Formal Halls by Cambridge

First off a few notes of clarification. CME stands for Cambridge-MIT Exchange. This is the actual exchange program. CMI is the Cambridge-MIT Institute that promotes partnership happenings between the two universities. They are the people that started CME and have been funding it for the past few years.

So it’s been a little over a month since we got to England and the first term is half way over! I really can’t believe it. The first few weeks went by really fast and now that work’s been piling up, the weeks are dragging on. But it’s okay because I’m here with 24 other really amazing MIT students.

Not all of us knew each other before we came. But lately we’ve been having lots of get-togethers, study breaks, and formal swaps. We had our first CME study break at Downing College. Lots of people showed up with food so it was really awesome!

A few days later, some of us visited Girton College, which (I think) is the farthest college from the city center. It’s about 45 minutes to walk there. It is an amazingly nice college that has grass that you can actually walk on! And then there’s the apple orchard. I really wish we had taken some pictures of this. There was a large field with apple trees and we went apple picking. It was so much fun. We stuffed a bag full of apples and then went to Sainsburys (the local supermarket) and got some pie making ingredients. Later that night, we went over to Downing College again since they have actual kitchens and made lots of apple goodies.

A week later we had a CME formal which was attended by MIT students as well as Cambridge students who went to MIT the year before. We all had a great time. Some people had a little too much to drink. We went to various pubs afterwards and I think some people actually stayed up to watch the Red Sox game.

Just a few days ago, we had another study break at Queens College. I got there very late but it was great to see other MIT students again. Since we live in different colleges and are taking different classes, it’s nice to have get-togethers. I see the other two MIT students in Course 1 (civil engineering) everyday but otherwise, that’s about it.

I’m inviting the other CME students to come to Caius College for a formal next week. So stay tune. I promise I will get off the topic of food (soon).