cambridge

yep cambridge rocks

or alternatively get a 45 min train to london which isd also a nice place to visit

definitely check out mill road; some good 2nd hand book shops and oh loads of other things.

drink coffee in indigo's on st edmund's passage which is my favourite coffeeshop in the world. although it is tiny and might well be packed on weekends.

go to the arts cinema and then on to clowns (king st) which serves coffee etc until at least midnight. have a hot chocolate with whipped cream and a slice of baklava because, well, i always did and it's ace.

parrot records on king st used to have loads of cds at around £6 and maybe still does.

GO PUNTING! only don't get a tour, do it yrself. i suspect trinity punts are prob still the cheapest (£6/hour to the public, i think). but make sure you have a change of clothes in case you fall in.

wander round some of the colleges. but don't bother paying - just stride in confidently, and if anyone asks say that you are a memeber of college. check out trinity cos it's where i went and clearly the best, but i guess kings/johns etc are worth a look, too.

pubs: i still like the maypole best. avoid the huge wetherspoons/the eagle/the anchor. out of the city centre the cambridge blue is ace; no smoking/mobiles which i guess will put you off, but loads of lovely ales.

i love cambridge.

haahah im to godamn cute to fall out with

we are leaving cambridge soon - moving a few miles out but it is like losing a kidney and finding a tiny village with nowt in it to replace it with - oh well

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/b/bf/Cambridge2395.jpg

it's not a big college town

lol my mum works in one of those buildings.

The spaceship on the right?

Cantabulous

"Frolicking ... students partied with midgets"

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2213124.ece

source:

http://www.varsity.co.uk/news/1223/1/

"By Caedmon Tunstall-Behrens", lol.

but they didn't have the pics? oompa loompa shot makes the story imo.

LOL I know that name, he was 2 years below me at school :D

:(

Humiliating initiation ceremonies - search and destroy

Those initiation ceremonies strike me as relatively tame, except perhaps the one with the Oompa Loompas.

like the punchline to this one:

This year activities included teabagging, the act of dangling the scrotal sack in someone’s mouth, at every checkpoint, flaming socks being placed on male genitals, the consumption of sweets from various orifices and entire teams giving each other back, sack and crack waxes. The winners received a trip to Canada.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/09/cambridge-university-worlds-best

This will go down well in the ivory towers of what would otherwise be a nondescript Fenland town – it's the kind of publicity that may reinforce the hauteur and arrogance of Cambridge, but also adds to its mystique.

this is maybe the stupidest thing i've read all week. if it weren't for all the tall buildings and bridges and hipsters, new york would just be a bunch of fucking lumps of earth surrounded by water.

good fucking christ would I compose a counterblast to that if I could be arsed

Once in a while, we'd go to Cindy's, the club in town, which was called something else in the real world.

ohhhhh, good choice

actually quite a lot of it is otm, especially towards the end - mostly the negative stuff

I didn't feel chippy or cowed by anything, anyone or any job. Perhaps foolishly, I felt well-educated.

the guy seems extremely chippy to me, despite being plainly middle-class. but that last sentence is appalling.

would take enormous umbrage with his division of forces between poshos, geeks and normals - would argue strongly that the vast majority of students bought into the bubble in their own ways, and developed a strong superiority complex

It may be rightly feted for its research and intellectual achievements, but the fact is that it is an extremely effective conveyor belt into the professions that rule us – and that remains a shameful comment on the rigidity of British society.

im not saying he's all off the money, but this seems very confused. there *is* a problem with the professions that rule us, of course.

presumably he has less of a problem with it, because he feels like he has rightfully risen to his proper place as a ruler?

xxp otm

he doesn't seem to be saying that having an establishment is a bad thing, only that it should recruit from... other universities.

it's a thorny problem.

so this was actually in a major newspaper and not a college alumni magazine?

It's a thin line.

hiyo!

he's actually conveyed MY experience there pretty well, not that that's a hard thing to do if you have a modicum of introspection - but I'll restate that being involved in ANY sort of society be it sports, music etc meant plush dinners and plummy tones, and this applied universally, not just to the posh-schoolers - people picked up remarkably quickly that this was their opportunity, and dammit if they weren't going to relinquish what came before

my theory was that the social division was between rowers and people who didn't row, but at the end of the day that was narcissism of small ds, and "people picked up remarkably quickly that this was their opportunity" went for pretty much all of us.

so like, all the parties really were like that? you didn't have kegs of cheap bear and wear t-shirts and jeans, and then the next day play hungover frisbie while listening to Bob Marley's "Legend"?

British people don't bring kegs of cheap beer to parties.

the best parties involved [REDACTED] nah generally they were pretty shambolic BUT with the key factor that exclusivity was still an issue - not just anyone could come, which was saddening

some of the best nights out/days kicking a ball about I had were with locals - a race which 98% of students signally failed to realise the existence of - it was enough getting our heads around Anglia Ruskin University

i was mainly asking about the dress code stuff

Last time I was in Cambridge there was a party where students were playing in a giant paddling pool while listening to Feist. Actually that might have been Oxford, I can't remember.

like at my college, and others of its type - houses that had parties - would have one formal dress event a year (if that), maybe two, but the second would be more of a theme thing

there weren't all like that, no. for some it was all they did. two dinner jackets because one was always at the cleaners. formal hall, etc. etc.

some people studiously (ha!) avoided them for their whole time. i got the old vomity suit out maybe twice a term for football dinners.

Sarahel - Oxford and Cambridge don't really resemble any other universities that I can think of, I wouldn't expect them to correlate to any other student experience, UK or otherwise.

that's kinda what i'm getting at, Matt, like socially - in terms of power structure and prestige - there are American equivalents, but some of the student culture details seem totally alien to me.

lj: to be fair to cambridge students, i get the impression the local scene there is pretty dire.

Last time I was in Cambridge there was a party where students were playing in a giant paddling pool while listening to Feist. Actually that might have been Oxford, I can't remember.

― Matt DC, Thursday, September 9, 2010 11:00 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

probably cambridge. newnham represent.

some of the best nights out/days kicking a ball about I had were with locals - a race which 98% of students signally failed to realise the existence of

This isn't exclusive to any of the universities in the UK eh?

st hildas rip.

Cambridge always had the knack of making you feel, quite rightly, very small. Except now, looked on from the outside world, it seemed to me that this beautiful little city and the university that dominates it, was, for better and for worse, a tiny golden bubble.

this makes me crazy. it isn't a bubble: it's probably one of the most cosmopolitan cities in europe. albeit on a temporary basis. but the idea that it is disconnected from the real, outside world is ridiculous. he's contradicting himself anyway: if it dominates the establishment, then how is it a bubble?

i think it's fair enough to hate the poshoes, of course, with their confidence, education, and money.

i was doing a bit of maths tho: basically 7% of children go private. presumably the proportion is slightly higher among a-level students [via people dropping out]. and then among university undergrads even higher, much higher -- i'd guess the vast majority of the privately schooled go on to university, whereas only a minority of state-schoolers do. and then, facing it, more of the latter will be going to the less well-established universities.

so at the top universities, i'd imagine there are tons of public schoolies, yeah? not just at cambridge? edinburgh, bristol, durham, exeter, newcastle (especially, im told), london, all of them for sure. i dunno about the others so much.

so idk if the article was that relevant on that score.

edinburgh, bristol, durham, exeter, newcastle (especially, im told), london

st andrews (reprazent)

local cambridge scene:

clubbing - nuh-uh
music - a few decent acts, mostly thanks to one super dude I befriended
comedy - pfft
sports - fenners always good value
poetry - ok this is actually pretty good if a mite university-centric

hmm, it's not great though

oxbridge is v. cosmopolitan at postgrad level. my experience of the cosmpolitan-ness as an undergrad though was like people born in iran who went to st paul's (unless you mean cosmpolitan in the sense of their being a representative, often more than one, from geographical/economic bits of the uk that you might not meet at other unis).

oxbridge undergrads are like 45% private school. can't find the numbers for other places.

obviously you're not in a bubble. there is a conveyor belt to desirable london careers. but really i don't remember thinking that much about the "outside world" in my first couple of years as an undergrad. this is probably not what this guy means, but tbf i won't read the article.

For reason I'm not sure of, a whole ton of my classmates (top public school, yo) went to Dundee. Perhaps that's where they let the thickie public school kids into. I went to Glasgow (along with, I think, just one of my classmates).

I also used to live in Cambridge for a bit, as a drop-out student with no real plan. Hung out with some students (St Catherine's(?) mostly) and some locals, mostly went to King Street and bought zillions of records then hung about in my room being emo. And went to London for gigs.

the headline 40% posh, 40% geeks, 20% normal thing grinds my gears too

40% posh i'll accept. imo they're 'posher' and definitely richer now than in the 1990s [via house price explosion/enrichment of the blairite middle class. anyone who thinks the british class system is unrelated to money is on drugs]

40% geeks -- nah. by a lot of people's standards, obviously, everyone at cambridge is a geek because they got three a's at a-level. they don't let you in for being posh unless you're *really * attractive too. but although i didn't go to cambridge and it is of course radically different to the other place, not buying this at all. mind you cambridge *is* pretty science-y.

he doesn't mention the science people, who seem to be northern, and neither posh nor really 'geeky', though they actually have shit to do during the day so are sort of a different species.

20% normal -- sure, if 'normal' means high-achieving, almost exclusively white middle-class people, which i suppose for guardian readers it does.

comedy - pfft

yeah, terrible comedy track record cambridge, wtf

Can't imagine why a city having a "good comedy scene" would matter to anyone

so at the top universities, i'd imagine there are tons of public schoolies, yeah? not just at cambridge? edinburgh, bristol, durham, exeter, newcastle (especially, im told), london, all of them for sure. i dunno about the others so much.

private schools boycotted bristol when it tried to give lower grades to state school pupils, which cambridge and oxford had done for years without much complaint, so yeah arguably the russell group unis are more important to private schools, because they can almost guarantee an offer from one.

"he doesn't mention the science people, who seem to be northern, and neither posh nor really 'geeky', though they actually have shit to do during the day so are sort of a different species."

hi there. you're right, that view of the science/geek culture at these places betrays almost total ignorance and lack of interest in that group, which has been the majority (and the financial basis) of both these universities for a long time.

i think "normal" means very good state school and a humanities 2:1 to guardian readers.

this makes me crazy. it isn't a bubble: it's probably one of the most cosmopolitan cities in europe. albeit on a temporary basis. but the idea that it is disconnected from the real, outside world is ridiculous. he's contradicting himself anyway: if it dominates the establishment, then how is it a bubble?

you come at cambridge from an extremely different perspective - that of a resident. now sure, it's a beautiful city, full of all sorts of nationalities and intellects and what have you. but the university itself is a bubble - it's connected to the real world only insofar as it's connected to the upwardly-mobile world of aspiration and achievement which is pressured into virtually all of its students. do you know how many of my co-students befriended 'townies'? the answer is 'basically none' - they weren't interested in cambridge the town, just cambridge the university with adjunct shopping premises. and the establishment is surely a bubble of its own as well!

but yeah those other universities you name (+ nottingham) are stuffed solid with poshos - there's definitely a mystique about cambridge university though, a mystique that dazzles

cambridge postgrads tended to be more broad-minded, cosmopolitan and interesting, but isn't that a universal rule? to me, academia only REALLY suits the people who take it fucking seriously, i.e. the sorts of people who'd be bang up for postgraduate study in their chosen subject - people for whom the knowledge is key, rather than a tool to IRL success

cambridge comedy scene while I was there was depressing

the lines REALLY blur between posh, geek and 'normal' - as a public-school-educated language-nut music-obsessed sports enthusiast I kinda fell into all three camps while not feeling like any, plus it's not like everyone is comfortable being defined in a certain subset (although granted, quite a few were)

obviously there were loads of extremely moneyed types, some of whom concealed it, most of whom flaunted it

plenty of the science people were arrogant exclusivist tossers btw

although what maddened me more than almost anything else was the horrific presumption, mostly by cossetted arts undergrads, that they didn't need to speak to anyone unlike them or show any sort of interest in science or scientists - people who were often devoting their minds to some of the most interesting shit within the human ken

but the university itself is a bubble - it's connected to the real world only insofar as it's connected to the upwardly-mobile world of aspiration and achievement which is pressured into virtually all of its students. do you know how many of my co-students befriended 'townies'? the answer is 'basically none' - they weren't interested in cambridge the town, just cambridge the university with adjunct shopping premises. and the establishment is surely a bubble of its own as well!

By these criteria virtually all UK universities are bubbles, especially redbrick campus universities.

it's connected to the real world only insofar as it's connected to the upwardly-mobile world of aspiration and achievement which is pressured into virtually all of its students.

that's the real world, son

By these criteria virtually all UK universities are bubbles, especially redbrick campus universities.

Read that as "redneck campus universities". small lol.

that's the real world, son

but for most undergrads that real world/conveyer belt may as well not exist, certainly for the first couple of years if not their entire undergrad career. matt is right though, this probably isn't unique to oxbridge. i think the 8 week terms and, in cambridge, the actual lack of much else to do, make it particularly extreme there.

By these criteria virtually all UK universities are bubbles, especially redbrick campus universities.

Yeah I said this upthread, students in general not much invested in the communities where they're staying shockah.

The increasing percentage of kids studying in their home towns is probably shifting that a bit tho.

think cambridge students are a bit weird about "townies" – the young and dim ones anyway. but a lot of the postgrad community settles here, and is involved in town life. their kids (and their ilk, people like me) don't count as "townies"; in other words, no, students don't hang out with local working-class youths. not a surprise!

that said, i've had some odd recent encounters with gownies, and they do certainly see themselves in a flattering light.

i don't think it helps that most oxbridge students live in halls, often within college, for all three/four years. i mean it's not spending the winter at mcmurdo, but it's pretty immersive.

I'm not saying they should feel obliged to interact with 'real' people either, you get three maybe four years in your entire life to live in a bubble world with skewed priorities and the rest of your life to interact with normal people. Might as well make the most of it.

i don't think it helps that most oxbridge students live in halls, often within college, for all three/four years. i mean it's not spending the winter at mcmurdo, but it's pretty immersive.

― caek, Thursday, 9 September 2010 11:48 (41 seconds ago) Bookmark

and the fact that you can't stay there out of term time.

I'm not saying they should feel obliged to interact with 'real' people either

I just like my neighbours to stay within the bounds of not being total nob-ends and not to frown or run away if I say "hi" to them at the front door tbh. And to be fair most of them are aight.

i live next door to students. possible ex-poly, possibly real-cambridge. perhaps i shd ask/interact with them/turn them to bloody keep it down some of us have jobs.

and the fact that you can't stay there out of term time.

^^^this - you're ONLY there at the white-hot intensity of the short term, during which time you have to concentrate upon your progress

the skewed priorities of undergrad life, the indolent uselessness of myself and my peers - the fact I did more learning in the year or two after I left - these still jar me, and I maintain that the ambitions of your average undergrad, while financially lofty, are really quite small-minded for the most part

I thought that when I was a student, I kinda think it now, but I tend to agree with Matt that a 3 year holiday from responsibility is a fun thing that shd be afforded to as many kids as get away with it really. What you make of that holiday is up to you, and really, how good a judge where any of us at 19/20?

but that's projecting, really - people don't HAVE to be interested in everything or want to change the world - those that do probably do so without trying to

xpost to self

ah yeah the holiday was appreciated but it also slowed down my maturity for 3 years!

haha

dunno if you've noticed but our society is mostly built on finding ways to occupy/kill people's meaningless time for as long as poss

my best friend has read a really interesting book on the human brain (I need to borrow it tbh) in which it's claimed that boredom is the main spur for any social construct

I think hunger and procreation might be pretty big drivers as well but the boredom thing doesn't strike me as a particularly radical thesis.

obviously written by a Bolton fan

My take on the article was that it is much more OTM than most things you read about Oxbridge, e.g. on how college also providing for all your non-academic needs leads to a kind of regression in terms of life skills. The fact that at 25 (doing a PhD) someone was still coming once a week to change my sheets is pretty WTF. But Louis is right upthread when he says that the posho/geek/??? split isn't like a yawning chasm - everybody goes to their college parties, geeks buy into the exclusive ingroup idea by having their own drinking societies, almost everyone is aware that there are opportunities here that you get nowhere else.

The gig scene here is actually pretty great for a place of this size - not so much in terms of live bands but there have been some excellent promoters bringing in cool acts.

http://www.britevents.com/whats-on/cambridgeshire/cambridge/fun-lovin-criminals/117638/

Case in point.

My take on the article was that it is much more OTM than most things you read about Oxbridge

yeah, mercifully so - wouldn't have been able to tolerate it if it hadn't been accurately evocative of my own experience

I am fairly pally with a chap called M4tt 3yss who's been in bands around Cambridge seemingly forever - he organises a lot of good stuff

and the PUBS are pretty great tbh. if you socialise in Cambridge do it in a pub

The fact that at 25 (doing a PhD) someone was still coming once a week to change my sheets is pretty WTF

i miss that

yeah, that's weird. but this dude was 17-18 and was saying he had to give up his job, sell his car, stop cooking for himself... maybe i led a sheltered childhood. (although you can actually cook at oxbridge, if you really want to. they have kitchens. you can't have a job, though i did, briefly.)

doing a phd at 25 just seems pre emptive? i dunno. might go back and do one in my mid 30's, when i decide what i want to do with my life

my ex began hers at like 23 or something anyway enough of that

well yeah i just think that running straight on from a degree doing it is missing out?

unless you're research and paid for it etc then power to you and i'm very jealous

I agree with history mayne; I think a more interesting point would be that after three/four years of undergrad you have developed far less in the way of practical skills than someone at another university. Of course, if you're going straight into the City where you live in your office and have a monkey butler to clean your flat this may not matter.

xp - I did the standard undergrad-masters-Phd highway to academia (9 years straight of university in the end). No way I would have wanted or been able to do it without funding.

the funding is actually separate to what i'm talking about tho sean- i'm talkin about immersing urself in LYFE man, get out there and DO SOMETHING with urself.

or, y'know, again i'm just jealous because of the doing a shitty business degree in a shitty rural technical institute funded by a job as a dildo salesman

i keep forgetting abt ur employment and it raises a smile every time - as does the employment

a lot of people by their thirties have responsibilities that make doing a phd basically impossible -- even a funded phd doesn't pay that well, the world moves on, etc. better to do it earlier.

i didn't go straight through and don't regret that, and there is an argument that the straight-through types are a lil bit cloistered -- i don't mean as people, necessarily, but in the way they write about things.

hmm i guess we maybe have a lot more of a 'work will send you' attitude to later life study.

course, that's all probably gone to fuck, but as i'm permanent public sector next year, all going well, i'll still get the option of evening/distance learning masters courses or what have you

It's just a career with particular advantages (interesting work) and disadvantages (permanent terror of looming unemployment due to short-term contracts). Looking back at my PhD I do have some reservations about the effects of extended studenthood but I had an awesome time while I was doing it. As for crazy lyfe experiences I don't think I would ever have ended up travelling the world in a hammock or the like.

absolute #1 advice i gave to students thinking about a phd in physics was take a year or two. there is no rush. you can take three years and still be younger than graduating phds pretty much anywhere else in the world, and it takes out a lot of the doubt. there's a big "grass is greener" bitterness among a lot of straight-through phd students, who end up miserable and, sooner or later, quitting. you don't see that in the people who took a break after undergrad.

#2 advice is, if you're serious about an academic career in anything other than biosciences, consider doing your phd somewhere other than the uk. ha.

yeah, not talking about backpacking necessarily (although i do think that gets a bad rap). i had what i guess was an unusually useful two years out, working in academic publishing, which was the thing that would have drawn me away from academia had i gone straight in (it sounded like me on paper). so it got it out of my system _and_ it looked good on my academic cv (and it was the first time i'd ever lived somewhere someone else didn't change my sheets, so there's that). to this day, people claim it makes me more attractive than someone who went straight through. i haven't got a postdoc so who knows, but people claim it.

i meant interesting lyfe experiences like call centres tbh

you come at cambridge from an extremely different perspective - that of a resident. now sure, it's a beautiful city, full of all sorts of nationalities and intellects and what have you. but the university itself is a bubble - it's connected to the real world only insofar as it's connected to the upwardly-mobile world of aspiration and achievement which is pressured into virtually all of its students. do you know how many of my co-students befriended 'townies'? the answer is 'basically none' - they weren't interested in cambridge the town, just cambridge the university with adjunct shopping premises. and the establishment is surely a bubble of its own as well!

this was pretty much my uni experience and I haven't even been to the UK

i think the fact lj doesn't realize all other universities are bubbles is proof that cambridge is a bubble ... think about it.

my mind...it is on the keyboard

where did you go to uni btw?

yale

hahaha nah I've been to oxford that's pretty bubbly

(the incessant 'other place' bullshit was infuriating - hey did you know that there are several hundred universities in Britain, and that they all have good courses? fuckers)

some are bubblier than others maybe? certainly there are undergrad indulgences that are universal but at least elsewhere you had termtime jobs &c

probably the one place in the world in more of a bubble than cambridge xp

(or does thinking that fact automatically put me in more of a bubble...not acknowledging that there are bigger bubbles out there)

hey did you know that there are several hundred universities in Britain, and that they all have good courses?

the extent to which this is true (it's not) is an interesting problem.

ah yes dayo, i remember you commenting on that yale vs. oxford article

http://www.musicnotes.com/images/productimages/large/mtd/MN0074795.gif

the extent to which this is true (it's not) is an interesting problem.

ok well at least 60 or 70 have good courses. maybe it's the bubble talking though. would like to hear more about this though, with an eye to rethinking how university interacts with how we grow up

glad caek went there, i was about to

probably the one place in the world in more of a bubble than cambridge xp

― always be cozen (dayo), Thursday, September 9, 2010 1:26 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

(or does thinking that fact automatically put me in more of a bubble...not acknowledging that there are bigger bubbles out there)

― always be cozen (dayo), Thursday, September 9, 2010 1:27 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

i imagine (from a position of complete ignorance) that harvard, being a campus university (isn't it?) could be more bubbly. cambridge the university physically dominates cambridge the town, but it is still part of a town, nay, city, depending on your definition.

harvard is in cambridge which is right next to big city boston

yale is in new haven which is a completely impoverished town outside the university lines, it's very very clear once you've left the university proper...there might as well be a line on the map and beyond it "here be dragons"

yeah harvard, watch your good will huntings nrq

oh sry meant 'yale' not harvard.

there might as well be a line on the map and beyond it "here be dragons"

ah, the Grafton Centre

hey did you know that there are several hundred universities in Britain, and that they all have good courses?
the extent to which this is true (it's not) is an interesting problem.

― caek, Thursday, September 9, 2010 1:27 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/college_dropout_factories.php?page=all

this is america, and the american system is structured completely differently (transfers, credits, fees, private institutions, etc.), but i feel like a pretty similar article could be written about the UK.

ah, the Grafton Centre

― acoleuthic, Thursday, September 9, 2010 1:38 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

built on the ruins of the old student/post-student quarter. there is a waitrose now, but yeah, that's ruskin territory.

xp yeah, and in the uk there's a close correlation between "widening participation" and high drop-outs, which is a bit of a thorny subject.

zackly

there are some nice parts in north-east/east Cambridge, but Cambridge University students only ever HAVE to go there if one of their supervisors lives out there - which is a shame

caek will be on that article - but I am yet to work out my opinions as to whether there should be fewer universities/students or if the whole culture could survive with revision

there are some nice parts in north-east/east Cambridge, but Cambridge University students only ever HAVE to go there if one of their supervisors lives out there - which is a shame

it's really not that nice, dude. it's just a suburb. the park and river is chill as hell, but otherwise it's just a bunch of houses.

The graduation rate dropped to 13 percent in 2008.

Maybe Cambridge truly is a bubble. This shit blows my mind. Great article so far.

at yale you basically had to commit a felony to be kicked out...preserved our 98% graduation rate or w/e it was

Best non-university things about Cambridge are the river, urban green spaces and the peacefulness you find once you get away from the Market Square/Regent Street drag. It's not for everyone, though; I know lots of people who have moved to the biggest busiest city they can find as soon as they finish their degree.

I ended up applying for Oxford when it was my time, but I went to look at Cambridge and it seemed absolutely lovely. Like this pastoral academic paradise. So jealous of the people who got to go..

walking around the place on sunny days was beautiful and I wish I'd found more people who appreciated such joys

while walking through Montmartre with a colleague, he remarked upon our arriving at a certain street that he loved it b/c it reminded him of Cambridge. I thought it odd to love a part of Paris for its resemblance to a part of the UK, but he's written a book on Newton so I reckon he sees things differently.

Also agree about perceived mystique. Whenever someone mentions their Cambridge roots, people's eyes seem to light up. I mean UCL is pretty decently regarded, but I'm not sure its magic, maybe. Perhaps the students or ex-students themselves are as curious of the mystique as the outsiders.

dammit why am I feeling nostalgic

TO HAVE HAD MY TIME AGAIN, with my current mind

ah but that is cheating

to have ur caek & eton

oh lol

these thoughts invariably turn suicidal and should be quashed

lol

Yeah if I meet someone who was at Cambridge we'll talk about pubs we like rather than the glory of the mystical bubble.

xp - darragh wins best educationally themed post ever

xp but would your current mind have reached its state without the Cambridge education? I'm getting the sense that Uni is just a stepping stone to whatever your potential may fulfill, rather than somewhere to fully realise yourself. I may be wrong though heheh..

university is the best stepping stone, most stones after it are on the road to hell tbh

i've been at oxford since the 90s. first world problem i know, but stepping stone, ha!

you're an academic, then?

first world problems doesn't even begin it you jammy git

hence why it is cheating and impossible and (for an arts undergrad) a dream - a big privileged fucking dream xxxxp

some make it their reality - what my reality is, I'll be beggared if I know, but it involves a lot of walking

One day I will take a leaf out of your book and walk from my flat down to Kew Gardens or something.

nah i'm a phd student (and a slow reader i guess, hence the 90s)

do you know when you're submitting nrq?

you come at cambridge from an extremely different perspective - that of a resident. now sure, it's a beautiful city, full of all sorts of nationalities and intellects and what have you. but the university itself is a bubble - it's connected to the real world only insofar as it's connected to the upwardly-mobile world of aspiration and achievement which is pressured into virtually all of its students. do you know how many of my co-students befriended 'townies'? the answer is 'basically none' - they weren't interested in cambridge the town, just cambridge the university with adjunct shopping premises. and the establishment is surely a bubble of its own as well!

simultaneous experience of both viewpoints allows me to say this is otm. also the music scene is surprisingly good for size of city/town.

that is all.

do you know when you're submitting nrq?

― caek, Thursday, September 9, 2010 3:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

no.

i kind of finished over a year ago. had a first draft, anyway.

but then a series of things happened and i turned into kevin shields lol.

i thought you were in germany and had therefore finished?

i could probably finish by the end of october if i concentrated. quitting ilx would help, but not that much.

i got an astronomy quasi-job that didn't require a phd and paid me to work on whatever i want. this took away the incentive to finish and i'm still adding to my thesis, i.e. kevin shields lol. munich job ends dec 31 though, so my viva is ~ jan 1.

Genuinely distressing news.
Fitzbillies has gone out of business

once got a cornish pasty there, fuck tha world

Was more saddened by Galloway and Porter closing last year tbh.

word

You can't eat books.

And it's back.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/11/fitzbillies-tim-hayward-cambridge

I mean, it's been back a while but here's an article^^^ about it...

I will be here for three months starting April (will also be the first time I've been to the UK since 2001). Tips for things to do, places to eat, etc? Do we still FAP?

I meant to reply to this at the time

If there is a cambridge FAP I will def come, and hopefully we can coax seandalai and some of the Londoners too

In terms of things to do: there is a river and some nice buildings and pubs and museums but in terms of active culture/nightlife &c it isn't the best. We have some sick science-based comedy nights tho

sweet! I probably won't be in cambridge the entire time anyway so we can meet in London too if that's easier.

inebriated bonhomie tonight has reminded me to get on this. The couple of times I have met ilxors have been jolly. Are you here? Shall we do Cam/London FAP? I will force louis to come. Everyone who comes to the uk should meet louis

if ever dissolute me is near british isles i may try to cadge drinks (& other drugs) from the lot of you

I will buy you a drink and all I expect in return is a drink

it's a deal

(✿ฺ◕ฺ‿◕ฺ）

ahhhh i just saw your post. YES, I'm here - got in a week ago and just about over the jet lag. will shoot you ILXmail in a bit.