First entry

Dear all,

Herewith a quick update of my stay in the United Kingdom. I arrived on the 28th of September and was immediately drawn into the two week lasting "fresher's week" (college induction). Recent activities included a few "Graduate and Formal Halls" (Harry Potter style dinners with loads of very special ports and wines), punting on the river Cam, and an inter-college pub crawl with free chocolate and wodka fountains.

The accomodation provided by Jesus College is perfect. I live with six other men in a graduate house of which the backyard is located on the college premisses, so the tennis courts, the squash courts, the gym, the library and the dining hall are a mere ten meters away from my backdoor.

Recently I signed up for the college rowing team, the tennis club, and the university blind wine tasting society, together with a some other graduates at my college. It was only recently that I discovered that even the worst rowing boat team has to practice three times a week at minimum, some practices taking placing in the early morning (6:30 AM!). So I guess we will have to see if I can endure under these harsh spartan conditions.....:(

Life here is pretty different from the Netherlands. Almost no one is awake after midnight. All bars close between 10:30 PM and midnight. I guess that is how they manage to wake up that early for rowing practices;) The other side of the medal is that people will start going to bars and clubs around 8 or 9 PM, which is actually a lot better than the Dutch "let's wait till its 1 AM to go to the club because only then will it become 'gezellig'" mentality because you can plan your days way more efficienty.

Speaking of which, carefull planning is essential. The required and recommended reading material for my papers (courses) are so vast that it takes about an entire 9-5 day in the library to read all the material for one paper. Since I have four courses a week to attend plus a dissertation of 18.000 words to write, I will be quite busy.

I have already made a lot of new friends, most of which are from Australia for some peculiar reason. Moreover, 75% of my lecturers are also from down under. I guess there still are some benefits of being part to the British commonwealth, isn't it?

Tomorrow I will go to London with Kim to visit her brother and his fiancé. Kim broke her arm the day I arrived in Cambridge by falling of a bike. Apparently she is not that Dutch after all;) Hopefully her arm will get better soon. There is nothing worse than trying to make new friends in a new country while being handicapped.

On that note, cycling in Oxford and Cambridge is extremely dangerous. Most people wear helmets and reflecting (kevlar?) vests to protect them from sustaining severe injuries in accidents. The cars just blatently ignore all cyclists, there are no designated bycicle paths, and on top of that, the bloody British drive on the LEFT side of the road. I tried to explain them that we in Europe drive on the right side of the road and consequentl have fewer bicycle accidents, but I failed to pursuade them. My guess is that it is also a class thing, like almost everything in this country. Most people on bikes are "gownsfolk" (students and academics), while car drivers are mostly "townsfolk" (blue-collar day labourers) and the latter can't stand the former for some apparant reason.

Anyway, I am having a great time here and I will speak to most of you again when I am back for Christmas in the Netherlands

As ever,

Samuel

14 Park Street
CAMBRIDGE
CB5 8AS
The United Kingdom
+447751049389

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