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Dear all,
My life in Cambridge is over so it is high time for an update of my travel blog. The past few months have been tough, but now I can look back at my year in Cambridge with great satisfaction.
The third term in Cambridge (Easter Term) is exam term, which means that one has to study 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week for eight consecutive weeks. Fortunately I had some relaxing intermezzos with Sebastian, my parents and my brothers visiting me. Not much else happened during this period because I was in the library all other days. The results came out a few weeks after the sitting of the exams, and I received them with rather mixed feelings. My grades were OK, but I unfortunately missed out on a first class mark (cum laude equivalent) because I came 1% short in one of the four subjects...
Right after exam term Cambridge hosts its famous May week, though it always takes place in June. ‘Hey just because the Pope decides to change the calendar, doesn’t mean we (Cambridge) have to follow’. It is a week full of lavish garden parties and extravagant May balls. Considering
that there are 31 different colleges in Cambridge and that each college has its own garden party and May ball, one can imagine what kind of week it has been. Because the May ball tickets are about 100 Pounds each, not including a sit down dinner, I had to limit myself to the May Balls of Jesus College, Trinity Hall and Oxford’s Green Templeton College. Highlights included silent discos (see picture), multiple live stages, unlimited drinks and food, merry-go-rounds, and giant swings.
After May week it is graduation time! While this was my third graduation ceremony, it was the only one that I will remember forever. As you can see on the picture we had to wear black shoes, a black tuxedo, a white dress shirt, a white bow tie, a black academic gown, a white band and a purple LL.M. hood. In order to graduate, you have to hold the finger of the Pre-Lector while he or she is saying something in Latin, kneel down on both knees before the Vice-Chancellor of the University (sitting on a thrown in a red gown with a 17th century sceptre) with your hands in a praying position while he puts his hands on your hands, wait until the Latin blessing has been given, stand up while not tripping over your own gown, bow and walk away.
In the meantime I flew back to the Netherlands for a job interview with a big law firm in Amsterdam and received a job offer, starting in March 2011. While I initially wanted to use the period between leaving Cambridge and starting in Amsterdam to travel around the world, I recently had to change my mind because I got an unexpected offer for the European Commission’s Traineeship Programme to work for the Cabinet of Neelie Kroes! Kim got a similar offer from the European Commission’s Anti-terrorism department, so from October until March we will be living and working in Brussels. Now we are in Montpellier to work on our French, which probably will come in handy in Brussels. If only French was not so difficult....
I will probably be back in the Netherlands by the end of July, from when I will be officially homeless, so anyone who wants to meet up or has a place for me to stay for a few days, please call me on my old Dutch number!
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Maurice Vollebregt
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Proud
Hey Samuel! Tremendous story! You make us all proud! See you soon. Greetings, Maurice