Sunday, October 15, 2006

Snapshots of Life in Cambridge

Above is my trusty bicycle which I bought from a former student who happened to be my ex-uni mate. She did the same course and came with the same scholarship as I am.



The picture above is taken at Market Square, the place where you can find "apparently" cheaper stuff than the supermarkets. I have not gotten anything from this place yet because nothing interest me so far. But I may try the ostrich burger located in one of these stalls.

Another zoomed out shot of the Market Square overlooking the Great St Mary's Church. The Big Ben's clock-chime bell tune in London has the same tune as the Great St Mary's Church. The Big Ben apparently copied the tune from this church in 1859.

The demonstration was held in front of the Guildhall. As you could see in the print, it was about eradicating the poor and fair trade. This is not common here, but protests and demonstrations are allowed within the ambits of the law.

We had our first class eat-out at a curry house which serves authentic Bangladeshi curry flavours. I had the Jalfrezi fish since it was a day of abstainence from red meat.


The formal dining hall in New Hall, one of the 31 colleges of Cambridge. We had our MPhil dinner here with other CMI programme students. The picture above depicts the "smart casual" attire code, a far resemblance from the collar T and jeans approach which Malaysians would usually interpret what "smart casual" would be. New Hall is one of the 3 all-female colleges in the university and is one of the modern-looking colleges around. So, you won't get the Harry Potter looking dining hall in this one. Eventhough they have the state-of-the-art looking facilities, the college has a history as far back as 1965!

A group photo at the MPhil dinner. As you may notice, I was guilty of a fashion faux pas in this event because of my misinterpretation of "casual smart". I went there totally embarassed and am not proud of telling this in the blog actually. It was truly embarassing and you would know why I hid behind the well-dressed people when taking this picture. But it is always good to learn from mistakes. I will definitely dress up in my suit now if I see the next attire code to be "semi-formal" and a suit with gown when it's "formal".

This is Fr. Alban, the Franciscan priest who presides mass at the Fisher House. Fisher House is the Catholic Chaplaincy of the University of Cambridge. Fr Alban was a graduate from Oxon* and has a strong resemblance of Fr Aloysius Mowe when he gave his sermons.

*Oxon is the jargon for Oxford University; Cantab= Cambridge University. So, people in the UK recognise University of Cambridge as Cantab...rather than the former.

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