Return to Cambridge

After graduating last June, I vowed that I wouldn't be one of those grads who sneak back on a regular basis and basically never leave. And although homesickness - uni-sickness? - did set in around October as idyllic punting and college snaps returned in force to my various social media feeds, I somehow managed to put off my own triumphant return until this month. (We're not going to mention that afternoon back in February when I caved and went back to see my friends for tea and cake in between various freak-outs in the Careers Service Library. Shh.)

One of my very first ventures on this blog was a post about my college's annual formal to mark International Women's Day - a particularly special event as we're a women's college. When the invite for this year's formal landed in my inbox, I didn't need much persuading. And neither did my best friends.

Roxy and I arrived back in the 'Bridge just as the sun was beginning to set, casting a golden glow over King's Parade and Market Square. This is the thing about Cambridge. Even on a rainy day it's stunningly pretty, and an unsuspecting visitor would never associate it with the agonies its students go through (I'll just put it out there: two essays a week and at least five or six 3-hour exams in one week at the end of each year.) I actually felt my chest start to hurt as we arrived in town, which I'm going to chalk down to residual stress palpitations (!)

I'll probably never get over how gorgeous King's College is. I mean, look at it. Ridiculous.

On your left, ladies and gentlemen: Senate House, the scene of my graduation last June. Time and its tendency to fly really does scare me sometimes!

Although when we gathered for formal in the Dome, it felt as if no time had passed at all.

Murray Edwards has stepped up its formal game. And I'm not complaining. (Free alumnae dining rights, y'all.)

Photo courtesy of Clare Cotterill

To start...a salad of purple potatoes, sprouting broccoli and polenta with an avocado dressing.

And for our main, sweet grilled red mullet with chakalaka. I personally thought chakalaka was the part of the egg Norman from the Great British Bake Off advocated removing, but apparently it's an African spiced bean and pepper compote. Yum.

The day before International Women's Day also happened to be Japan Day. Our college is partnered with Tokyo's Kaetsu University and has a Japanese cultural centre attached to it, so we were treated to a brief interlude of Japanese hip-hop dance while we waited for dessert. The dancing definitely brought out my inner East Asian fangirl, nurtured during my Oriental Society days at school and something of a secret since then...

And finally, dessert! Continuing the Land of the Rising Sun theme, we were served honey Castella Cake, a type of Japanese sponge, with mango and passion fruit sorbet, coconut cream and grilled mango slices. This one knocked it out of the park. Easily one of the best desserts I've had at Murray Edwards formal (or any other college formal), the flavour combinations were right up my street. It reminded me a little of a refined version of Thai khao niao mamuang, minus the glutinous rice.

No trip to Murray Edwards is complete without a visit to see the resident college beetles.

In first year Imarin and I got in a tiny bit of trouble for running down here after dinner and taking selfies astride the beetles (endless hijinks with the college art were had through our years at college, I tell you) - totally unaware that there was a CCTV camera fixed on us.

Photo courtesy of Clare Cotterill

We're obviously waaaaay more mature five years down the line...

Photo courtesy of Ran Huo

Cambridge, it's been fun. Let's do it again soon? 

Thank you to Murray Edwards College for providing a delicious New Hall Society formal! It was so lovely to have an excuse to see some of the ladies from my matriculation year group and run around college like an undergrad again. I'm already looking forward to next year! 

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Murray Edwards Turns 60!

I'd like to tell you a little about where I'm studying today.

So I'm in my fourth year at the University of Cambridge. It's renowned worldwide for its beautiful colleges, dominated by gorgeous medieval courts, quads with 'Keep Off The Grass' signs, stony spires and picturesque bridges over the River Cam.

But let's just get one thing straight. I am not at one of these so-called 'beautiful colleges'.

My college, Murray Edwards (formerly New Hall) was founded in 1954 on the Backs, on Silver Street, moving site to northern Cambridge in the 60s. Its architecture is very of its time; it sits proudly on Castle Hill in all its Brutalist, concrete-loving glory. There are no elaborate finials or elegant stone arches to be found here.

Murray Edwards is also notorious for one other thing: it's not a mixed sex college. It's girls only, and this has led its students gaining the dual, paradoxical reputation of either being 'too prudish' to apply to a mixed college, or alternatively, a group of sex-starved females who pounce on the opposite sex the minute they're liberated from their oestrogen-laced surroundings, earning the college the nickname 'Hurry Bedwards'. Yep. You can imagine the sort of revved-up teenage males who come up with this kind of stuff.

I'll admit that all this has led to a fair bit of angst on my part in the past, especially on entering the university and being made to not feel 'good enough' for Cambridge. Other students and porters at the more well-known colleges can be, and indeed have been, very insulting about my college to my face, often coming close to what might be termed as bullying. See this Tab article for an example of the 'humorous' elitism students at the modern colleges face on a regular basis. The sad thing is, we're expected to laugh it off or grow a thick skin when faced with college-related jibes, but the fact that my emotional response to these comes disturbingly close to how I feel when confronted with racist or sexist 'jokes' tells me that this is something that the University needs to address.

Despite all this, I'd like to make it clear that I am very fond of my college, supposed shortcomings or not. My tutors and directors of studies there have always been extremely supportive to me, while the atmosphere is really friendly and tightly-knit, probably closer to a non-Oxbridge hall of residence. Last week was its 60th birthday, which happily coincided with International Women's Day. To celebrate, we were treated to a host of talks from intimidatingly successful alums, followed by formal. Formal is a Cambridge tradition in which you dress up, don gowns (which I eschewed for this particular formal in favour of a leather jacket out of laziness rather than rebellion) and sit down for a three-course silver service meal.

Upon entering the Dome, where we have our regular meals and formals, we were greeted with the soft peals of an Indonesian gamelan orchestra.

We waited patiently for grace, then had our starter - tuna wrapped in tempura-fried nori, with a cucumber and rocket salad.

I was sitting opposite Sana, my housemate and fellow Murray Edwards undergrad.

We were seated next to some grads and alumnae and got chatting about everything from opera to weddings. Then came the main - a tasty mutton curry with rice, and, slightly inexplicably, a giant slab of bread.

It was my first time dressing up nicely for quite a while, as I've been living pretty permanently in a uniform of jeans, t-shirts and pullovers all term! Perhaps that's what being a finalist does to you... My dress is from Topshop and my necklace is from Alex Monroe. 

I was in a giant rush during dessert because it was time to catch a train back to London, so I didn't manage to get snaps of that course (a beautifully creamy maracuja passion fruit tart with sorbet) but rest assured I gobbled it right down. In record time, too - probably about five seconds!

Thank you, Murray Edwards, for an excellent evening of food and thought-provoking discussion! I'm very proud to be a part of this college.