All good things must come to a (temporary) end

Well, I'm back home again after two last weeks of insanity and fun and sad goodbyes.  Since I left you hanging with May Bumps, I'll finish that story.  First, a picture of us with our first-day victory greenery:

The last two days of bumps, we had to row over twice a day, first to stay at the head of our division, then to try to claw our way into the next-higher division (unsuccessfully).  It was exhausting and fairly frustrating to keep falling short, especially since we thought that if we had been fresh, we could have caught that upper division...  In any case, the end result was a total of moving up four spaces (3 the first day, 1 the second) and never getting bumped by anyone else.  This makes you eligible for "discretionary blades."  But wait, what are blades, you ask?

Blades are the coveted award for bumps -- but they're often a matter of luck as well as skill, so they're hard to win.  Physically, it means you get an oar painted with the names of the crew members, like this.  To win them unequivocally, you have to have gone up at least four spots and have bumped at every opportunity (i.e., at least once a day).  However, if you go up four and never get bumped, your boat club captain can choose to award you blades.  And ours did!  What a very Cantabrigian thing I will have on my wall forever and ever!  :D  Here's a celebratory picture with the flag, which represents winning blades.

After bumps, all the rowers celebrated with Boat Club Dinner, a convivial (read: drunken) event, as always.  Then after a short night's sleep, I headed into my first Suicide Sunday.  It's a day that consists of a series of garden parties -- men in blazers whose colors indicate the sports they play, women in summer dresses, everyone drinking bellinis and other cocktails.  Why is it called "Suicide Sunday"?  I've heard two theories: 1) It's so booze-soaked that you wreck yourself; 2) It's your last chance to kill yourself before exam results come out.  Cheery, huh?  In point of fact, it's fairly civilized: a chance to relax on the grass in the sun.

The week following was May Week, during which people attend various college balls.  The only actual balls I attended were Queens' May Ball and Trinity Hall June Event (same idea but more casual and doesn't last all night).  However, the week filled up with many other activities, as well.  And then it was time for people to start dribbling away, some for good.  It seemed like nearly every day there were sorrowful leave-takings.  Eventually, I managed to scrape together some boxes in which to store my things and bid farewell (temporarily) to Cambridge myself.  I'm so grateful for the amazing year I had, and I look forward to another great one.  Meanwhile, time to do some research for my first "real" conference talk, first thing in September...