Living the good life

I can't believe I let a whole month go by, but it was a fantastic -- and fantastically tiring -- one.  I chose that word carefully, because the end of the year at Cambridge is more like a fantasy than reality.  To start things off, I had a positively glowing second-year review with my supervisor and another professor who also reviewed me last year.  We strategized about what I should do next and what I should expand, but they found my piece really interesting and somewhat novel.  Whee!  This is what helped assuage my guilt for not doing any work the following two weeks.  We won't dwell on the fact that my supervisor has said several times now (from the safety of now-I'm-on-track), "I was quite worried about you last year."  Yeesh!

Then there was the run-up to May Bumps.  I was in the second boat -- disappointing when I first found out, but it was a fun and talented group.  In fact, we came together such that, in pretty short order, we became the most balanced boat I think I've been in.  (Translation for non-rowers: we weren't tipping side to side all the time, which is both annoying and slows you down as your oars drag on the water.  Balance is hard to achieve, even with good rowers.)

We started off as the "sandwich boat" between divisions, just where my crew left it last year.  The first day we rowed over head of one division but didn't bump our way into the next one up.  The second day, we nearly managed to row over head again but got caught in the last stretch of the Reach (long straight part of the course).  So close, and yet so far.  The next two days, Cambridge's infamously gusty winds were our undoing, because while we were technically pretty rowers, we were also lightweights and were being chased by...substantial women.  But here we are, working hard:

You see me there sitting at seat 7, part of stroke pair.  This was a strange new experience for me; usually, because I'm so light and relatively unpowerful, I sit in at the bow end (front end, far right in this picture).  So I'm accustomed to seeing everyone in front of me and following along.  Sitting at 7 meant that people were following me, and I had to take it on faith that everyone else was back there behind me.  It was kind of flattering to be a semi-leader, though.  I'll need that next year, because I'll be the women's captain!!  I resisted running for weeks, because I was concerned about the time and stress it will involve, but eventually I realized (with much peer pressure...) that if I didn't do it, I would be sad for the lost opportunity.  So I will soon have embellishments for my new boat club blazer (see photo).  Fun fact: did you know that the word "blazer" was coined in Cambridge?

My black-tie partying actually started during Bumps (shhhh....), and it was an intense week-plus.  First there was the chapel choir's annual dinner, at which the tradition of "fining" ran wonderfully rampant.  Fining consists of mild-to-moderate embarrassment in the form of a central figure standing and announcing "I would like to fine the person who _____."  The person or people who fit the description then stand and take a sip of their drinks to acknowledge whatever trait or past behavior has just been named.  In a group that fundamentally likes and trusts each other, it's all fair in loving war to air the dirty laundry.

The following days included the MCR's farewell dinner, the termly Boat Club Dinner to celebrate the end of Bumps, Clare College May Ball, Trinity Hall June Event, and somehow throwing together the Gilbert & Sullivan Society's May Week show of "The Sorcerer," in which I had a small part.  After one of the worst springs on record, the weather was relatively good for Bumps and May Week, until the day of the show.  We stared down the prospect of performing in the rain in our garden theatre, until a miracle got us the ADC Theatre, one of the prime locations in Cambridge.  A good-sized audience turned up, and all came together for no good reason except perhaps good karma.

Then my body collapsed into a cold after 10 days of not enough sleep, I packed my room into storage, enjoyed the MCR garden party, and flew home.  Sunshine at last.