My First Two Days in Cambridge

I'm here. And after frying 2 £7 power converters (plugged a power strip into them....bad idea), buying a gown (among other strange and varied items), and running around a whole lot, I'm finally starting to get my bearings.

Cambridge is gorgeous. I've never seen so many 600-year-old buildings in such close proximity to one another. There are also a whole lot of ENORMOUS, yet pristine lawns that nobody is allowed to walk on under penalty of death. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can connect my laptop to the internet.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck using the computer clusters this week because Caius College requires everyone to submit their computer to a virus scan before allowing them onto its network. And they don't trust you to do it yourself! Today I had to bring my laptop to the "computer officers" at a designated time so that they could scan my system for digital herpes. To make matters worse, they're probably not actually going to "approve" my IP address until next Wednesday.

Freshman (or "freshers") orientation just began last night. There are orientation events here like any other college, but they all involve drinking because 99% of the Freshman are over the legal age! All in all it's very bizarre. If colleges in the states had similar events, people would probably end up dead.

Brits have a more relaxed attitude toward drinking. They don't really "binge" like American college students do. Sure, a few people end up stumbling home at the end of the night, but nobody ends up passed out in a pool of their own...well...you know...

Also British keyboards are weird!