Matriculating at Cambridge
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Matriculating at Cambridge

By Maddie

I’ve decided to skip past blogging the rest of my travels before my term abroad, since this is now my 3rd week at Cambridge! Caltech has study abroad programs with 6 different universities: Cambridge, UCL (University College London), Edinburgh, École Polytechnique, DTU (Danish Technical University)/KU (Copenhagen University), and University of Melbourne.

Cambridge is really unique in that it still holds a lot of tradition, so there are various rules like not stepping on the grass and wearing a gown to formal dinners. Below is a picture of my college, Corpus Christi! It’s the second smallest college, and I matriculated with the class of incoming freshers, which was only 82 people.

I arrived a few days before Matriculation, so I spent that Friday and Saturday settling in, buying linens for my bed, shampoo, conditioner, etc, and walking around town! It’s so different from California, where I’ve lived all my life, that it was quite surreal for the first week. Not only is the architecture different, but it’s sowalkable. I love it; it’s so much more convenient and so nice to just go outside, walk for 5 minutes, and be somewhere that isn’t the middle of suburbia.

On Sunday, we had Matriculation. In the photo below, we’re all lining up, in formal wear with our gowns on, to take our group matriculation picture. During the ceremony, which is conducted partially in Latin, we sign two books – one for the University of Cambridge, and one for Corpus Christi College. Now I’m members of both institutions for life! It’s quite amazing, and I feel really lucky to be able to experience it even though I’m only here for a term :)

A slightly closer (too close) look at what a gown looks like! This was taken during our very exciting Fire Safety talk before the Matriculation ceremony. Each college has a slightly different gown. For example, we have velvet strips running down the lapel, while other colleges don’t.

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