First day of class

Too tired to recount everything in complete sentences, so here is a numbered list of everything that happened today!
1) Welcome Speeches in the Cambridge Union Society Debating Chamber, with academic, health, and safety information (and a few cracks about the "colonists" coming back to the "motherland" on this particular day in July!). The CUS is the second oldest society at Cambridge, and holds debates with incredibly controversial figures and topics, "always on the razor's edge of legality". The presidents of CUS often go on to be very influential members of Parliament, prime ministers, etc. Ariana Huffington was the president of the Cambridge Union Society!
2) King's College info session in which we met the chaplain, head porter, IT person, and disciplinarian (although a historian of modern Russia in the Stalinist period, he assured us he does not share Stalin's theory of discipline!).
3) King's College Library tour, where we do all our printing and the course books are on reserve. It's an inviting, sunny space that I anticipate doing lots of work in from now on!
4) Bought a notebook, sticky notes, and colored tabs in Ryman's, the local stationary store, and then went to H&M and Zara with Partow to help her look for a dress for formal halls.
5) First Gothic Architecture class! The professor is hilarious and has taught at Cambridge for 30 years, so the entire experience of the class should be amazing. Already learned a lot about where Gothic fits into the history of architecture and its specific, unique features. Lots of field trips to the various chapels and churches of Cambridge, as well as Ely Cathedral coming up!
6) Took a nap (still incredibly jetlagged).
7) Formal Hall in cocktail attire at Queen's College. Drinks (white wine and juice) served on the lawn for an hour and half (we were running so late because the waiters were "being silly", according to the irate man who took our PKP picture from a second story window), followed by caesar salad, New York steak, and apple pie. Possibly a tacit nod to the Fourth of July despite the remarks earlier in the day? ;)

A few more photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnahorning/sets/72157627116940852/

Bridge over River Cam in the morning

Cambridge Union Society Debating Chamber

King's College Library