May, June, Male Body Parts, and Moldy Bookish Joys

Today, while doing a photo shoot for St. John’s College’s new website, I saw some students walking around with fake penises.

They were practicing a pantomime, something classical and Greek and pointing back to those days when comedy went hand-in-hand with genitals. The students had chosen a secluded rose garden. The photographer, unfortunately, had done the same.

“…So I’m going to try to snap these pictures -without- getting man bits in the background,” the photographer murmured.

While he snapped photos, we could hear the students practicing the same line: “We already have hard-ons!”

…It was interesting.

Photoshoot for SBR Committee

The scene pretty much summarizes my life as of late: unexpected, amusing, fascinating, sunny. And very, very Cambridge.

Cambridge is a funny place to be in May and June.

Last year, outside, sunshine

In May, the entire university shuts down. Students tuck into dark corners. They tuck into libraries. They tuck into old books with greek handwritten footnotes (true story) and dribbles of greek food (also, unfortunately, a true story).

In June, everyone reemerges. The weather is suddenly better. Exams are finished. Students remember to smile. There are garden parties, evening parties, parties held on grassy stretches of Cambridge land while girls frolic in pretty dresses and delicate heels, and men lounge in ruffled shirts and black jackets.

Pentathlon Garden Party

People go up and down the river with picnics in punts, drinking this weird mixture called Pimms and nibbling strawberries.

June is a lovely time.

So it is that I’ve been tucked away, hidden behind books and in a dusty library corner. I would surround myself with text after text. I had fourteen binders full of paper. I think they are still there, those binders, still piled into the corner of the library; after my last exam, I couldn’t bring myself to go and collect them.

“Don’t worry. We’ll have a bonfire out at the farm,” my friend Z promised me.

“Really?”

“…could do.”

SBR Committee

So now I’ve finished, written my last Cambridge exam, those long three-hour horrors that have questions like: “Can politicians be honest?” or “How do we answer the question, ‘what is equality?’”

It’s all over.

I’ve accepted a job working for Epoch PR, a London-based PR firm that does a lot of corporate/business/think tank/policy stuff. I’ll be a Junior Account Executive starting July 11.

July 11th is soon.

I only graduate June 30th.

I’ve also been busy with small tidbits of random life. I wrote another post for USA Today’s College blog, a post which became the most popular and has remained that way now for two days. The title? “Ten Things US Students Could Learn from Cambridge Students.” I wrote it on the day of my last exam, post-essay, pre-celebration, when my eyes felt like they were going to crawl from my head and dance on the keyboard.

It made me remember how much I love writing.

And now?

Now I get to enjoy Cambridge. I am sighing into the last savory days of student freedom, enjoying the events, the mixers and minglers and socials. I am reacquainting myself with all the friends I forgot when I was hidden beneath mounds of knowledge.

Pentathlon Annual Dinner

I am getting ready for the St. John’s College May Ball, the ball that was listed as the Seventh Best Party in the World by TIME Magazine. I am cooking cupcakes for the Pentathlon garden party. I am laying in the sun and reading Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Life is good.

Especially when it’s unexpected.

 

 

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