Second term in the country where snowdrops appear one month earlier

The first reason is that in fact I was not going to Cambridge for the first time any more, I was rather returning to Cambridge. I think that the eight weeks long terms and the six weeks long vacations in between are in a perfect ratio. Both time intervals are not long enough to make you homesick, but on the other hand they are long enough to make you look forward to returning to the other place. And this was exactly what my first couple weeks of the term were like – I was glad I am in my second home again.

The second reason why I enjoyed the second term more is that I already knew my ways around. I knew where and when to go to the lectures and supervisions, I knew my classmates and I knew when the societies, whose events are worth going, meet.

The third reason is purely academical. In the second term, we were able to start building our knowledge and skills on top of the things we have learned in the first term. That means the things we were studying this term were much of a greater intellectual challenge and hence they were usually fascinating and great fun.

I have also realized this term, how short the three/four years I am going to stay in Cambridge are. The time is relative. And in Cambridge it seems as if it is running 4.2 times faster than everywhere else. If you manage to forget turning your calendar for “one” day, once you realize it, seven days have passed already. And yet there are so many things to be done in Cambridge. One life is not enough to explore the vast amount of science, beauty and mystery which is hidden in Cambridge.

Another thing I have realized in greater detail this term is the unbelievable strength of the tradition Cambridge is building its success on. This tradition appears usually very silently in the form of an advise, suggestion or a rule that has been kept for couple of hundreds of years. These advises usually look rather banal (or even confusing) at the first look. However, every advise I have been given has proved to be very useful so far and it has been worth following. For instance, a piece of advise that we should keep one day completely free of school work each week has proven to be one of the best advices given in here. And watch out: two free afternoons are not the same thing as one completely free day. Free day has to be continuous, so that your mind knows “this day I won't have to do anything”. Or certain pieces of advise concerning the ways we ought to study or how to cope with the fact that you are suddenly average concerning the intelligence in here, etc.

The common dinners are another great tradition, I think. They force people to socialize, but just enough, not too much. Generally, the longer I am in Cambridge, the more I think that the college structure is just brilliant. It divides the students and actually also the teaching staff vertically (according to the subject or faculty) and also horizontally (according to the college).

I have finally got to know all the 31 Cambridge colleges this term. I have decided to go for a trip one Sunday and went around all the colleges and obtained a porters signature and a colleges stamp from each. It was a nice challenge and interesting trip for couple of reasons – firstly, I had to calculate the optimal (shortest) route to visit them all; secondly, it was very nice to see all the colleges and thirdly, it was naturally a nice trip – approximately 25 kilometers. Although, the biggest challenge was basically just to visit Homerton and Girton – two colleges which are very far from the city center and all the other colleges (that's why they are a target of a lot of jokes).

I am heading home in the next couple of days. I am slowly preparing myself for a big shock, as once one gets used to all the benefits of spring (such as nice weather, snowdrops, trees in blossom), it is hard to leave it behind and go back home, to negative temperatures and tons of snow.