Omens & T-shirts

I haven't bought a pen in the UK. Really.
This is not a sign of my computer dependence, but rather a reflection of my bank's free pen policy... I just get another one every time I walk by. This may sound cheap and wasteful, but these pens are AWESOME and they never run out of ink... until this week. 9 months of perfect pen performance, and TWO of my beloved Barclays freebies quit working this week.
It must be time to go home.

But first...
Post-deadline, post-exam time at Cambridge is amazing. There are two weeks of city-wide partying, with all-night-long "May Balls" held different colleges every night (with pricey tickets often over £100... wow). Because I'm not a huge fan of ballgowns or spending £100, I went to a May Ball not as a partyer but as a performer!

The Cambridge University Ceilidh Band plays Scottish folk music, but doesn't the stage make us look like a rock band? Our gig was from 2:30-4:30AM, but the sleepy, drunk May Ballers still danced sweaty, spinning ceilidh in their formalwear! It was amazing.

When students aren't sleeping off the previous night's May Ball, the suddenly beautiful summer weather pulls us into the sunshine for lounging and constant picnics, with staples like British strawberries and the traditional summer alcohol, Pimms and lemonade.


Ideally, you also wear a straw boater hat. And you NEVER drink Pimms out of a can... unless you're an ugly American like my friend and me in this picture.

Once I got sick of partying and started to miss learning (which, embarrassingly, didn't take very long), I joined the Cambridge Hands-On Science Roadshow! CHaOS for short, this student group brings interactive science experiments/demonstrations to different UK schools during a month-long summer "tour." Kids love our exploding, sticky, things-they-can-touch science stuff, and the Cambridge students really know their science info and are great explainers. I was a little nervous about spending 4 days with Cambridge science students, and they didn't really know what to make of a historian of science... the first day, we divided up the experiments according to our subjects- so the chemists did electrolysis, the biochemists explained DNA, the medics (= premeds!) showed anatomy models, etc. UK students are very specialized, so they know A LOT about their specific subject area though they don't take classes in other subjects. When it was my turn, the organizers weren't sure what to do with my interdisciplinary broad-but-not-deep education... so they said, "Well, can you build bridges?"
Bridge-building... the liberal arts of science?

CHaOS leaders (in our cool uniforms) designing cantalever bridges... it's harder than it looks!

So I spent my tour days building arch, cantalever, and suspension bridges with 7-14 year olds. And it was SO FUN. And at night we camped. Science, school, goofy and genius companions, and CAMPING?! This was my idea of heaven.

A view from our campsite a few miles from Cambridge, with Kings College Chapel and the University Library visible in the distance!

A week of CHaOS (haha...) was followed by a week of the Darwin Festival, the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birthday. The festival was a conference attended by over 1000 people every day-- a conglomeration of the public, scientists, artists, and just about everyone who does the history of science. From being CHaOS's weird historian outlyer, I was suddenly in my element.

I, along with 150 others, was a conference volunteer. That meant I poured coffee and served lunch for 3 days, in exchange for free entry to some conference talks and events. AND I got a cool uniform... although frankly I'm not a fan of the question mark as a symbol of Darwin.

It was just amazing to be surrounded by people whose books I've read, whose articles I've lost sleep over... they are celebrities in a small pond of history-of-science fans, but it was a jaw-dropping experience for a small fish like me to serve coffee to Dame Gillian Beer, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins... David Attenborough even gave a speech at one event!

On Thursday my parents arrive for graduation. It is unbelievable that my time in Cambridge, my masters degree, and my expat adventure are over. So... thanks to a good grade on my thesis and a pair of generous funders, I've signed on to stay. During the next three years of fun in the history of science, I'll work to become an unemployable PhD but, more immediately, I'll work for academic nirvana.

As the Brits say:

Thrilled to remain, yours,
with kindest regards,
CAITLIN IN CAMBRIDGE