Welcome to Clare Hall

This morning I welcomed new students at my college, students who had just stepped off planes from Beijing, Vienna, Rome, Miami. They had huge suitcases and were really sweaty from carrying them across continents. I took them to their rooms and got to watch while they got super psyched about the Clare Hall balconies. We walked through the college to visit the bike racks and the laundry room and the dining hall and the bar. And I started to get just a little bit excited about the new school year.

Five years ago, when my family was living in London, we went to Cambridge as tourists on a randomly selected autumn Saturday - which turned out to be Move In Day for all the undergrads.

Mom in 2006 in front of CUP, which published her book! Note the reflection of both Kings College Chapel and me in the window...

That was weird foreshadowing of October 2008, when me and my worldly possessions (including my Mind the Gap keychain, but not including the Obama yard sign...) left Illinois to go be welcomed by a current student in Clare Hall.

Now - today and tomorrow, for £6.50/hour - I get to be the one who points out a student's pigeonhole and gets to watch while they frown and wonder what that means. I get to laugh with them at the crazy health and safety rules posted in their rooms. I get to give directions to the grocery store, and remind them to ride their bikes, once they buy them, on the left. When I explain how to sign up for dinner, they listen intently. It's really nice to feel like you know things that are useful... doesn't happen often in grad school. And next year, at this time, these new Clare Hallers will know everything I know and be just as psyched to share it with our new college-mates.