Expose on life in the Cambridge Bubble

Been six months now in Cambridge and while as a graduate I am somewhat out of the mainstream university life nevertheless have a bit of insight into what it is really like at Cambridge. Here are a few observations

1. The intellectual snobbery is seriously overbearing. Virtually everyone styles themselves as intellectuals and do not miss a single opportunity to display their "intelligence". A typical exchange I had recently:

Making small talk to a girl at a social dinner (the conversation moves onto literature)

Me; Yeah so what are you reading
Her: i'm reading the portrait of a lady by henry james… hardy said about james he has a "ponderously warm manner of saying nothing in infinite sentences" which is about right.
Me (thinking to myself…you and henry james have a lot in common…)

2. There is this odd obsession with rowing. I mean virtually everyone does it…why I have no iidea. Tried it for a term but gave up as getting up at 6am, breaking into a sweat and having dinner with girl rowers with bigger muscles than me is not my idea of fun

3. Cambridge students work far too hard the libraries are overpacked and the queues for vacation borrowing are a mile long

4. After a couple of weeks all the state school students and grammar school students have perfected a plummy accent and start wearing pashminas and leather brogues and rugby shirts with turned up collars and are virtually undistinguishable from ex public school boys

5. Virtually every student is bordering on alcoholiism. Formal halls and college bars are scary as the blood alcohol levels of the occupants are sky high.

: 04 Apr 2006 13:22 |  Comments (4) |  Report a problem