Tests and Distractions

First off, I need to apologize for taking so long on this blog. My excuse is that for the past two weeks, we’ve been slammed with papers and mid-terms galore. Normally, that probably wouldn’t be a problem, but I think we’ve all been spoiled here with the relatively light courseload and experience-centered classes. Real-life ‘studying’ isn’t something we’ve had to do a lot of in the past two months, so it was a pretty big slap in the face when we actually needed to get our butts in gear. We did, of course, and now that all that craziness is over, I find myself wanting to mostly laze about instead of accomplishing the things I let fall by the wayside during our frantic two weeks. But there are at least two things I need to tell you all about.

The first is that we had a visit from a rather interesting guy-from the second group of Valpo students to come to Cambridge back in 1968. He stopped by for our weekly common meal and we had a wonderful time discussing his career in law and all the experiences he had when he had been here in ’68. We loved asking him all sorts of questions. He told us the story of his favorite trip on the Continent, which involved a road trip through East Germany and Turkey, with all of the difficulties moving across the Iron Curtain with an American passport entailed at the time. He also told us about how interesting it was here in Cambridge. There was this one pub that

Our second dinner with Larry

was a hotspot for foreign students, some of whom apparently grew up to be incredibly influential anarchists or revolutionaries in their home countries. He told us about the styles of the time, about how you couldn’t go anywhere in Britain without hearing ‘Hey, Jude,’ and about how the people he was here with have become extraordinary individuals in their own right. We almost felt like we had a lot to live up to, after that–we’ve all got to make something of ourselves, after hearing about what an illustrious history this program has had. Larry came back the next day, planning to go get a pint at the pub down the street with Grant, but we forced him to stay for dinner again and tell us more about his current life. It turns out he works with law and human rights, which was really cool not only because of the subject matter but also because quite a few of us here are looking to pursue careers in a similar field. This discovery led to quite a few in-depth discussions on morality, ethics, and our plans for the future. All in all, it was a really interesting and valuable experience, meeting this man who was here, in our position, forty-odd years ago. I think it also pushed us to go out and experience as much as possible, so that we can someday tell stories about our trips and adventures with the same fondness as he did.

The other cool thing that we did to relieve our mid-term stress was our minor Halloween celebration. Because so many of us left for our second fall break this week, we decided to celebrate Halloween a week early with a Murder Mystery Dinner Party. It involved all of us dressing up as various fairy tale characters and sitting down to common meal with various individual goals in mind. About halfway through the night, after dinner, one of the characters was murdered, and we spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out who had the most motive for killing her. It really was a lot of fun, with each character having an intricate personality and distinctive goals that went beyond the commonly-known fairy tales. The characters involved were Prince Charming, Belle and the Beast, Snow White and a few dwarves, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella’s stepsister, Little Red Riding Hood (that was me!), Rapunzel, and one of the Three Little Pigs. It was really entertaining, but I was weirdly exhausted after we discovered the culprit, and I went to bed shortly thereafter. Perhaps it was a combination of the incredibly fun night and the stress of all the tests that made me so tired. I’m really thankful we have this break, not for travelling purposes but for recovery purposes. And the weather here in Cambridge has been so fantastic, it really feels like a vacation.

With gratefulness, spooky Halloween spirit, and love,

Bryn