(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Reiss, I'm a fresher at Cambridge
and I'm here to take you on a tour.
Today I'm gonna take you down Trumpington Street.
I'm gonna take you around some of the colleges.
We'll go past Queens, we'll go past Caius.
And just for good measure,
we're gonna have some lunch as well.
Right now, we are a Grantor Place.
So at Grantor Place, you can either pop into a pub,
if you want a bev, or you can just come
and hang out with friends here.
We were just in Fitzbillies, which is basically
everyone's go to for a good cake and coffee.
I actually got you guys a toasty bun from there,
which they're really famed for.
(Hallelujah Chorus)
If you still want it.
I first heard about Cambridge through my secondary school.
They really encouraged some of us to apply.
Then I came on an open day to Corpus Christi in year ten.
I fell in love with it straight away.
Didn't know what I wanted to study,
didn't know what colleges were,
but I just knew that I wanted to be there.
Cambridge is split into collegiate system,
where the courses don't differ between different places,
but you're put into a specific hub or community
and that is called your college.
So for me, I am at Caius.
Caius is short for Gonville and Caius,
but if you call it Gonville and Caius,
then you're like an outsider.
I didn't actually pick Caius; I was pooled to Caius.
I originally applied to Downing.
The pooling system is basically,
if a college doesn't have space for you,
or they think that you would be a better fit
at a different college, then they'll put your application
into a pool and the other colleges are free to choose you.
Pooling isn't like not getting in.
It just means that Cambridge care about where you are
and they want you to be at the best college for you.
I think my favorite thing about Caius is
that they value eating together.
So all of us really really enjoy going to hall everyday,
sitting together, and having a chat.
It's not true that we don't have proper kitchens
at Cambridge.
It usually depends on your accommodations.
So, at Caius, we have hobs, fridges,
microwaves, toasters, all the fun stuff.
I've gotten quite involved in student life at Caius.
So I'm the freshers' rep,
which means I represent the first year
and organize freshers' week for the incoming freshers.
A marriage formal is basically like the officialization
of your college marriages.
And college marriages are basically,
you propose to someone in your year,
you become college married, and you get assigned
a fresher next year that you mentor.
So you have a lot of opportunity to meet people
outside of your college though, through your subject,
whether that be through lectures or through workshops.
So this term, I have classes on Cymbeline
with people from various colleges.
I study English literature.
I think the most interesting discussion I've had this year
was probably about the effect that
Donald Trump's had on LGBT rights.
And that was interesting because we were doing
medieval literature and somehow managed to make that work.
I think Cambridge has made me more academically brave.
I don't feel scared about saying what I'm interested in,
about picking specific themes even if they're different
than what everyone else is interested in.
And I feel like that's translated
into our personal lives, for a lot of us.
So I basically live with my bag.
Have a look inside.
I have my laptop, which is basically my life,
'cause it has my entire degree on it.
I have a play by Shakespeare called Cymbeline.
So this term's faculty workshops are about this
and it requires us to go through
and do something called glossing.
Not really sure what it is yet,
but I'm hoping that I find out today.
Got my umbrella, which is like a life-saver in Cambridge
because you never know when it's gonna rain here.
And I have a speaker because all good days require speakers,
so I keep this on hand just in case.
So we're gonna go past Queens and go to my accommodation.
Yeah there's like loads of small really pretty streets here.
Basically everywhere is an Instagram opportunity.
Over here is Queens College,
which is another college at Cambridge.
And then just next to it is some of the accommodation
for the students.
Because every college offers the same courses,
sometimes you'll be taught in different colleges.
Only because each college has like different teams
and pools of specialists in different fields.
All the first years live just over there,
so we'll go through there now and take a look.
So this is West Road, which is packed full of students so,
on your left here we have K Block,
which is a Caius accommodation
and I'll be living there next year.
Just past that, we have the Caius first year accommodation,
which is on the Harvey Court side.
Past that is Sidgwick, which is where I said
most of the lectures are, where the faculties are.
So my English literature faculty's there.
And if I go to English literature lectures,
I'll be in Sidgwick.
There's also a few cafés and a few places to work there.
So as you can see, this is the center of town.
Filled with tourists, which is quite annoying
when you're like, running to library,
but you'll learn that Cambridge
is just very famous for the tourists.
We'll take you down to Caius, which is just down there.
And then some of our accommodation opposite.
A lot of the colleges in the center of town
are quite near each other and it was a bit weird at first
because you think you're coming to a CE,
they'd be spaced out, but like literally,
Caius is there, and then two minutes down is Trinity.
And then if you walk for another five minutes,
you can find St. John's.
Senate House is just here and basically,
that building is used for graduations.
So, no matter what college you go to,
whether it be Queens or Kings,
this is the place that you come to to graduate.
So during your first moments as a freshers,
you will most likely come to this place here.
So the General Tailors Robemakers.
You'll go there for all of your Cambridge stash.
So if you want a Cambridge hoodie,
if you want a Cambridge bow tie,
don't know who would wear one,
but if you want one, they have the option.
Most of us though go there to get our gowns.
This actually is the Caius gown.
So what we'll go is, we'll go in and have a look
at the kind of gowns that students wear.
So usually you wear these to like formal events.
So for Caius, if you have a formal dinner going on
like Super Hall, which happens once a term
and you'll wear your gown on top of usually a suit.
These are most likely used for
different black tie events as well,
but specifically in college, if you go to something
like a ball, you won't have to wear gowns.
So these are mostly for college events.
(upbeat music)
This is Rose Crescent and Caius actually owns
most of this street which means that
we get the chance to live here,
either in our second or third year.
So there's this misconception that when you come
to Cambridge and you enter a college,
you'll live in the college the entire time.
While some colleges let you live onsite,
you don't spend your entire three years there typically.
So colleges like Girton will have accommodations,
but around Cambridge and Caius, for example,
allow you to live in the rooms
just above these shops and restaurants.
We're gonna go to a place called Gardi's,
which is our absolute favorite place in Cambridge.
They do the best kabob here.
There is some competition about
where you go after a night out.
You have the Van of Life, you have the Van of Death,
which is conveniently opposite the Van of Life.
And then, you have the Gardenia, which is our favorite.
So here we are, this is Gardi's.
They do probably the best honor in town,
the best kabab, but, most importantly,
they do the best chips that I've had here.
Hiya. - Hello.
- [Reiss] Can I have one serving of cheesy chips please?
- Yeah. - Thank you.
Oh, so you'll notice that, all along the walls of Gardi's,
you have photos of people that have come here.
So Gardi's is basically like a really nice community.
So whenever you come in, they'll like pop a picture of you
and then you'll get to be on the wall.
These are my cheesy chips.
I am honestly in bliss right now.
This is the highlight of my day.
(Hallelujah Chorus)
They're so good.
I'm so happy.
So that is the tour.
Thanks for joining me, I hope you enjoyed it.
I'm gonna go and finish these off,
so I'll see you around next time.
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