OK, it was raining "cats and dogs" in England this month but fortunately only at "the other place" so our graduation ceremony in Cambridge was actually pretty fun. Here only a couple of pictures that can be shown to the general public, according to decency and political correctness. Here we go, in chronological order:
On the way to the ceremony - well, to be honest, firstly we had a rehearsal in College. It sounds a little funny, but your college person (the Praelector, to be precise) really holds up her hand and points her four fingers to a row of four graduands, each of which holds one finger of her while she says something like "those guys
really deserve their degrees although you've seen them more down the pub than in the office" (ok, that's pretty damn close, but you can find the official version here:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/degrees/ceremony/). Then you go forward to kneel down in front of the Vice-Chancellor of the university, and she says basically "ok, if you think so, then so be it" (see link above for the precise wording). Not quite as impressive as the Harvard graduation I attended a few months back when a housemate graduated (and where also Bill Gates finally got his degree), but still nice and so
amazingly historic...
In front of the Senate House (where the degree was conferred), right after the ceremony - with my sister, Florian, myself in the middle, and Alex and Sania to the right. Glad they were allowed to get into the ceremony without a ticket, but the insider knows: Sania is wearing a gown from Trinity College (i.e., the richest, most famous, and the best college anyway) which gets you anywhere in Cambridge (might also have been her hair which bedazzeled the guy checking the tickets, but we will never find out).
A more or less official looking picture with my degree...
And punting the next day up and down the Cam. This was a really, really nice weekend back in Cambridge and I was glad I went there for the graduation. Thank you to everyone visiting me and spending time with me there, you made it a really good time for me!
On the way to the ceremony - well, to be honest, firstly we had a rehearsal in College. It sounds a little funny, but your college person (the Praelector, to be precise) really holds up her hand and points her four fingers to a row of four graduands, each of which holds one finger of her while she says something like "those guys really deserve their degrees although you've seen them more down the pub than in the office" (ok, that's pretty damn close, but you can find the official version here: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/degrees/ceremony/). Then you go forward to kneel down in front of the Vice-Chancellor of the university, and she says basically "ok, if you think so, then so be it" (see link above for the precise wording). Not quite as impressive as the Harvard graduation I attended a few months back when a housemate graduated (and where also Bill Gates finally got his degree), but still nice and so amazingly historic...
In front of the Senate House (where the degree was conferred), right after the ceremony - with my sister, Florian, myself in the middle, and Alex and Sania to the right. Glad they were allowed to get into the ceremony without a ticket, but the insider knows: Sania is wearing a gown from Trinity College (i.e., the richest, most famous, and the best college anyway) which gets you anywhere in Cambridge (might also have been her hair which bedazzeled the guy checking the tickets, but we will never find out).
A more or less official looking picture with my degree...
And punting the next day up and down the Cam. This was a really, really nice weekend back in Cambridge and I was glad I went there for the graduation. Thank you to everyone visiting me and spending time with me there, you made it a really good time for me!
