Settling in

I arrived at Pembroke College on Saturday, fabulously sleep-deprived. After getting my keys from the porters (who were extremely helpful and chipper) and fetching my mail from my "pigeonhole," I hauled my luggage up a narrow spiral staircase to my room. At the base of the staircase, there was a sign hand-painted with our names and room numbers.

D staircase inhabitants

You get a scholar's room if you made first marks on last year's exams (or if, like me, you happen to be a Roger Williams Scholar). The scholar's rooms are full of Asians. I'm not even kidding. Check the names next to rooms 11-16.

My room turned out to be quite spacious! It's the size of two large Brown dorm singles stuck together, with a door in between. One part of my room serves as the study room and living room; the other part is a bedroom with a sink. I can see where they boarded up an old fireplace. What's awesome is that this room is the best university accommodation I've lived in so far, and yet it's cheaper than Brown dorms (about $4000 for the entire academic year, after converting from pounds to dollars). I didn't take any photos of the room interior yet, since it looks like... well, like I just moved in. I'll put up photos soon.

Here are the views from my two windows:

Old Court buildings

Looking over the Old Court green

I've never had the problem of having too much furniture at Brown, since the rooms I've had always tended to skimp on things like bookcases. My Pembroke room, on the other hand, has more furniture than I know what to do with. There's a huge bookcase built into the side of one wall, and it partially extends around another side of the room. The bedroom closet was large enough to store all of my clothing, and then some. One entire dresser is completely empty because I didn't need it. The room also came with three tables: a large desk, a medium desk, and a small coffee-table. I also have three chairs.

Of course there are downsides to my room. First, I have to travel another staircase's bathroom to use their shower. The bathroom for my staircase has only a bathtub sans shower. Second, I have to walk outside over to another court to use their laundry facilities. My building is so goddamn old (built in 1347) that there's no way to install a laundry room. The communal kitchen leaves something to be desired. They also turn off the heat at 10:30 PM, presumably to be kind to the environment. It doesn't get that cold at night though.

So far, I've met a few other study-abroaders at Pembroke. There's one guy from CalTech (who also happens to be in Part II Neuro) and two people from the University of Michigan.

I've been insanely busy these last few days, so I don't have much time for lengthy blog posts. However, I will do my best to touch upon these topics in future posts:

• Pembroke food (absolutely FANTASTIC by the way)
• Matriculation
• Differences in teaching
• The drinking culture (I've had more alcohol in the last 3 days than I usually have in 2 months)
• More photos, I promise

Pembroke College seal