Hola! Howdy! Good-day! Hi! Bonjour! – Calling overseas and far far away!
- Genevieve (TH2016)
- Apr 6, 2017
- 2 min read
After a ‘late-night’ session of calling I feel surprisingly reinvigorated – enough so to sit down and write a blog post at 3am after having stayed up late to speak to Canadians and Americans, Trinity Hall alumni from ‘across the pond’! With Chinese take-away and a hilarious movie to bridge the gap between our usual evening calling session and the late-night hours, perhaps it’s no surprise that I feel so energised,
but tonight was particularly fun, and filled with good conversations.
Talking to American and Canadians is definitely different to talking to British or European alumni. For starters the accent is very different – something that I love and really enjoy listening to over the phone! Not only this, however, is different. Overseas students at Cambridge often had very diverse experience of our classical college. It certainly is a huge contrast from the more modern establishments of America and Canada, a very different city environment with a total culture-shock but also a time-warp effect. Not only have people travelled halfway around the world to study, many have also, effectively, travelled back in time to a beautiful, aged cityscape that lingers omnisciently in the halls of Trinity Hall and in the narrow pathways of Cambridge city.
As I talk to some alumni, they tell me of the far more modern establishments across Canada; others discuss the amazing architecture of Cambridge with the tone of genuine appreciation clear in their voices; whilst many also mentions the traditions of Cambridge that hover through the halls and tinge their time here with fond memories: May Balls, Matriculation, Graduation, formal dining, chapel service, rowing and boat-club involvement, supervisions, punting (with Pimms, of course!)…
We also discuss different ways that individuals can remain involved in Trinity Hall society and stay in touch with Cambridge University through gatherings abroad in their relevant states, through the Cambridge America Association, through returning to college for special events – such as the Black and White Ball this coming July in celebration of 40 years of female studies at Trinity Hall. Of course, for some, the dining rights are only elusively exercised but the idea of dining in hall, punting with the college punts, and staying in college accommodation certainly appeals ‘worth-the-while’ of such a long journey – especially if reuniting with old college friends, and family members en-route!
But the essence of conversation remains the same. Everyone remembers with happiness the friendliness and welcoming atmosphere of Trinity Hall – whether they came from abroad or not – alongside the beauty of the college, the incredible atmosphere of studying here, and the amazing support that it did, and still does, offer to each and every individual student. For all my callers from, or now living, overseas, the Cambridge ‘bubble’ appears to be the same: a bubble of fun, enjoyment and academia merged that is simply slightly further away for some, but in geographical distance alone, and not memory!
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