Chapter 7

So there Andrew was at the Great Gate to Trinity College, unloading Tony’s car, along with several other people all doing the same thing. He grabbed the computer box having slung the backpack over his shoulder and set off, Maggie had the suitcase and followed along behind. The porter’s only question was to confirm that he wanted Trinity College, Andrew presumed there had been instances of students arriving at the wrong College, before directing him to the Students Union Help Desk off to the side of the gate in the Great Court. Despite being laden down with stuff Andrew stopped for a second and took in the scene, smiling at the thought of facing this every day. He got Maggie a spot out of the chaos and left her there with all the luggage. The help desk was staffed by several students all wearing the same bright coloured tee-shirts, that year it was yellow but it changed every year. They were enthusiastic and welcomed Andrew to Trinity and pointed him in the direction of the College offices where he would collect his room key as part of a welcome pack from the University. He was told to come back over once he had his key and someone would show him how to get to his room. So Andrew, like so many other obedient sheep, walked over to the office, waited in a queue that moved surprisingly quickly and was soon giving his name to one of the bursar’s staff. He was handed the key for Room B5 in Angel Court, and sent on his way with a large envelope of information. Just before Andrew left, the lady dealing with him confirmed there was a 6’8” bed in the room as he was taller than the standard bed which was 6’4”. He thanked her and was on his way. Once back at the help desk a chatty Portuguese guy named Rafael came to show him the way to the room. He took the suitcase from Maggie, so she just walked along with Tony, looking about. Tony had found some parking and returned by this point and the two of them followed Andrew trying to take in everything. Rafael led them over to the South East corner of Great Court and through into Angel Court. They walked across the small open space, the court, through a door opposite, up a flight of stairs and along ‘B’ corridor to room 5. Andrew opened the door and entered his home for the next year, a reasonable sized room looking out onto Trinity Street. Rafael placed his suitcase on the bed, reminded Andrew to head over to Nevile’s Court to get his gown and other Fresher Week essentials, and then left them to it. Maggie took it upon herself to immediately unpack the suitcase and hung up Andrew’s two new suits, several shirts and then worked her way through the rest of the clothes. He placed the few non clothes items on the shelves and they were done. That took all of 20 minutes, so other than setting up the computer they could wander round. Andrew would do the computer later so they headed back out.

Andrew would do the mundane scoping out once Maggie and Tony had left, check out the corridor, find the shared bathroom facilities, all that sort of thing. Instead they walked back through to Great Court and stood along the South side taking in the scene. There was a steady flow of people arriving and going through the same routine as Andrew had just completed, one or two on their own, most with parents and even siblings there. He did notice an interesting thing in that he appeared to be the lightest packer so far. There were some people with piles of stuff; bags stacked on top of bags and cases of stuff. And it was not gender based either, a couple of guys seemed to be the worst he saw. But as you watched the trail of people and the dynamic of parents and children it was also clear that most of the people with a ton of stuff looked hen-pecked, the mothers in particular ruled the roost. Maggie spotted the difference in luggage.

“Do you think you brought enough stuff Andrew?”

“I will be fine. That was one of the things I talked with Lord Barnes about last week. He went through all this with his daughter Moira two years ago. He emphasised the point to pack lightly, Moira brought back half her stuff unused at Christmas. I have my athletic clothes, some warm clothes and a couple of suits for formals. If I need anything else then I am in the lucky position of being able to get it. I would rather go and buy two items that I forgot than have, hell look at that guy, what does he have, seven suitcases and stuff on top. Not for me, I am not afraid of doing laundry and will be fine.”

Maggie smiled.

“Come on then, show us round, can we go and see the Chapel?”

The Chapel was world famous and very beautiful, sitting in the North East corner, opposite where we were standing watching the world. So they walked across the Court to the porch and into the ante-chapel. There are six statues in the ante-chapel including one of Trinity’s most famous alumnus, Sir Isaac Newton. It was a five minute visit but both Tony and Maggie walked through the whole chapel. Andrew knew they weren’t religious, it was more just soaking up part of the Cambridge experience. Once done they stood outside in the late summer sun watching the crowds of people in Great Court. There was now a lot of people milling around the gate and waiting at the helpdesk, the queue at the bursar’s office was out the door, although it was still moving well. Like the three of them, there were lots of new Freshers wandering around nearly all with trains of family in attendance. Andrew smiled at the scene, so many people all in the same situation.

“Let’s escape some of these first day crowds.”

Andrew walked with them back round the Court and through into Nevile’s Court where the next stage of this drawn out first day was to be played out. There was a huge marquee in the centre of Nevile’s Court which he would need to visit to buy his gown and other essentials for the next five days. But Andrew ignored that for the moment and instead carried on through and out on the Backs, the grounds that abut the Cam as it flows past the College. There are all sorts of insane rules about which grass you are allowed to walk on, no seriously, so they stayed to the paths and walked down to the river.

“It is beautiful here Andrew, so lovely. It is sort of how I imagined it. All these old buildings, it is pretty intimidating. I am glad we took the time off and came down to see it. Show me on the map where we are now and where you are going to be studying.”

Andrew pointed out to Maggie where Trinity was in relation to the centre of the town and how the Department of Engineering was about a kilometre south of Trinity. Andrew thought the two of them might stay for lunch but they wanted to get going.

“We are going to head back north and spend the night at Scarborough, break the journey there. It will also let you get settled and maybe meet some of the other first years.”

“Don’t you want to stay for lunch? It is a long way to come and only be here an hour.”

“We know but we had eight hours chatting to you yesterday.”

Andrew didn’t push them too hard. They were trying to hide it but he got the sense they were uncomfortable with their surroundings. So they walked back through the College towards Great Court. As they passed the marquee Andrew asked them to wait for a second. The two people selling robes weren’t phased that Andrew wanted to buy a gown for his ‘sister’ and so two minutes later he returned with the robe in a carrier bag.

“This is for you.”

Maggie peered in the bag.

“What is it?”

“It is a gown. You can show Tony what a Cambridge University student wears under her gown.”

Maggie blushed but laughed and Tony roared with laughter.

“You turned up when you were 12. I could claim that it was me that helped you develop this dirty mind but the truth is it is all your own. I never would have thought of that. Do you go through life thinking about what you can use next as a prop to get Maggie naked?”

Andrew pondered for a moment.

“Yes.”

It was the perfect send off. The two of them had relaxed and Andrew knew that Maggie would be modelling for Tony that evening, whether he had a camera or not.

“Thank you for bringing me down. I will see you in December. Safe journey home.”

He was engulfed in a hug from Maggie, shook Tony’s hand and with a final smile and wave they were off. Andrew smiled before turning and heading back to the marquee. Down one side there were tables set up where various items were being sold, mostly prominently gowns. The gowns were what was known as academic dress, and were needed for each student’s matriculation photograph, one of the things that would happen on Monday. The students also had to wear them at a limited number of other occasions or events but they are essential for them. Andrew would need them for matriculation, and graduation if he got that far, and would need them for Formals. Formals were the sit down dinners held in the Hall which as the name suggests were more formal than the standard dinner. There were three every week for undergraduates on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and were held after the ‘normal’ or standard dinner. You had to wear your gown, and a suit, to the Formals. All of this meant that you had to buy a gown.

Andrew ran the gauntlet of the various tables. He started with the gown, for himself this time, and then worked his way down the various other tables. Most of the rest were for events run by the Students Union or the College itself. As far as Andrew could tell, he would be able to attend these at the last minute by paying at the door but he embraced student life and bought tickets for all sorts of things, including bowling and a barbecue and a few others. Once that was dealt with it was time to start talking to his fellow students. There was coffee and some kind of cake but he decided that trying to shake hands while holding both a cup and plate was a beginner’s error so just took the coffee. It was like all of life, some were quiet and hard work to get much conversation out of, some were loud and self-absorbed and thus avoided as much as possible, some were sporty and gave the impression that they were there to play sport as opposed to study, some wanted to be the next Monty Python. But a lot were like Andrew, going to a good university trying to figure out what they wanted from life. His attraction to Indian girls found Andrew the first person on his corridor. He wandered up to a woman from an obviously Indian background and introduced myself. She wasn’t plain more withdrawn, remote.

“Hi, I’m Andrew.”

Not so much mister smooth.

“Hello Andrew, I am Navya, Navya Rai. Nice to meet you.”

The next 10 minutes were painfully awkward, the sounding out of backgrounds, courses and all that stuff. It was hilarious in a proctological sense but they managed to get the basics out of the way. Navya was reading Natural Sciences with an aim to specialise in Physics. Her parents had moved to Britain from India before she was born and she grew up and went to school in London. Phew, one down only 200 more to go. They found a seat, she was all of 5’2” and so conversation while standing was absurd. Andrew cracked a joke about something and they managed to relax and then the conversation started to flow much more smoothly.