The Cambridge Michaelmas Vacation: How to Fill the Void

We are now officially one third of the way through the academic year – which means only one thing, it’s the Michaelmas vacation. While this is a much-needed and welcome break, it can also be a strange time: 6 weeks away from Cambridge is a long time to fill!

Take a break

I know everyone has probably told you this, but that’s because it’s true – eight weeks of term is intense and draining, and you do need a proper break (yes even if you’re a finalist!). Have a few days off, watch some rubbish TV, do some baking, read a book, go on a fun day trip, whatever allows you to properly switch off.

A day trip to London to see the lights is always fun!

Catch up with friends from home

If you’re anything like me, the chaos of term means I often get too busy to properly stay in contact with friends from home. Unless they’ve had a chance to visit you in Cambridge (which I would highly recommend btw), you likely haven’t seen friends from home for a couple of months, meaning the holidays are an ideal time to catch-up and dissect the term just gone. It’s a chance to feel normal again, away from the bubble of Cambridge.

Phone eats first always…

Stay in touch with friends from Cambridge

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While in term I can be guilty of slightly neglecting my friends from home, while at home I can also be guilty of the reverse, and neglecting my friends from Cambridge. I always find it weird going from seeing my best friends from uni nearly every day to barely at all in the holidays, and it’s so important to try and stay in touch with them as best you can! Something that’s always great to do is facetime/zoom call and work together – catching up with friends and beating procrastination in one fell swoop.

Do some chilled-out work

Unfortunately there may still be deadlines, but away from the pressurised culture of Cambridge this is your chance to do some work at a slightly more leisurely and chilled-out pace, so take it! While you will inevitably have to do some work over the holidays, this is your chance to do it in your own way at your own time, outside of the rigid structure of the Cambridge term.

Working without the stress of others in the library 🙂

Reconnect with some old hobbies

Lack of societies and contact hours should (hopefully) give you some more free time to restart any old hobbies you haven’t had a chance to do during term-time. Personally, I’m going to try and get back into knitting – I have a hat to knit that I may or may not have started last year…

Relax – this is your time to

After all, this is a vacation and a break from Cambridge – so use it as one! I know it can feel like there’s pressure to use the holidays as a super productive time to catch up on all your work and get ahead for the next term, but taking a break and winding down a bit is so important, and will make you feel so much better for Lent term.