We asked Cambridge students what they’re most excited about for Michaelmas 2020

The email from the University management on Tuesday was music to the ears of every Cambridge student and offer holder; after three months of quarantine with my family and socialising over Zoom (I’ll cry if I have to do another quiz), I would’ve sold my soul to return to Cambridge in October. To hear that I could do so and keep my soul felt like a dream come true – cue me and my friends planning out every minute of Michaelmas 2020 on the group chat. But what are Cambridge students most excited for in returning to Cambridge?

“Being reunited with friends”

Zoom quizzes just don’t curate the same good vibes

Obvious, yet unavoidable. Unless you’ve been blessed with a large family who you get on with incredibly well, quarantine has deprived us of human contact. Your unintentional losing contact with sixth-form friends has well and truly back-fired, meaning even when you can see friends from a two-metre distance, you can’t reach the six-person limit even if you wanted to. 

In the midst of essay crises, circuit laundry breakdowns (from both me and the machine) and nights out we can’t *quite* remember, many of us made friends in Cambridge who are now sprawled all over the country, or the world, and we can’t wait to be reunited and get back to those 4am DMCs we’ve missed so dearly. 

“Wearing my college puffer jacket”

POV: you walking into Mainsbury’s any day during term-time | Photo credits: Jimmy Shixin Yu

The best £28 investment of my Cambridge life and oh how I miss being greeted by 100 identical black jackets every time I enter Mainsburys. As friends from home have often pointed out, they’re not actually *that* nice and yet we’re all addicted to them – and let’s be honest they’re great for crushbridging purposes.

“Being able to have sex again”

I mean, at least someone’s being honest. And, on a more site-specific note, “make mighty and lusty love in the UL”. If its phallic architecture makes you want to participate in desperate liaisons in the stacks, you do you sweetie!

“Watching the sun coming up whilst rowing”

Skipping a warm-up to take pretty photos at sunrise? YEAH Churchill W2

If anything proves rowing is a cult it’s the large amount of answers I received saying how excited they were to row. See “Rowing”, “Rowing again”, and “The sun coming up while rowing”. What is it with rowers and getting up early / reminding everyone else that they’re rowers? Some of us don’t have the stamina and have been enjoying our new lifestyle of one walk per week :((

“The vegan brownie in the UL tearoom”

Food featured almost as much as rowing (the duality of man?), including the cakes from George’s Bakery (Instagram above, would crawl my 150 mile way to Cambridge for a cookie dough cup rn). Honourable mentions go to “welsh rarebit”, “hashbrowns from Hall” and “cheesy chips”. 

“Rocking up to Hall at six and leaving two hours later”

I honestly feel this spiritually

And in the spirit of the above, I’ve not had one of those “Lunch at 12?” messages for three months and I’m suffering from withdrawal symptoms.  The closest I get is my mum shouting through the door that dinner’s ready, and it’s just not the same :((

“Scoffing chips from the Van of Life after a night out”

Honourable mention. I’m not sure how excited they are to interact with hordes of drunk students demanding cheesy chips with student discount at 3am again but I hope they’re doing okay x 

“Spending all week trying to get a ticket for Wednesday Cindies”

I *wish* I could recall what was being gossiped about here but it looks spicy

Babes, I hate to break it to you but I don’t think that this one is happening. While you might be dreaming of “Cultivating BNOC status in smoking areas”, “watching friends get pied in smoking areas” and “Going to Cindies and spending the whole time in the smoking area” – can you spot a trend? – it’s unlikely that we’ll be back in Cindies in Michaelmas. But to be honest, at this point I’ll take doing socially distanced tequila shots on Churchill’s massive playing fields.

“Checking my pidge twice a day even though I haven’t had post all term”

Honestly a 10/10 humbling experience. Nothing knocks you down a peg or two than realising not even your mum misses you enough to send a card. If there’s post in your pidge, let’s be real it’s because you ordered something online in the name of self-care. 

“Getting back on my bike”

Do not recommend this unless you fancy bruising your legs on a bollard

Idk what’s got into all of you but apparently everyone’s missing cycling, and specifically “cycling over orgasm bridge again and having that two second moment where you turn your head and see the sunset over Clare bridge”? Personally, I’m always out of breath and terrified of bumping into tourists at this point, and the thought of not having to face the five-minute cycle to Sidge every morning has already made second year 5 x better (I swear both ways feel uphill) but each to their own I guess. 

Silly freshers

Before I even knew what “down it fresher” meant

“Having submitted my last essay six days ago I can revel in the fact that I am no longer a silly fresher and I am well-prepared to berate this year’ intake.”

Apparently the excitement of being able to chant “down it fresherrrrrr” is proving too much for some students, whilst another student commented that she’s excited to “see all the Freshers who don’t know how to cycle, wobbling about on their bikes”. This is a thought which has a) filled me with dread about how I must have looked last October dismounting my bike every time I needed to cross the road and b) has filled me with a sadistic excitement to watch others go through my struggles. 

On a less cruel note, there was a resounding enthusiasm for college children. If my future offspring are reading this, don’t worry friends, because the Tab is having another round of recruitment in October x

And now the countdown’s on until the beginning of Michaelmas 2020 (anyone else set a countdown on their phone yet, or is that just me?). Take me back to Mainsbury’s, and my mates <3

All image credits to author unless otherwise specified