I believe that any place worth going will have at least one "must do." For example, I believe that any of the Smithsonian Museums, the Washington Monument, and the Udvar-Hazy Center are all "must do's" for the Washington, DC area. In fact, that is only just scratching the surface. In Charlottesville, one must visit The Corner, get Bodo's for breakfast, and take a walk on the Downtown Mall. As they say in England, "it's the done thing." As a student at Cambridge, there is one obvious "must do" before this brief and exceptional time passes: one must attend a May Ball. If one is to do this correctly, as well, one must use all one's influence and connections to attend the best of the May Balls: the Trinity May Ball.
Judging by the timestamp on this post, either I am writing this much after the fact, or Cambridge is being weird. As ever, it is the latter. In Cambridge, "May Week" is the week after the end of exams. This week is chock-full of a variety of celebrations and parties to allow the students to release a little steam following the hell of their exams. Some colleges, Trinity Hall being one of them, offer a more informal affair called a June Event. We attended this in 2008. A June Event is kind of like an all-night grad party, though with slightly greater resources and on a marginally bigger scale. Many friends who we have spoken with have compared it to prom and are not far from the truth. Expecting this to be our last year in Cambridge, and also near to my 25th birthday, we decided instead to shoot for the moon and attend a May Ball.
What is a May Ball? For the textbook definition, check out the Wikipedia article. It is a party unique to the colleges of the University of Cambridge. Calling it a "party," though, hardly does it justice. It is the closest that those of us who don't have diplomatic careers in our future will get to attending official state functions or other similarly pompous affairs. More importantly for me, it was an opportunity to wear full-formal evening wear and a chance for Jackie to dress up really pretty.
How did we score tickets? Surprisingly, getting tickets was easy for us. Our friends were more than happy to ballot on our behalf. Transferring the tickets was a breeze, as well. Being in Cambridge for three years definitely improves one's abilities to work connections.
Some highlights of the evening:
- A punt full of champagne. Not cheap stuff, either. They served champagne continuously from 9pm to 5am and didn't run out.
- All you can eat oyster bar. That works for some people.
- A tent full of North/East African food. Yum.
- Bumper cars, swings, and bungee bouncing.
- Single-malt whisky tasting. Glenlivet 18 and 21 y/o. Wow.
- The most spectacular fireworks extravaganza I've seen this side of July 4th. 15-20 minutes of awesomeness.
- BBQ pork sandwiches with stuffing and apple sauce. Yum.
- A full-service bar that made awesome cocktails at 100 mph (or something not to far off that pace).
- Jazz, swing, rock, dance, blues, folk, and ethnic music. What?
- ABBA UK: the UK's official ABBA cover band. Old enough to be your parents...
Going to May Ball is absolutely a Cambridge "must do" and we are so thankful that we had the opportunity to do so. It was everything we expected and so much more. We had a wonderful time with another American couple with whom we spent the evening. It was like attending a grown-up prom, but much better than that sounds. We're already talking about saving up money for next year...
