I am currently working at Pembroke College on the Nihon Summer Lecture Programme. I have a lovely little room, in a lovely little house, on a lovely little lane just to the side of College.
The past couple of days I have been working with the wonderful team of people you can see pictured below, sorting out rooms and groups, schedules, timetables, social activities, facts for tours of Cambridge and lots of other things. It has been a great time of getting to know the team and getting excited ahead of all that is happening over the next few weeks on the Nihon Special Lecture Programme 2016. It is a particularly great year to be working because it is the 25th anniversary of the first time this programme was run. Because of this, we have the theme ‘Treasured Memories’.
I am really enjoying the time here so far. Pembroke College and the rest of Cambridge is absolutely beautiful. This morning all the Programme Assistants ate brunch together in Pembroke College’s hall, before an afternoon of preparation for the students who arrived this evening. The students arrived at 7.20pm in the evening, and we got to spend time with our groups – showing them to their rooms, eating a welcome buffet and then giving a tour of the college. I then taught my group the games ‘Jungle Speed’ and ‘The Great Dalmuti’ which was a lot of fun. All of the students in ‘Team Rachel’ are absolutely lovely. They are being incredibly patient and kind as I pronounce their names incorrectly, and I cannot wait to get to know them more.
All in all, as you have probably already worked out, I am so excited for this next week. I’m really looking forward to eating breakfast with everyone tomorrow, doing the first day of lectures and activities, and the quiz that is happening in the evening. I know the rest of the week is also going to be a lot of fun – there are plans to go punting, play croquet, visit museums and the botanical gardens, take a day trip to London on the Saturday and then Sunday will be a ‘church with Rachel’ day for all the students that want to come!
Bring on tomorrow!
thejoyofrachel 
Wow, that looks like fun! Fantastic school too! What are you studying or what degree are you working on?
LikeLike
Hi Joel! In term-time I study philosophy towards a BA degree at a different college (Newnham) at the same university (The header of my blog is a segment of a photo looking out over my college). Right now it’s summer and I have a job working with students from Nihon University who have come over to Pembroke College for a summer school where they are studying a variety of things. Hope that makes sense!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so cool! Philosophy is a good field to study, I wish I had more time to study it myself! A good friend and I regularly have arm chair philosophic and theological conversations over coffee 🙂
LikeLike
Have you studied any classical Greek works? Or studied Koine Greek as a language?
LikeLike
This year I studied Plato’s Meno, and this next year I will be studying Plato’s Republic. I really like the ancient Greek philosophers so I hope to do more! However, I haven’t studied Greek…
LikeLike