Wed2.915 Under the Kiwi Tree: Universities in Britain

Hello, everyone! How ya doing?

My schedule is getting busy for job hunting, and I'm sorry I can't attend this class tomorrow because of attending a business forum.

We researched universities in Britain, especially Oxbridge: University of Oxford, University of Cambridge. They have lots of differences from university in Japan. As the most interesting thing to me, I would like to write about "May Ball".

May Ball is one of the biggest festival, which is held by each collage of University of Cambridge. It is usually held in the middle of June every year after an examination term. Originally, they finished exam and got into a long vacation in May before, so that is why it is called May Ball. May Ball is a big party and it is very exciting, but remember it is also very formal and all participants have to wear evening dress or formal suits. Besides, the ticket will cost about ￡150. ( about 30,000 yen )

University of Cambridge has 32 collages, and students can join other collage's May Ball if they have tickets ( some collage already have a ticket pre-registration system for next ball, click HERE to have a look ). This year, 2009 is the 800th anniversary year of University of Cambridge, so each collage might have more exciting, traditional May Ball than before. Now, I would like to tell some pieces of Jesus collage's May Ball 2009.

Jesus collage's May Ball started at 9:00 pm on 15th June. They started it with drinking wines, and after dinner time they enjoy dancing, singing, drinking again, talking, watching performances etc.... Look at the picture below, this is a map of the Ball. If you go to a big one like Jesus collage's, you can enjoy a Ferris wheel and a go-cart, too. The May Ball ended at 6:00 am next day. Many students attend others' May Balls on other day, so they have a special ( kind of hard) week at the end of the academic year.