Magdalene Reunion Dinner

Dinner by candlelight in hall

Although it is hard to believe, I matriculated at Magdalene College nearly 10 years ago, and so this evening was to be our 10-year reunion dinner.  Unfortunately many of my favourites weren't going to be there, but still a few people I knew were going, so I'd signed up to go join the crowds.

After work, I got the train up to Cambridge, and grabbed a cab up to Magdalene, noting with humour that there were many people in black-tie in the taxi queue, something that is sooooo Cambridge!

Dinner setting

I checked in at the porter's lodge, where I ran into my friend Doro quite by chance (since we matriculated in the same year, she was back up as well), and then we went over to Cripps court to find our rooms.  I had planned on meeting a German guy that I used to share a house with at this event, and got a pleasant surprise when I ran into him in the lobby.

Dinner menu

He came with me to check out my room (as the whole place had been built after we were students there), and then he left me to finish doing my make-up, promising to meet me at the drinks reception.

More of the old crowd at dinner

At the drinks reception, I did a double-take when I realised that the former Archbishop of Canterbury was just hanging out drinking with us, but then I remembered that indeed, he was our new college Master.  Still, very surreal to see this guy you see on the television all of the time just standing a few feet away having drinks with you.

Across the tables at dinner

We walked through the Fellow's Garden to get into hall for dinner, picking our way through the puddles as it was raining outside.  In at dinner, I was a bit annoyed to realise I had a blank spot next to me at dinner given that my friend Sophie had cancelled her trip from Switzerland at the last minute.  I always hate empty seats next to me at dinner, it is truly one of my pet peeves.

With my German Housemate

Still, even though I was mostly therefore relegated to talking to my old German Housemate, I was surprised at how easy it was to talk to him.  We laughed and told lots of stories, and he even filled me in on some gossip from our student years of living together that I hadn't known about.  I'd always known that our little college was quite incestuous (I'm forever grateful that quite a few tales of my own indiscretions do not seem to have ever come to light), but even I was surprised by some of the stories he had to tell.

Tristan at dinner

The student elected to give the after-dinner speech did a truly great job, as he talked about how privileged we were to have had this great experience, to go to this outstanding college.  Some days I have to pause and remember how right he is, that this experience, this college really has made me who I am today, and I should never forget how lucky I am to have had that.  He made a crack about how the new Master got an honorary doctorate in the same year that he graduated, "...but I do not recall ever seeing him studying in the library."  That made everyone laugh, as well as his crack about this one guy we all know who is still at Cambridge 10 years later.

The new Master speaks

The new Master then gave a short speech and announced that there would be an open bar in the college bar, which made us all turn to each other and ask with raised eyebrows, "He does know this is Magdalene, right?  Does he know what we're like?"  Obviously not, otherwise he never would have turned a bunch of Magdalene kids loose on unlimited alcohol!  Particularly as I noticed that the crowd of people who had come back were all the ones who are still unmarried, who still party and have a good time.  We were definitely not the staid types who were going to go to bed early tonight...

With my German housemate

So I went to the bar with my German Housemate, where we got quite a few more drinks and I fell into conversation with a few other familiar faces, mostly the guys I know through Tristan.  I found myself doing shots with one guy I've known for a while, a Spanish guy who claimed I needed to stop talking so much, because he was such a sucker for my American accent and found it to be desperately sexy and attractive.  I laughed, although I'm not quite sure he was kidding!

At dinner

After the bar closed at sometime around 1 AM, a large group was heading off to a local nightclub that we used to favour when we were students, but mindful of the fact that I was already quite wasted and that I had to get up in the morning to fly to Dublin, I walked out of the bar with the group and then just quietly dissappeared.  I needed to get some sleep, somehow...

I still got one more surprise however as I made my way back towards my room, and wandered into the girl who had been sitting across from me at dinner in a full-on make-out session with another guy.  It was very funny, for this entire evening I had been incredibly amused watching nearly every man who encountered her acting slightly awkward around her, in the manner that is a dead giveaway that you've seen the other person naked.  Poor Tristan sat all of the way through dinner next to her looking distinctly uncomfortable.  I'd rather wondered if her reputation was still grounded in reality, and indeed, there was the proof...we may have left college a long time ago, but some things never change.  Glad to know however, that we all still know how to have fun!