Week Five

Week five. The third 500m of the 2K test that is a Cambridge term. The point at which all hope is lost, student unions start dishing out biscuits in the hope that it will stop people crying alone in their rooms and some people disappear into the library never to be seen again. This is my seventh week five and they haven't all been that bad. I admit that things didn't start all that well when I lost my voice during my first week five and had to hoarsely croak at my mum down the phone, asking for moral support and wondering if I could go home. My fifth week five also hit a low when I burst into tears after my supervisor asked me whether my essay actually had an argument (it didn't). My sixth week five involved abandoning the library halfway through a practise exam paper and jumping on the next train home, and I can't really remember my fourth week five, but I suspect that's because it was spent napping almost continuously to avoid confronting reality.

But all that's in the past. To combat the doom and gloom message perpetuated by much of the student body, I set myself a challenge to find five positive things about each day of week five.

This is the result. It could be a contender for one of the dullest accounts of a week ever, far too many of the points are food related, and, to be honest, I started to get a bit desperate from day 1. However, each bullet point serves to reinforce the fact that everything is actually okay, no matter what people say.

Thursday

• Finished an essay many hours before the deadline 
• Had a really healthy lunch including spinach, tuna, soup, carrots, hummus and rice cakes
• Noticed that a toilet cubicle had run out of paper before sitting down (don't underestimate the sense of achievement that I got from this)
• Spent an hour and a half in a class discussing the differences between 'modernity', 'modernism', 'modernisation' and 'modern' and felt as though I'd reached the pinnacle of intellectual silliness.
• Read a good chunk of The Boys in The Boat (an incredible book that combines history and rowing - perfectly catering to my interests)  

Friday

• Sold a box of poppies, and temporarily experienced being a tourist attraction.
• Went on a mad shopping spree in superdrug to replenish makeup that had gone so far beyond its use by date it might as well have been breeding ground for bacteria.
• Had a gentle supervision in which my supervisor spent ten minutes chatting about how his dad had worked at Bletchly Park, another 10 minutes showing me pictures of flags and about 5 minutes digressing about the history of the kilt. 
• Managed to finish training at 18:55, jump in the shower, and get to hall for 19:10, setting new records for efficiency
• Painted my toenails Cambridge blue 

Saturday

• Lovely weather in the morning (even if it didn't quite hold until the second outing)
• Managed to read some historical sources in the minibus to and from Ely
• Lightweight brunch with some wonderful lightweights 
• Found out that my boat made it into the background of a photo in Rowing and Regatta 
• Remembered to take some tupperware into Caf Hall, so extra food for the next day.

Sunday

• Took part in a moving Remembrance Sunday Parade - felt very honoured to be part of the UAS
• Had a free buffet lunch in the Guildhall
• Successful five hour library stint in which genuine work was done 
• Pigs in blankets at formal
• Got to sleep nice and early

Monday

• Didn't have to get out of bed after waking up naturally at 5:30 (thanks body clock)
• Had a productive morning combining an Aldi shop, laundry and a lecture
• Made myself a lovely salmon and avocado salad for lunch (from my very reasonably priced Aldi shop) 
• Took a trip to Bassingbourne to give a presentation to some air cadets, escaping the Cambridge Bubble
• Earned 50p worth of nectar points through online procrastination 

Tuesday

• Woke up feeling alert and wide awake at 5am 
• Saw a gorgeous sunrise over Ely
• Integrated a quick Tesco's banana-milk run (credit to Ella for the terminology) into my morning and still caught the 8:39 train - then got a seat on the train
• Rediscovered the power nap 
• Stayed in the library until welfare tea (free food is always a positive)

Wednesday 

• Had blueberries, raspberries, banana and sunflower seeds in my porridge this morning. 
• Our weights coach brought his dog into the morning session, so cute!
• Made a lovely winter warmer desert like thing in the microwave:
• Take a plum or two, destone and cut in halves or quarters 
• Place plum slices in a microwavable dish 
• Sprinkle with cinnamon or mixed spice and drizzle with honey
• Microwave for 1-2 minutes 
• Shorter erg meant there was time to go back to my room to get changed before going out again. 
• Started browsing for Christmas gifts online and felt slightly Christmassy already. 

Mundane positivity - 1, Week 5 - 0


Finally, the common complaints about week five; the stress of getting bogged down in work and extra-curricular tend to embody the way in which the students become absorbed in the infamous Cambridge Bubble, unable to look much further than their own impending essay crisis and rapidly vanishing social life. We all know the outside world exists, that there are millions, if not billions of people who live their lives in far more stressful conditions and we're mostly all aware of just how lucky we are to be here. The way I see it, week five marks the point at which any real sense of objectivity and perspective are shoved to one side in favour of self-imposed academic expectations and an almost claustrophobic sense of being trapped in Cambridge. Week five itself really isn't that bad, but perhaps our inability to see that is part of the problem.