The Peterhouse May Ball…It Doesn’t Get Much Better!

The Peterhouse Ball is quite unique as it is on the only white tie ball in Cambridge.  I couldn’t wait to get all dressed up and I was even more excited to see Ben looking dapper as always in a tux!  The women strolled in wearing long evening gowns and the men wore tuxes, white gloves, and some even donned top hats and canes!  At one point in the early morning I asked a fairly drunken young man if I could borrow his hat for a photo.  He smiled and obligingly handed over his hat to me.  After a few photos I handed it back and said thank you, to which he bowed and tipped his hat!  So funny!

The ball was stunning.  We broke up the ball into several areas and it was amazing to walk through.  Guests entered through the gates to the Deer Park which is attached to the college.  This area had the main stage and a huge dance floor as most of our big acts went there.  This stage featured Cocknbull Kid, Urban Myth Club, and Jakwob just to name a few.  The highlight for me in this tent was the Abba tribute band that we had toward the end of the ball.  I am not a particularly big Abba fan, but I couldn’t help but sing along to classics like Dancing Queen!  The band was amazing and the place was packed.  Ben’s sister Rachel and her husband Alex were hired as photographers for the ball, and this was one point where we all met up and danced and sang along together.  It was so much fun! As the sun came up at the end we headed out to the rest of the park.

Outisde the main stage was the fair area where we had our largest attraction, a ferris wheel.  The Peterhouse Ball is known for having a ferris wheel and this year was no exception.  In this area there were lots of food tents, bars, and an outdoor stage that featured magicians, escapologists and my favorite, brass bands.  We also had wandering magicians and beautifully dressed stilt walkers.  We had three different brass bands play throughout the night and these got more people dancing in this area than anything else.

My favorite band was the Brass Funkeys who at one point jumped off the stage and played right in the middle of the crowd.  The danced and sang and even got on the ground and played while lying down.  The crowd went absolutely nuts!  As the sun was coming up and the other stages were coming to a close, the deer park filled up with people who were making their way to Old Court for the survivors photo.  The last brass band was finishing their set and the students went crazy.  They were dancing everywhere, getting on each other’s shoulders, giving piggyback rides, and running around with toilet paper rolls streaming behind them.  Some students were even wrapping each other up in toilet paper.  It was one of the funniest sites of the whole night.  You start off all posh and refined in the beginning of the ball and by the end you’ve got toilet paper mummies.  Granted, most students were beyond intoxicated, but it was funny to watch nonetheless.

Also in the deer park was a tent that featured a few comedians and the sounds of Motown, jazz, and barbershop quartets.  This tent was filled to the brim all night as it had a huge bar, plush sofas, and large wing back chairs.  Across the way from this tent was an acoustic stage that was set up in front of an elaborate dining area that looked like a classy teepee.  There was an area which we called the Gardens of Arabia, which had smaller tents, large rugs and cushy pillows that all centered around a few shisha pipes.  Probably one of my favorite areas was Gisborne Court which was described as “a tour through the dark, delicious mysteries of the Orient.”  This tent was centered around a tree that we had lit up and had chinese lanterns hanging from it  There were low tables all around and we had tons of throw pillows for lounging about.  There was sushi, sake, tea, portrait artists, and geishas.  It was a beautiful area that was very relaxing.

The next area was the college bar where we had a casino running all night. Students seemed to love this as they didn’t have to lose any of their own money as it was all just for fun!  We also had a powder room for the ladies.  This included a seamstress, massages, and makeup artists from Bare Minerals.   One of the smallest areas of the ball was in the dining hall which we turned into a funky silent disco.  Students put their headphones on and danced around which was hilarious to watch as a bystander who couldn’t hear anything.

The other main area of the ball was Old Court which was called the Mirrored Court.  It had huge full length mirrors that were gilded in gold and hung from the tent.    There were punts filled with champagne, shrimp, and other cocktails.  When I was dancing in this area, I felt as though I had been transported back in time.  It was so beautiful and just so sophisticated.  The stage in this area featured big bands and classical music.  There were waltzes and even lessons to go along with it.  The main event in this area was the image mapping show that took place on the front of the chapel.  At one point the chapel looked like it was ablaze.  It was incredible!

I don’t think I have ever been to an event like this.  There was entertainment at every point in the evening and with six stages, you were never bored.  You could dance the night away, laugh til you cried in the comedians tent, be amazed by escapologists, drink any kind of beverage you could dream of (or in my case…as many hot chocolates and cokes as I wanted!), gamble til the wee hours, or view the sun rise over the trees from the top of a ferris wheel.  Though Ben and I had to work throughout the ball, it didn’t keep us from enjoying the night and all it had to offer.  I loved dancing to so many different kinds of music, eating tasty sugar covered donuts, and hearing the sounds of the ball from the atop the ferris wheel.

Guests entering the ball

Me and Ben working at the beginning of the ball

The teepee dining tent

Dancing the night away!

Brass band awesomeness

Awesome image mapping show!

Grooving to Abba

My two amazing photographers!

Gotta love those Brass Funkeys!

This thing was really moving!! Totally made my stomach drop!

The champagne flowed all night

My beautiful stilt walkers!

We finally found some of our friends around 2:00am!

Amazing light shows

I am not sure, but I think he has had too much to drink.

Wow. And that’s the end folks.

Reasons to Visit Cambridge #9 – Imperial War Museum at Duxford Airfield

Just six miles outside of Cambridge lies the Duxford Airfield, where many flights for the allied forces in the two World Wars were based.  Now, the field has been converted into an aviation museum, and really this might be the coolest museum I have ever visited.

My parents and I took a bus out to the museum, which has its pluses and minuses.  On the positive side, if you ride the bus, you get a discount to the museum that just about covers the cost of your bus ticket.  On the negative side, the bus ride takes forever.  We spent a good solid hour on the bus each way.  We kept turning at virtually every intersection, cruising slowly down almost every street in town, gradually acquiring more and more elderly people on our way.  Now, for my mom and me, that ended up being really funny, because my dad was freaking out the whole time about how bad he needed to use the restroom.  Still, if you value your time, you might want to take a taxi instead of the bus.

Anyway, the museum itself is incredible.  There are multiple hangers filled with airplanes, airplane parts, and WWI and WWII artifacts.  You can learn about the history of aviation, climb aboard a Concorde jet, and look out over the airfield that was so instrumental to the war effort.  They also have little tours/informational sessions hosted by enthusiastic guides, which I would definitely recommend.

My favorite part was the American hanger.  The place is filled with planes.  For that hanger, the tour guide asked us to pick one plane, and he would walk us over to it and talk about it.  We don’t know anything about planes really, so the choice was overwhelming.  After standing there with a catatonic stare for a while, the guide narrowed it down for us – Fast, Big, or Old?

We went with fast, and he showed us the SR-71, the fastest plane ever created.  Apparently this is the only SR-71 outside the US.  The guide told us all about the plane, why it was commissioned, how they made it so fast and stealthy, how they ignited the fuel, and how insanely expensive the whole enterprise must have been.

The Imperial War Museum at Duxford is well worth a visit, either for a day trip away from London or a half-day from Cambridge…just don’t take the bus!

Reasons to Visit Cambridge #8 – The University of Cambridge Botanical Gardens

When I hear the words ‘Botanical Gardens’, I don’t naturally get excited.  I think of a relatively small plot of land or greenhouse overrun with plants and flowers.  So I wasn’t initially very excited about visiting the botanical gardens when my parents came to town.

Once we got there, however, I was blown away by how big and nice the gardens are.  It’s like a massive, very well manicured park.  There are some beautiful flowers, some very tall trees, and really just the grounds themselves are pretty.  Now it seems silly to me that I waited two years to go to this amazing garden that’s less than five minutes from my doorstep.  The gardens were one of my mom’s favorite activities in Cambridge – she says they’re as nice as any gardens she has ever visited.

On a sunny day, the gardens would make the perfect setting for a picnic.  If you’re a Cambridge student, entrance is free.  Otherwise, it’s still less than £5 a person.  The botanical gardens are a great place to spend a couple hours outdoors.

You never know what you’ll find at the Cambridge Botanical Gardens

Some Pretty Flowers

The Photogenic Parents

Reasons to Visit Cambridge #7 – Cambridge American Cemetery

We recently had Ben’s parents in town for a couple weeks.  It was our first visit from family since moving to the UK, and we really loved being able to show the parents what our life is like in England.  On top of that, the visit allowed us to act like tourists again in Cambridge, discovering even more cool stuff in the city we inhabit.

On one afternoon, Ben and his parents went three miles outside of town to the American cemetery for WW2.  Quite simply, if you are an American visiting Cambridge for more than a day or two, you really should check out the cemetery.  Set on a beautiful hillside, the cemetery is home to the graves of the Americans who died in the battle of the Atlantic or on British soil during training missions or due to illness.  The cemetery also has a memorial wall for those from the war whose bodies have never been found.  Reminiscent of the Washington Mall, the cemetery is the only cemetery for Americans from WW2 in the UK.

If you plan on visiting the cemetery, be sure to start at the visitor’s center.  You can meet the superintendent, and the friendly people at the office are eager to give a very informative and helpful tour through the memorial.  Also be sure to spend some time in the chapel, which features a mosaic ceiling of over 900,000 tiles, as well as a wall-sized map of the flight paths of American air campaigns originating from the UK.  You’ll learn a ton about the war and gain a renewed appreciation for the sacrifices others have made  for the cause of freedom.

One of the massive statues on the Wall of the Missing.

The namesake of Vance Air Force Base. He received a medal of honor. Having survived the mission for which he was awarded, Vance died months later when his plane home to America disappeared over the Atlantic.

The Wall of the Missing includes the name of Joseph Kennedy, President Kennedy’s older brother. Here are some fresh flowers sent from the family for memorial day.